California Governor Newsom to sue Trump over sending National Guard to Oregon
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California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Oct 5 that he was suing over the order by the Trump administration to send California National Guard troops to Portland.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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CALIFORNIA – California Governor Gavin Newsom said the White House, thwarted by a federal judge in its effort to deploy the Oregon National Guard to Portland, is calling up his state’s Guard troops instead.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the deployment, but Mr Newsom announced on Oct 5 that he was suing over the order.
“Despite a federal court order finding no legal basis to deploy state National Guard troops to the streets of Portland and ordering that control of the Oregon National Guard be returned to state command, the Trump administration is now sending 300 federally controlled members of the California National Guard to Portland to take their place,” Mr Newsom said in a statement.
The move marked another dramatic escalation in President Donald Trump’s campaign to federalise law enforcement in Democratic states, with the President now trying to find ways around federal court orders.
Mr Trump has already deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles, Washington and Memphis, and is trying to send them to Oregon and Illinois over the objections of the governors, who say they do not need the help, crime is down and the protests outside federal immigration facilities are largely peaceful.
It is unclear how the deployment of California troops would impact the temporary restraining order issued in Portland on Oct 4, which applied to 200 Oregon National Guard troops that the Trump administration planned to deploy.
US District Judge Karin Immergut, an appointee of Mr Trump, concluded there was no justification for the deployment. She cited the limited nature of the protests and the ability of local law enforcement to handle the situation, which typically involved about 20 protesters in recent weeks.
While Mr Trump’s commentary about Portland suggested widespread disorder, protests have been limited to a single Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility outside downtown, which the Trump administration said was in danger.
The judge said there were no facts to support Mr Trump’s claims that Portland was “war-ravaged” and that anarchists and professional agitators were trying to burn down federal property and other buildings.
“The President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts,” the judge wrote.
The judge agreed that courts should give great deference to the President in making such decisions, but she disagreed that Mr Trump had made his determination about Portland in good faith and ruled that deference “is not equivalent to ignoring the facts on the ground”.
Mr Trump also ordered National Guard troops to Illinois on a similar rationale, over the objections of Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, who called the move “un-American”.
The California National Guard was federalised in June for 90 days, when Mr Trump first started using military troops to help combat what he claims is high crime and to protect federal agents carrying out his deportation actions.
Mr Trump was attempting to federalise the California National Guard for another 90 days, according to the California Department of Justice.
The Memphis deployment was conducted with the agreement of Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. BLOOMBERG
