Mayors from the Portland metro area sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s threat to deploy National Guard troops to the city as an unnecessary act of aggression that could endanger residents of the region.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, appearing at a news conference Monday with mayors of nearby cities, echoed Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s declaration that the state’s largest city does not need assistance from the National Guard, despite Trump’s claim that the city has been “ravaged” and local immigration facilities are “under siege.”
“The type of help that’s being offered isn’t being asked for,” Wilson said. “It’s not necessary. The number of troops that we want or need is zero.”
Seventeen mayors from around the state formed a coalition committing to coordinating efforts to protect civil rights and public safety should the National Guard be deployed. In a joint statement, the mayors denounced using the military to support immigration enforcement.
“Enforcement of civil immigration laws by militarized forces has no legitimate role in our community, no support from local elected leaders, and little public support,” the letter said.
Trump’s depiction of Portland, rooted in a longstanding fixation with the city dating back to the city’s volatile protests following the killing by police of George Floyd in 2020, did not align with reality, several mayors said.
“We stand here today to tell the president he’s listening to the wrong people,” said Mayor Lacey Beaty of Beaverton, Oregon. “The president cannot watch footage from over a half a decade ago and believe this is the Portland that we’re standing in today.”
In an NBC News interview on Sunday, Trump himself appeared to question the narrative he used to justify the deployment following a phone call on Saturday with Kotek, who said Trump told her he’d seen videos of fires in the city that may have been from the 2020 protests.
“I spoke to the governor, she was very nice,” Trump said in the interview. “But I said, ‘Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening? My people tell me different.’ They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place…it looks like terrible.”
Wilson and Kotek are suing to block the deployment to the city, which Trump administration officials have said would involve 200 Guard soldiers. During a scheduling call on Monday, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon set a hearing for Friday on the state and city’s request for a temporary restraining order against the deployment.
A Justice Department attorney argued Monday that Oregon’s urgency to block the Guard deployment was “largely manufactured.”
“What’s happening here is very limited in nature,” said the attorney, Christopher Edelman, who noted that the 200 troops amounted to just 3 percent of the state’s total Guard contingent.
Edelman said Oregon officials failed to show evidence that state services would be impaired by the deployment, calling the arguments on that point “specious.”
