Portland fears violence if the National Guard is deployed Alicia Victoria Lozano October 4, 2025 at 2:44 AM 23 Protesters march Sept. 28 in Portland, Ore.
- - Portland fears violence if the National Guard is deployed
Alicia Victoria Lozano October 4, 2025 at 2:44 AM
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Protesters march Sept. 28 in Portland, Ore. (Mathieu Lewis-Rolland / Getty Images)
Oregon officials say President Donald Trump's plan to deploy the National Guard to Portland in response to immigration protests is counterproductive and could lead to increased civil unrest.
Lawyers representing the city and state have asked a federal judge to stop the president from going through with the deployment, which they say is unnecessary and unwanted.
During a hearing Friday in Portland, they called Trump's rhetoric about the protests "hyperbole and political posturing" that does not reflect the reality on the ground.
"We ultimately have a perception-versus-reality problem," said Caroline Turco, senior deputy city attorney. "The perception is that it is World War II out here. The reality is that this is a beautiful city with a sophisticated resource that can handle the situation."
Attorney Eric Hamilton with the U.S. Department of Justice countered that the troops are necessary to defend against "cruel radicals who have laid siege" to Portland's Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
He said protesters lit incendiary devices and threw rocks at law enforcement officers over the summer.
Portland lawyers said the examples were isolated incidents quickly handled by local police and occurred several months before Trump issued the deployment order.
U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut, a Trump appointee, said she needed time to review the case but she would make a decision Friday or Saturday.
She appeared skeptical of Trump's order throughout the two-hour hearing, repeatedly asking federal attorneys why troops were necessary when Portland police appeared to have the situation at hand.
Trump signed an executive order last weekend authorizing the deployment and argued that such a move is needed to protect federal buildings from people protesting his administration's immigration policies.
People opposed to Trump's order say the quirky and largely peaceful ongoing protests in the historically liberal city stand in stark contrast to the rhetoric coming out of the White House, which paints Portland as an out-of-control center of crime.
"We can respond creatively, joyfully, but also acknowledge the real seriousness of the moment," said Jordan Cummings, legal director of the nonprofit Innovation Law Lab, an immigrant rights organization.
She said she frequently takes her children on outings downtown and never fears for their safety.
Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, has said that any protests outside the city's immigration detention center can be easily handled by local police.
Between the beginning of June, when protests started, and the end of September, there were some two dozen protest-related arrests, NBC affiliate KGW reported.
"The small, ongoing protest at the ICE building in a one-block area of Portland cannot be compared to the protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd and exacerbated by the global pandemic — the historical context around them are clearly different," said Roxy Mayer, a spokesperson for Kotek.
"As the governor has expressed many times to the president, there is no insurrection and no need for military intervention."
A skirmish broke out Thursday night outside Portland's immigration detention center between anti-Trump protesters and supporters of the president's agenda.
According to Portland police, three people were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in the second degree.
Conservative influencer Nick Sortor, who does not live in Portland, was among those arrested. He was later released and accused police of being controlled by "Antifa thugs."
Portland police did not address Sorter's arrest directly but said in a statement Friday that the department would continue to monitor protests and support "constitutionally protected activity."
Antifa, an abbreviation for "anti-fasicst," is not an organized group and does not have a leadership structure.
Trump designated it a terrorist organization last month.
On Saturday, he announced that he directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to send some 200 National Guard members to protect federal facilities "under siege from attack by Antifa and other terrorists."
Federal agents confront protesters outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building Sept. 28 in Portland, Ore. (Mathieu Lewis-Rolland / Getty Images)
Members of the National Guard began reporting to duty Wednesday and are undergoing military training on how to respond to civil disturbances.
The deployment could cost U.S. taxpayers some $10 million, Kotek's office said.
Trump detractors in Portland say much of his rhetoric stems from violent clashes between protesters and federal police in 2020 following the death of Floyd, who was killed while in Minneapolis police custody.
The protests began as demonstrations against racism and police brutality. But after federal officers under the command of the Department of Homeland Security arrived to defend the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in downtown Portland, the officers became the focus of protesters.
Fueled by anger at the presence of a federalized police force in Portland, peaceful daytime demonstrations frequently gave way to nighttime riots and vandalism.
"Whenever you put in militarized troops in cities where people are protesting, you're literally baiting people to do something violent," said Mark Knutson, pastor of Portland's Augustana Lutheran Church, who leads trainings on nonviolent civil disobedience.
Civil rights advocates and state and local lawmakers have argued that Portland is much different now than it was five years ago. The downtown area, which was ground zero for civil unrest in 2020, has been revitalized by businesses that reopened after the pandemic, and foot traffic has returned.
Activists say there is little appetite to relive the upheaval that occurred during the first Trump administration.
"It's not what the city is doing anymore," said Keren Rodriguez, congregational organizer and program director at Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice in Portland. "We all understood that we didn't want to do that anymore. We knew we wanted to have a different approach."
Instead of focusing on large-scale protests, opponents of Trump's policies have turned to mutual aid and coalition-building, Rodriquez said.
Immigrant rights groups help connect families to resources, including accompanying people to immigration hearings and providing legal counsel.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson has said that Trump has the legal authority to order National Guard troops to Portland and that it would make the city of 636,000 people safer.
But state Attorney General Dan Rayfield said residents are not "fooled."
"People are posting videos from every corner of the city showing that it is vibrant and calm," Rayfield said in a statement. "This isn't about safety, it's about stirring up headlines.
"Our Guard members are our neighbors, not political props. We're confident in our case and will continue to defend Oregon's laws and values."
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