Judge extends order blocking Trump National Guard deployment to Portland
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U.S. District Judge Karen Immergut on Sunday temporarily extended an order preventing the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, saying the government failed to justify the move.
In an order issued Sunday evening, Immergott “tentatively ordered Secretary of Defense Defendant Hegseth to implement” the memos that authorized the federalization and deployment of National Guard members from Oregon, Texas and California to Portland.
The injunction will remain in effect “until this court issues its final opinion on the merits by Friday, November 7, 2025, no later than 5 p.m.”
The court witnessed “three days of testimony and arguments in a trial that ended 48 hours ago,” reviewing more than 750 documents, many of them voluminous, Immergott said. “The interests of justice require that this court thoroughly review the documents and trial transcripts before issuing a final decision on the merits of the case,” she wrote.
Karen J. Immergut (left) and Richard A. Hertling (right), nominated to serve as U.S. District Judge for the District of Oregon and a judge for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims respectively, are sworn in during a judicial nomination hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 24, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Wayne McNamee/Getty Images)
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Ultimately, it evaluated the Trump administration’s actions and found that the government’s justifications were lacking.
“Based on trial testimony, this court has found no credible evidence that during the two months prior to the President’s federalism order, protests got out of control or involved more than isolated, sporadic instances of violent behavior that did not result in serious injuries to federal employees,” she wrote.
The judge also concluded that the president “most likely had no colored basis” for invoking Section 12406(3) or Section 12406(2) to federalize the National Guard and deploy it to the ICE facility in Portland.
Immergott pointed to the testimony of local law enforcement — officials with direct knowledge of the demonstrations — as key to her conclusion that the protests did not rise to the level of insurrection.
Federal agents clash with anti-customs protesters at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on October 12, 2025 in Portland, Oregon. (Mathieu Louis Rolland/Getty Images)
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“Based on the trial testimony that this court has found to be reliable, particularly the testimony of Portland Police Bureau command staff, who work in Portland and have direct knowledge of the crowds at the ICE building from June to the present, the protests in Portland at the time the National Guard was called in likely were not an ‘insurrection,’ and likely did not pose a risk of insurrection,” she wrote.
Immergut also concluded that the administration’s actions likely violated legal limits and constitutional protections.
“The defendants’ federalization and deployment of the National Guard in response to protests outside a single federal building in Portland, Oregon, extended beyond the statutory authority delegated under 10 USC § 12406 and violated the Tenth Amendment,” the judge wrote.
Law enforcement officers stand guard outside US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters, after US District Judge Karen Immergut on Sunday temporarily blocked US President Donald Trump’s administration from sending any Portland Police National Guard troops, in South Portland, Oregon, October 5, 2025. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
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She added that sending troops from one state to another violates the state’s sovereignty, and described it as “harming the sovereignty of the state of Oregon under the Constitution, and the sovereignty of the state of Oregon, which is equal among the states.”
The judge said she expects to issue her final opinion on the merits by Friday, November 7, 2025 at 5 p.m. PT. Until then, “the Oregon National Guard may remain federal, but will not be deployed.”