By Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle
About 200 members of the Oregon National Guard will remain under federal control but cannot yet be deployed to Portland, according to a ruling Wednesday by three judges in a federal appeals court.
U.S. Circuit Judges Susan Graber, Ryan Nelson and Bridget Bade in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco granted an administrative stay to the Trump administration on Wednesday that allows the 200 Oregon troops called up under President Donald Trump’s orders to remain federalized, but not deployed.
“The effect of granting an administrative stay preserves the status quo in which National Guard members have been federalized but not deployed,” the judges wrote in their four-page ruling.
Graber was appointed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, Nelson and Bade by Trump in his first term.
The 9th Circuit will decide in the coming days whether Trump is allowed to deploy those Guard troops. Oral arguments between the state of Oregon, and the city of Portland against the Trump administration are scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield in a statement said it was a win.
“While it keeps the Oregon National Guard under federal status, most importantly, it prevents the President from deploying the guard in Portland. That means no unnecessary federal escalation — and that’s a win for Oregonians who want calm, not conflict in our communities,” he said.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement she would, “keep holding the line against President Trump’s abuse of power and stand up for Oregonians.”
The appeals case does not include California, which joined Oregon and Portland in seeking a second temporary restraining order Sunday after the Trump administration tried to send first California troops and then troops from Texas to Portland. U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut issued that order Sunday night, blocking Trump from deploying troops from any state to Portland.
The administrative stay and oral arguments scheduled for Thursday are specific to Immergut’s first order, issued Saturday, which barred the administration from mobilizing 200 federalized members of the Oregon National Guard.
Those 200 Oregon National Guard troops are training at Camp Rilea in Warrenton. Roughly 200 National Guard members from California called up to Oregon under orders from Trump on Sunday, Oct. 5, are training at Camp Withycombe in Happy Valley. The 400-some troops are taking orders from U.S. Northern Command, a joint federal military command based in Colorado.
In response to Immergut’s rulings, Kotek on Tuesday asked the Command to send all the soldiers home.
Trump has claimed in recent weeks that Portland is a “war zone,” “like World War II” and said he wants to send federal troops to guard federal buildings and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility south of downtown Portland that has seen small and mostly non-violent protests for the last few months.
In her 30-page ruling Saturday, Immergut wrote that the protests in Portland are not by any definition a “rebellion” nor do they pose the “danger of a rebellion,” and that officials of the federal government “have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power — to the detriment of this nation.”
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem came unannounced to visit Portland and the ICE facility on Tuesday, and was met by a couple dozen protestors and press who were cordoned off from the front of the building. Noem did not talk with any press.
After speaking to Kotek, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, Portland Police Chief Bob Day, Noem went on Fox News hours later and called them “a bunch of pansies.”
The White House hosted a conversation with Cabinet officials including Noem and several some conservative influencers on Wednesday, during which Trump accused protesters in Portland, Chicago and other cities of “laying siege” to federal buildings.
Alex Baumhardt has been a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media since 2017. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post. This story first appeared in the Oregon Capital Chronicle.
