FROM FOX NEWS: The Trump administration urged a federal judge during a hearing in Oregon on Friday to terminate a restraining order and clear the way for the government to deploy National Guard troops in Portland.
The administration argued to Judge Karin Immergut that a higher court had already greenlit President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard there. Immergut, a Trump appointee, said she would decide by Monday whether to toss out her order.
Immergut’s hearing was only the latest in a string of clashes between local Democratic leaders and the president over their division of law enforcement powers. The president has claimed he is authorized to deploy National Guard troops in cities to support federal immigration enforcement officers, while several blue states and cities claim Trump is wildly mischaracterizing the level of crime and unrest and that military reinforcements are unwarranted and encroach on their sovereignty.
“[I’ll be] working as fast as I can to get a decision that honors the 9th Circuit decision but also takes into account some of the new arguments and new information that’s been provided,” Immergut said.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration can’t deploy the reserved troops it says Portland needs as it strives to uphold the president’s law enforcement crackdown there.
Trump has described the city’s need, saying it is battling illegal immigrants, street crime, and threats to federal law enforcement.
“I looked at Portland over the weekend, the place is burning down, just burning down,” Trump said this week in comments to reporters.
Lawyers for the DOJ feel positive about the outcome. This latest hearing comes after Immergut issued two restraining orders, blocking Trump from specifically deploying California National Guard soldiers to Portland, and then blocking the deployment of any National Guard troops there. Under appeal, a 9th Circuit panel sided with Trump on the first order, but Immergut’s second order remains intact, so Trump currently cannot deploy the Guard to Portland.
A Department of Justice lawyer said after the 9th Circuit Panel’s decision on Immergut’s first order, the two orders should “rise and fall together.”
“I just don’t know that there’s any way around that,” the lawyer said.
Another possible next step: a full bench of judges may reconsider the 9th Circuit Panel’s decision.
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