Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth notified Gov. Tina Kotek on Sunday morning that he was mobilizing 200 Oregon National Guard members for 60 days under an order to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal property where protests are occurring or likely to occur.
Hegseth’s memo came the day after President Donald Trump declared in a social media post that he would deploy troops to Portland.
Within hours of Hegseth’s memo, the Oregon Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Portland. Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a video press briefing Sunday afternoon that his office has been preparing for the prospect since January.
“It’s actually un-American, if you think about it, to use the military against our own citizens,” Rayfield said. “But that’s exactly what’s happening right now across our country, from California to D.C. to Memphis, to Illinois, and now to Portland.”
Oregon is seeking a temporary restraining order to pause the planned deployment within the next 24 hours, Rayfield said.
Gov. Tina Kotek said she spoke with Trump on Saturday and made clear that there is no insurrection or threat to public safety in Oregon.
“Oregon is our home,” Kotek said. “It is not a military target, and we’re going to fight back to make sure that we can keep Oregon safe.”
Portland has experienced frequent protests outside an ICE facility, and the local U.S. attorney has brought charges against 26 people since early June for crimes including arson and resisting arrest. Most protests have remained peaceful.
On Sunday afternoon, about 200 people gathered at the ICE facility in south Portland to protest ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and Trump. Federal police from the Department of Homeland Security, many wearing gas masks and helmets, surrounded the building as protesters yelled “Shame, shame!” and called for them to get out of Portland.
Casey Leger, a self-described middle-class grandma from Southeast Portland, has been coming to protest outside the Portland ICE facility weekly since February. Recently, she’s started protesting six days a week.
“I spend a lot of time down here and I see our neighbors being taken away,” she said. “I’ve seen women trying to hold it together for their children because their husbands went in there and didn’t come out. I see it daily.”
Along with speaking with Trump on Saturday, Kotek said she exchanged texts with him on Sunday that ended with her expressing her disagreement and disgruntlement after receiving Hegseth’s memo by email.
As governor, Kotek is the commander-in-chief of the Oregon National Guard. But Hegseth’s memo indicates that 200 members of the guard will instead receive orders by U.S. Northern Command, a joint federal military command based in Colorado.
A 19th-century law, the Posse Comitatus Act, generally forbids military members from conducting domestic law enforcement. Oregon lawmakers considered but did not pass a bill this year to reinforce prohibitions on the National Guard being used for domestic law enforcement.
Trump previously sent National Guard troops and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to respond to protests against immigration enforcement there and ordered National Guard troops to assist police in Washington, D.C., a district where federal officials have sweeping powers not granted in the 50 states.
“The president is either purposefully ignoring the reality on the ground in Portland to score political points, or at best is recklessly relying upon social media gossip,” Rayfield said. “The president’s actions today only serve to further divide us as a nation, as a community under the guise of caring about public safety.”