Portland Challenges Trump's 200-Troop Guard Deployment

A federal trial in Portland beginning Wednesday will decide whether President Trump can federalize roughly 200 National Guard troops to protect ICE and other federal officers during protests, with U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut presiding. The roughly three-day trial follows multiple emergency injunctions — including two from Judge Immergut and a back-and-forth at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — and seeks a more lasting ruling that either side is likely to appeal. The Justice Department says the deployment is “amply justified,” alleging agitators assaulted officers, vandalized federal property, blocked ICE entrances and threatened agents in ways that impeded DHS’s ability to enforce immigration laws. Portland and Oregon say the administration manufactured a crisis, contend protests have been largely ordinary or peaceful, and argue sending troops would unlawfully federalize the Guard and breach separation of powers. The trial will include testimony from local police and federal witnesses and represents a rare judicial test of using military forces on U.S. soil.