Court blocks Trump's 'unlawful attempt' to deploy National Guard troops to Portland

California [US], October 6 (ANI): California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday (local time) said a federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s "unlawful attempt" to deploy 300 National Guard troops to Portland.

“A federal judge BLOCKED Donald Trump’s unlawful attempt to DEPLOY 300 OF OUR NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS TO PORTLAND. The court granted our request for a Temporary Restraining Order — HALTING ANY FEDERALIZATION, RELOCATION, OR DEPLOYMENT of ANY GUARD MEMBERS TO OREGON FROM ANY STATE. Trump’s abuse of power won’t stand,” Newsom wrote on X.

The latest order came after Trump ordered California Guard personnel into Oregon following an earlier court decision that had prevented him from mobilising Oregon’s own Guard troops.

“After a federal court blocked his attempt to federalise the Oregon National Guard, Donald Trump is deploying 300 California National Guard personnel into Oregon. They are on their way there now,” Newsom said in a separate post. 

“We are taking this fight back to court. The public cannot stay silent in the face of such reckless and authoritarian conduct by the President of the United States.”

According to the Pentagon, about 200 Guard members already serving in California were reassigned to Portland, with another 100 expected to follow, CNN reported. 

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek confirmed that around 100 had arrived on Saturday, with more en route on Sunday.

The deployments came a day after Judge Karin Immergut of the US District Court in Oregon issued a temporary restraining order preventing Trump and the Defence Department from mobilising 200 Oregon Guard members for a 60-day mission. The judge wrote that she expected a trial court to find that the president had exceeded his constitutional authority.

Trump said that National Guard troops are needed in Portland to respond to protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. He has also sought to send Guard units into other Democratic-led cities, including Chicago. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said on Saturday that the White House was preparing to deploy 300 Guard troops there as well, as per CNN. 

Earlier this year, Trump dispatched nearly 5,000 National Guard soldiers and US Marines to Los Angeles during protests over immigration enforcement. A federal judge later ruled that those forces had been used illegally for domestic law enforcement, though the decision is now under appeal. (ANI)