US judge says Trump cannot deploy National Guard to Portland

A US judge will not allow President Donald Trump to deploy National Guard members to Portland, Oregon.

The ruling is the latest in a weeks-long court battle over whether the president violated federal law by sending troops to a US city despite objections from local officials.

A temporary court order had prevented the troops from being deployed to the city. Now, that order is permanent.

The deployment in Portland is part of a series of efforts by the Trump administration to suppress protests against federal immigration raids in predominantly Democratic-dominated cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

This ruling by Trump-appointed US District Judge Karin Immergut is the first time the Trump administration has been permanently barred from deploying troops to a city.

However, the administration is widely expected to appeal the ruling, and the case could go to the Supreme Court.

Earlier this month, when Judge Immergut ruled against the Trump administration, she issued two temporary restraining orders. One order prevented Trump from deploying the Oregon National Guard to Portland, while the other, a broader order, prevented him from sending troops from any state to Oregon. Trump had tried to send troops from California and Texas.

In her 106-page ruling, Judge Immergut stated that she was not preventing the president from using National Guard troops, but she said that "the president had no legitimate basis to federalize the National Guard" in Portland.

She wrote that there was neither an insurrection nor a threat of insurrection where the president needed to deploy troops.

She also stated that Trump had violated the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which grants states all powers not expressly granted to the federal government.

The judge added that she would leave it to a higher court to set a standard for when a president can "deploy the military in the streets of American cities", but that "wherever this line precisely is, defendants have failed to clear it. "

In Oregon, state and local officials and the Trump administration are exchanging heated rhetoric about what's happening on the ground.

'I sleep with a gas mask on': Life after the protests in Portland is angering Trump

The Justice Department has described the city as "war-torn" and said there was a violent siege at an immigration detention center in Portland.

"As we have always maintained, President Trump is exercising his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel following violent riots that local leaders have refused to address," the White House previously said.

But local officials and many city residents have said the violence is not widespread and is contained by Portland police.

"This case is about whether we are a nation of constitutional law or martial law," Portland's attorney Caroline Turco said.