National Guard troops briefly deployed to Portland despite judge's order, federal trial reveals
Source: Oregon Public Broadcasting/NPR
Oct. 29, 2025 4:38 p.m. Updated: Oct. 29, 2025 9:14 p.m.
A federal trial in Portland about the president’s authority to deploy the National Guard to the city got off with a stunning revelation: Troops briefly deployed to a federal immigration building in South Portland this month, appearing to defy a court order issued hours earlier blocking their deployment.
Emails summarizing the federal response say nine members of the Oregon National Guard were sent to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland and concluded their shift in the early hours of Oct. 5. Those emails were submitted to the court as a trial exhibit.
“At 11:35 PDT today, a force of nine MPs arrived at the ICE facility in downtown Portland, Oregon where they assumed their first support mission,” wrote Col. Jeff Merenkov at 3:28 p.m. on Oct. 4. The email included a schedule that showed the troops’ “shift conclusion” was set for midnight. Jean Lin, special counsel for the Justice Department, confirmed the deployment to the U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut on Wednesday but provided few specifics — minutes before the trial began.
Immergut issued a restraining order at 3:40 p.m. on Oct. 4, barring the president from federalizing the Oregon National Guard and blocking their deployment. Later, on Oct. 5, she issued another order temporarily blocking National Guard members from anywhere in the country from deploying to Oregon. “We’ll talk later about whether that’s contempt,” the judge responded to Lin Wednesday.
Read more: https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/29/oregon-national-guard-portland-ice-immigration-karin-immergut-donald-trump/
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