Donald Trump has been permanently blocked from sending National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, after a federal judge found the administration failed to meet the legal requirements for their deployment to the city.
U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, said Friday the president had not established there was a “rebellion or danger of rebellion,” or that he was unable to enforce the law with regular forces.
It comes after a three-day trial last week in which both sides argued over whether protests at the city’s ICE building met the conditions for using the military domestically under federal law. Both Portland and the state of Oregon sued the Trump administration in September over the deployment of National Guard troops.
Trump said the troops were needed to protect federal personnel and property in the city, which he described as “war ravaged” with “fires all over the place.”
In a 106-page opinion, Immergut found that even though the president is entitled to “great deference” in his decision on whether to call up the Guard, he did not have a legal basis for doing so.
“The trial record showed that although protests outside the Portland ICE building occurred nightly between June and October 2025, ever since a few particularly disruptive days in mid-June, protests have remained peaceful with only isolated and sporadic instances of violence," Immergut wrote.
“The occasional interference to federal officers has been minimal, and there is no evidence that these small-scale protests have significantly impeded the execution of any immigration laws.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
“The courts are holding this administration accountable to the truth and the rule of law,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in an e-mailed statement. "From the beginning, this case has been about making sure that facts, not political whims, guide how the law is applied. Today’s decision protects that principle.”
Several Democratic cities targeted by Trump for military involvement have pushed back on the perceived overreach of the president, arguing – as was found to be the case in Portland – that Trump has not satisfied the legal threshold for deploying troops and that doing so would violate states’ sovereignty.
Immergut issued two orders in early October that had blocked the deployment of the troops leading up to the trial, previously describing Trump’s depictions of Portland as “simply untethered to the facts.”
Residents of the city took to social media to mock the president’s comments in September, posting pictures of their peaceful and wholesome weekend activities using the hashtag #WarRavagedPortland.
Immergut’s first order blocked Trump from deploying 200 members of the Oregon National Guard; the second, issued a day later, blocked him from deploying members of any state's National Guard to Oregon, after he tried to evade the first order by sending California troops instead.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has already ordered that the troops not be deployed pending further action by the appeals court. The trial Immergut held further developed the factual record in the case, which could serve as the basis for further appellate rulings.
During the trial, witnesses including local police and federal officials were questioned about the law enforcement response to the nightly protests at the city’s ICE building. The demonstrations peaked in June, when Portland police declared one a riot.
Attorneys for Portland and Oregon said city police have been able to respond to the protests.
After the police department declared a riot on June 14, it changed its strategy to direct officers to intervene when person and property crime occurs, and crowd numbers have largely diminished since the end of that month, police officials testified.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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