Judge issues new broader order barring any National Guard from relocating to Oregon

A federal judge Sunday night issued a new broader order barring any National Guard members from being relocated from any state for federal service in the state of Oregon.

During an unusual, late-night hearing by phone, U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut said she was troubled to learn that the Trump administration had already sent about 200 California National Guard members to Oregon and that Texas National Guard members were now authorized by the defense secretary to be transferred to Oregon to protect federal property and officers.

She found that the Trump administration was directly violating her prior order issued Saturday, in which she found no justification for federalized military to serve anywhere in the state.

Sometime after midnight early Sunday, 101 California National Guard members landed in Oregon at the Portland Air National Guard base, and another 99 were set to arrive around 4 p.m., after Immergut Saturday night had blocked Trump from deploying Oregon National Guard members at Portland’s ICE building on the South Waterfront.

“It is not appropriate to bring federalized military into Oregon at this time,” she said. “I’m troubled by the direct contravention of my (prior) order.”

Immergut grilled the federal government’s attorney Eric Hamilton, asking how he can circumvent her prior order based on her finding that there’s no justification for federalized troops to be deployed to Portland.

“You’re an officer of the court,” she told him. “Do you believe this is an appropriate way to deal with a judge’s order that you disagree with?”

Hamilton said the federalized California National Guard members were sent to Oregon to protect federal property and personnel, and argued that the state of California did not have authority to challenge it since its Guard members already were under Trump’s command and control.

“Mr. Hamilton, you are missing the point,” Immergut responded.

“There is not a legal basis to bring federalized National Guard members into Oregon,” the judge said. “You have to have a colorable claim that Oregon conditions require it, but you don’t, so why is this appropriate?”

The state of Oregon and City of Portland added the state of California on Sunday to a new amended suit filed against the Trump administration, and sought the new emergency order to block California National Guard troops from mobilizing at Portland’s ICE facility.

They asked the judge to block the deployment of the California National Guard members, or in the alternative, prohibit the Trump administration from sending any National Guard members from any other state under his command to Oregon once they learned late Sunday that Texas National Guard troops were also being mobilized to Oregon.

Immergut quickly scheduled the evening hearing.

“It feels like we’re playing a game of rhetorical wac-o-mole,” said attorney Scott Kennedy, representing the Oregon Department of Justice. “We need to broaden this relief to prevent this gamesmanship from persisting.”

Immergut, in a sweeping 31-page ruling filed in court about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, found that there was no “threat of rebellion” or any credible legal justification for the deployment of National Guard members to Portland.

Title 10, Section 12406, allows the President to “call into Federal service members and units of the National Guard of any State in such numbers as he considers necessary,” to either repel an invasion, suppress a rebellion or ensure federal laws can be executed.

On Sunday night, she issued the broader second temporary restraining order based on the findings she made in her prior order: There’s no threat of rebellion in Portland. Local and state police are able to handle protests that erupt outside the federal immigration building and federal agencies have not been prohibited from enforcing federal immigration or other laws.

The U.S. government is expected to ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to put a hold, or stay, on Immergut’s second order, as they have requested a hold on her prior order.

This is a developing story.