Trump federalizes the National Guard in Chicago, while troops arrive in Oregon
Portland and Chicago are preparing for the possibility that National Guard members will be deployed to their streets, as President Trump moves ahead with his plan to send troops to Democratic-run U.S. cities that he says require help to control crime and protect federal law enforcement officers.
On Saturday, the White House said Trump “authorized” the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard members, after vowing for weeks to send federal forces into Chicago. Also over the weekend, a federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked the administration’s plan to deploy the Oregon National Guard to Portland, though troops have arrived in Oregon from California.
Guard members will be used to protect federal property as well as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Federal Protective Service agents and other federal employees, according to a copy of a federal memo viewed by NPR. They will be sent to places where there are “violent demonstrations” in the state or where they are likely to occur based on “current threat assessments,” the memo said.
Already this year, the Trump administration has sent National Guard members to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Trump has said he also intends to send troops to Memphis with the backing of Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.
The new deployment effort comes against the wishes of the Democratic governors of Oregon and Illinois, Tina Kotek and JB Pritzker, who say the Guard deployment is unnecessary and will escalate tensions.
On Saturday, Pritzker wrote in a post on X that the “Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will.” Pritzker added: “It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”
In a statement, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said that Trump had activated the troops “[a]midst ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” in Chicago in order to “protect federal officers and assets,” WBEZ reported. Trump has said National Guard deployments are in an effort to fight crime, despite violent crime being down in Chicago and other cities.
On Saturday, Border Patrol agents shot a woman in Chicago. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said the woman was one of a group of drivers who rammed federal agents with their vehicles. The woman, Marimar Martinez, was released from the hospital and is now in the custody of the FBI, DHS said in a statement. No agents were seriously injured, according to McLaughlin.
A judge blocks Trump’s effort in Portland, but Guard members arrive from California
Also on Saturday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying the Oregon National Guard.
U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut ruled that the government had failed to meet the threshold for declaring that recent protests outside an ICE facility in Portland constituted a rebellion.
Immergut, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, said protests at the facility since July were generally limited to fewer than 30 people and were “largely sedate.” She added that the city’s police force was trained in crowd management and could seek the assistance of other law enforcement agencies — and even the National Guard — if it needed to.
The Trump administration federalized 200 members of the Oregon National Guard last Sunday for a 60-day deployment, according to a memo sent to Gov. Kotek from the Department of Defense.
As in Chicago, Trump was planning to send the troops to Portland over the objections of state and local leaders.
Trump said Sunday he hadn’t seen the judge’s order, but that “that judge ought to be ashamed of themselves.”
Despite the judge’s ruling, Guard members were en route to Oregon, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. He said in a post on X that the Trump administration had sent 300 California National Guard personnel to the state’s northern neighbor.
“They are on their way there now,” Newsom wrote. “We are taking this fight back to court. The public cannot stay silent in the face of such reckless and authoritarian conduct by the President of the United States.”
Kotek said on Sunday that 101 California Guard members arrived on Saturday in Oregon and more were on their way. “This action appears to [be] intentional to circumvent yesterday’s ruling by a federal judge,” she said in a statement.
Gigi Douban and Tom Bowman contributed reporting.
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