Federal agents, including members of the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol and police, try to stop protesters outside the downtown U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Oct. 4, 2025, in Portland, Oregon. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The White House sharply criticized a federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump on Monday for blocking the deployment of National Guard troops to Oregon as hostilities escalate between the administration and Democratic states where Trump has begun sending troops despite the opposition of governors.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Trump administration was within legal limits and would appeal the district court’s decision, which she described as “inconsistent with reality and the law.”
“The president is exercising his authority as commander in chief under U.S. Code 12406, which clearly provides that the president has the authority to call in the National Guard when he deems it appropriate,” Leavitt said at a news conference, referring to a section of Title 10 of the U.S. Code that says authorizes the president to deploy the National Guard in the event of an invasion or rebellion.
Leavitt told reporters that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, where overnight protests took place, was “under siege” by “anarchists.”
“They showed disrespect for law enforcement. They incited violence,” Leavitt said.
Local mainstream media reports and statements from local officials contradict this claim.
“There is no need for military intervention in Oregon. There is no insurrection in Portland. There is no threat to national security,” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, said in a statement Sunday.
Federal agents used tear gas and pepper balls on peaceful protesters Saturday evening, according to local media. reports.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker also convoluted he filed a legal complaint against the administration on Monday morning. A federal judge scheduled a hearing for Thursday. Illinois and Chicago have filed for a transient restraining order to stop Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from ordering Texas and Illinois Guard troops into the country’s third-largest city.
Trump teases the Insurrection Act
On Monday afternoon, Trump raised the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, which is intended to expand the president’s authority to operate military personnel for domestic law enforcement purposes.
Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office about the conditions under which he would invoke the law, Trump replied “if necessary” and speculated that he could operate it to defy courts or government officials.
“So far, it hasn’t been necessary,” he said. “But there’s a reason we have the Insurrection Act. If I had to pass it, I would. If people were getting killed, courts were detaining us, governors or mayors, of course, I would do it. I want to make sure people aren’t killed. We have to keep our cities safe.”
Portland court battle
In Oregon, federal district judge Karin Immergut extended her order on Sunday night prohibiting the Trump administration from deploying any National Guard troops to Portland.
The edict was issued after Trump and Hegseth opposed a transient restraining order that Immergut issued Saturday pausing the deployment of 200 Oregon National Guard troops there.
Immergut was nominated by Trump in 2019 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on a voice vote.
The administration maintains the Guard is needed to protect federal agents after ongoing tiny protests take place outside the ICE building 2 miles south of City Hall. Kotek rejected Trump’s claims that the city was “on fire” and said local authorities were prepared to deal with demonstrations that have recently taken on a mixed nature. dozen people to about 100.
Trump ordered 101 California National Guard troops to Portland overnight, unbeknownst to Kotek he said Sunday. Another Democrat, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, confirmed that Trump had ordered up to 300 of his state’s National Guard troops to Oregon.
Just before Sunday evening’s emergency hearing in Immergut, Oregon’s deputy attorney general filed the motion note and the court found that Hegseth ordered 400 Texas National Guard troops to Portland and Chicago.
California joined Oregon and Portland in suing the administration.
“Domestic militarization”
Pritzker said he urged Texas Gov. Greg Abbott “to immediately withdraw his support for this decision and refuse to allow Texas National Guard members to be used in this way.”
“Let’s be clear: Donald Trump is using our troops as political props and pawns in his illegal efforts to militarize our nation’s cities,” Pritzker said at a news conference Monday afternoon.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said the deployment “is unfair to the National Guard, it is unfair to local law enforcement, and it is certainly unfair to law-abiding Illinois citizens who do not want to find themselves under military occupation.”
Chicago is almost a month into a federal immigration crackdown. According to him, on September 30, several dozen federal agents broke into an apartment building in the South Shore district, zipping up adults and children and detaining some US citizens. Down many media reports. United States Department of Homeland Security published widely produced video of the raid on social media.
Trump’s federalization and deployment of National Guard troops to states run primarily by Democrats has alarmed political and constitutional experts.
Pat Eddington, a senior fellow on homeland and civil liberties at the libertarian Cato Institute, said he agreed with Pritzker’s concerns.
“I 100 percent share his belief that the use of the US military and all this massive employment of ICE, HSI, FBI, marshals and all the rest for the ostensible immigration enforcement and supposed crime control is really intended to lay the groundwork for the normalization of militarization, essentially the internal militarization of Americans, of civic life,” Eddington said in an interview with States Newsroom in delayed September.
During a Monday afternoon news conference, Hima Shansi, head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s national security program, said Trump’s operate of military forces and federal police in recent months “raises serious constitutional concerns about federalism, the separation of powers between the federal government and the states, which generally exercise police power.”
“In the language of real people, this means that, as the states claim, they are fully capable of doing their job if needed, and there is absolutely no reason for the president to assert federal power the way he does by force.”
Starting in Los Angeles
In response to protests against aggressive immigration enforcement, Trump in June federalized California National Guard troops and sent U.S. Marines to Los Angeles.
Newsom opposed the plan and sued to stop implementation. A federal judge initially sided with the Democratic governor and blocked the troop deployment, but an appeals panel overturned that decision.
In September, the trial court again ruled that Trump had crossed the line separating the armed forces from law enforcement. The administration filed an appeal.
While the California case was ongoing, Trump also ordered the District of Columbia National Guard to assist local police in the nation’s capital. Because the district is federal territory, it is relatively clear that the move was within the president’s legal authority, even if many of Trump’s critics questioned its necessity.
National Guard troops from several Republican states also deployed to the district in a more legally questionable move.
Trump also ordered Tennessee National Guard troops to Memphis last monthwith the approval of the state’s Republican governor.
Ashley Murray reported from Washington, D.C. Jacob Fischler reported from Portland, Oregon.
