About 200 people showed up to protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland on Sunday, Sept. 28. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

Oregon and the city of Portland are suing President Donald Trump to block the federal government from deploying hundreds of Oregon National Guard members in an unprecedented crackdown in Oregon’s largest city.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth notified Gov. Tina Kotek on Sunday morning that he was mobilizing 200 Oregon National Guard members for 60 days under an order to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal property where protests are occurring or likely to occur. 

Hegseth’s memo came the day after President Donald Trump declared in a social media post that he would deploy troops to Portland.

Within hours of Hegseth’s memo, the Oregon Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Portland. Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a video press briefing Sunday afternoon that his office has been preparing for the prospect since January.

“It’s actually un-American, if you think about it, to use the military against our own citizens,” Rayfield said. “But that’s exactly what’s happening right now across our country, from California to D.C. to Memphis, to Illinois, and now to Portland.” 

Oregon is seeking a temporary restraining order to pause the planned deployment within the next 24 hours, Rayfield said.  

Gov. Tina Kotek said she spoke with Trump on Saturday and made clear that there is no insurrection or threat to public safety in Oregon. 

“Oregon is our home,” Kotek said. “It is not a military target, and we’re going to fight back to make sure that we can keep Oregon safe.” 

Portland has experienced frequent protests outside an ICE facility, and the local U.S. attorney has brought charges against 26 people since early June for crimes including arson and resisting arrest. Most protests have remained peaceful.

On Sunday afternoon, about 200 people gathered at the ICE facility in south Portland to protest ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and Trump. Federal police from the Department of Homeland Security, many wearing gas masks and helmets, surrounded the building as protesters yelled “Shame, shame!” and called for them to get out of Portland. 

Casey Leger, a self-described middle-class grandma from Southeast Portland, has been coming to protest outside the Portland ICE facility weekly since February. Recently, she’s started protesting six days a week.

“I spend a lot of time down here and I see our neighbors being taken away,” she said. “I’ve seen women trying to hold it together for their children because their husbands went in there and didn’t come out. I see it daily.”

Along with speaking with Trump on Saturday, Kotek said she exchanged texts with him on Sunday that ended with her expressing her disagreement and disgruntlement after receiving Hegseth’s memo by email. 

As governor, Kotek is the commander-in-chief of the Oregon National Guard. But Hegseth’s memo indicates that 200 members of the guard will instead receive orders by U.S. Northern Command, a joint federal military command based in Colorado. 

A 19th-century law, the Posse Comitatus Act, generally forbids military members from conducting domestic law enforcement. Oregon lawmakers considered but did not pass a bill this year to reinforce prohibitions on the National Guard being used for domestic law enforcement. 

Trump previously sent National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to respond to protests against immigration enforcement there and ordered National Guard troops to assist police in Washington, D.C., a district where federal officials have sweeping powers not granted in the 50 states.

In Oregon, despite Trump’s claims Portland is “war ravaged,” there has been no evidence of violence at protests against the administration. 

“The president is either purposefully ignoring the reality on the ground in Portland to score political points, or at best is recklessly relying upon social media gossip,” Rayfield said. “The president’s actions today only serve to further divide us as a nation, as a community under the guise of caring about public safety.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attend a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

PORTLAND, Ore. — President Donald Trump said Saturday morning he will send troops to Portland, attempting an unprecedented use of U.S. military forces within the country.

In a brief post to his social media platform, Trump said he would have Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth order troops deployed to Oregon’s largest city.

Trump did not specify what legal justification he had to do so, what military branch would be used or other key details. The troops would be used to defend U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities from “domestic terrorists,” he said. 

“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary.”

A 19th-century law, the Posse Comitatus Act, generally forbids military members from conducting domestic law enforcement. Constitutional experts say the idea was one of the nation’s founding principles. 

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, said in a statement Saturday morning that she is reaching out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for more information. 

“We have been provided no information on the reason or purpose of any military mission,” she said. “There is no national security threat in Portland. Our communities are safe and calm. I ask Oregonians to stay calm and enjoy a beautiful fall day. We will have further comment when we have more information.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. National Guard said the branch had no information to share and deferred questions to the White House. 

A White House official writing on background noted a recent history of protests at an ICE facility in Portland. 

The local U.S. attorney has brought charges against 26 people since early June for crimes including arson and resisting arrest, official said. Neighborhood residents have also made noise complaints related to protests, the official said, adding that state and local officials have refused to intervene. 

That description, though, did not correspond with the quiet scene at the facility as an Oregon Capital Chronicle reporter visited Saturday morning. 

Oregon’s senior U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, also posted a video of the undisturbed facility and told Trump, “we don’t need you here. Stay the hell out of our city.”

U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, a Democrat whose district includes much of Portland, blasted the announcement as “an egregious abuse of power and a betrayal of our most basic American values.”

“Authoritarians rely on fear to divide us. Portland will not give them that,” she wrote. “We will not be intimidated. We have prepared for this moment since Trump first took office, and we will meet it with every tool available to us: litigation, legislation, and the power of peaceful public pressure.”

‘Don’t take the bait’

A group of about a dozen local leaders  — including Dexter, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat — assembled on short notice for a press conference Friday evening to discuss the potential deployment.

Merkley described it as a “don’t-take-the-bait press conference.”

“There’s a lot we don’t know,” he said. They’ve been given no details about how many troops are being sent, from what agency or branch of the government, and there’s been no coordination with the city of Portland, he said.

“Here is what I do know — the president has sent agents here to create chaos and riots in Portland, to induce a reaction, to induce protests, to induce conflicts. His goal is to make Portland look like what he’s been describing it as,” Merkley said. “Their point is to lead to an engagement. An engagement that could lead to violence.”

Wilson described the agents as already in Portland.

“They are here without clear precedent or purpose,” he said. “This is happening against the national backdrop of a federal government that may not even be open in a week’s time.”

Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson said that as a sanctuary county in a sanctuary state, the county would not help enforce federal immigration laws without an order signed by a judge.

Escalation of military use

Deploying troops to Portland would mark a dramatic escalation, even for Trump, who has tested the legal limits of domestic military use. 

He sent National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests against aggressive immigration enforcement there, despite the Democratic governor’s objections. And he ordered National Guard troops to assist police in Washington, D.C.

But the Los Angeles deployment responded to a specific circumstance, and the president holds power to deploy the National Guard in the District of Columbia because it is a federal territory. 

Neither is true for Portland, where there has not been any evidence of violence at protests against the administration. The state government is dominated by Democrats. 

The city did see extended protests in the summer of 2020 after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Trump deployed federal agents then in what he said was an effort to protect the federal courthouse in downtown Portland.

Alex Baumhardt of the Oregon Capital Chronicle contributed to this report.