About 100 California National Guard troops have arrived in Oregon and more are on the way, Oregon’s governor said Sunday, after a judge blocked. the president’s deployment of the Oregon National Guard to Portland.
Gov. Tina Kotek said the president’s move to send troops from California appears to intentionally sidestep the Oregon judge’s ruling.
“There is no need for military intervention in Oregon. There is no insurrection in Portland. No threat to national security. Oregon is our home, not a military target,” Kotek said in a statement Sunday.
In recent weeks, Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of federal troops in Democrat-led cities such as Chicago and Portland, arguing military deployments are necessary to protect federal immigration personnel and property amid “violent protests” carried out by “domestic terrorists.”
The anarchy described by the president is strongly disputed by locals who say they don’t want or need federal help.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is planning to sue over the deployment, he said in a statement.
“This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power,” he said.
The White House defended the president’s orders in a statement Sunday, saying Trump “exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement.”
“For once, Gavin Newscum should stand on the side of law-abiding citizens instead of violent criminals destroying Portland and cities across the country,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement to CNN.
CNN has reached out to the California National Guard for comment.
A judge granted a temporary restraining order Saturday blocking Trump from sending the Oregon National Guard to the state’s largest city. The Trump administration said it would appeal.
The decision by US District Judge Karin Immergut – a Trump appointee – said the president appeared to have federalized the Oregon National Guard “absent constitutional authority” and protests in Portland “did not pose a ‘danger of a rebellion.’” The judge said Oregon attorneys showed “substantial evidence that the protests at the Portland ICE facility were not significantly violent” leading up to the president’s directive.
While the judge noted that recent incidents cited by the Trump administration of protesters clashing with federal officers “are inexcusable,” she added “they are nowhere near the type of incidents that cannot be handled by regular law enforcement forces.”
Immergut warned some of the arguments offered by the Trump administration “risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power – to the detriment of this nation.”
Last month, a federal judge in California ruled the Trump administration broke the law when it deployed thousands of federalized National Guard soldiers and hundreds of Marines to suppress protests against ICE actions in Los Angeles.
The decision barred troops from carrying out law enforcement in the state, but the White House has appealed the decision.
Immergut, in her opinion, said incidents in Portland are “categorically different” from the violence seen in Los Angeles when the president federalized troops there.
“Neither outside the Portland ICE facility nor elsewhere in the City of Portland was there unlawful activity akin to what was occurring in Los Angeles leading up to June 7, 2025,” the judge wrote.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
