The weekend saw Trump order US National Guard troops into Portland, Oregon and Chicago, Illinois. The president cited rampant crime and illegal immigration as the reasons for the military intervention.
Both cities are Democrat-led, marking the latest in a string of similar actions against the cities of the Republicans’ political opponents, including Los Angeles and Washington. For its part, however, Portland has temporarily blocked the president’s orders twice in court – first, when he tried to deploy Oregon’s own troops, and later when he ordered the relocation of Californian personnel to Portland.
These legal moves are similar to the injunction recently seen in LA, California last month. At the time, District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump had violated the Posse Commitatus act, which prevents the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.
Portland, Oregon
Late on Sunday night, 5 October, a judge blocked Trump’s plans to deploy National Guard troops from other states to Portland, Oregon.
US district Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, previously blocked the deployment of Oregon’s own National Guard to Portland on Saturday. Then, when the Pentagon attempted to redeploy 200 National Guard from California to Oregon, she criticised federal government lawyers for trying to circumvent her earlier orders.
Representatives for the Trump administration previously claimed that they were utilising:
lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement.
The ‘violent riots’ in question were protests against the terror tactics used by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel. However, in her original ruling, Judge Immergut said that using army personnel to enforce the domestic law would:
risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power – to the detriment of this nation.
Immergut also argued that Trump’s strong-arm tactics fueled the tensions that led to the protests themselves. And, sure enough, just hours after Saturday’s ruling, federal officers attacked protesters at an ICE facility in Oregon using fired tear gas, flash-bang grenades and pepper balls. Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that there was no clear provocation for the attack.
Oregon’s Democrat governor, Tina Kotek, hailed Immergut’s decisions. She also stated that Trump’s claims of lawlessness in Oregon were fictional:
There is no insurrection in Portland, no threat to national security. The only threat we face is to our Democracy – and that threat is being led by President Trump.
Immergut’s order in will remain in effect until at least 19 October. However, Trump’s administration has filed an appeal against the judge’s decision.
Chicago, Illinois
Meanwhile, on Sunday 5 October, Trump also ordered the deployment of 300 National guard to Chicago, Illinois. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson cited “ongoing violent riots”, and stated that:
President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities.
Chicago residents have mounted escalating protests against the current increased presence of ICE officials in their city. The immigration authority carried out a military-style raid against a tower block late last friday night, pulling children from their beds and zip-tying them together in the street.
Trump had been threatening to send troops to the Illinois city for over a month. He finally made his move after reports on Sunday that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) staff shot at a woman after she and several others boxed-in immigration officials with their cars. DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said:
Agents were unable to move their vehicles and exited the car. One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon.
Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots at an armed US citizen.
‘Training grounds’ for Trump’s enemy within crackdown
Illinois governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, accused Trump of trying to manufacture a crisis:
They want mayhem on the ground. They want to create the warzone so that they can send in even more troops. They’re using every lever at their disposal to keep us from maintaining order.
Pritzker added in a statement:
This morning, the Trump administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will.
It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.
Just last week, Trump told generals that he wanted to use US cities as “training grounds” for the military, ranting about “civil disturbances” and the “enemy within”. He also doubled down on his unlawful plans to use the military for law-enforcement, saying of Democrat-controlled cities:
They’re very unsafe places and we’re going to straighten them out one by one…
It’s a war from within. Controlling the physical territory of our borders is essential for national security. We can’t let these people in.
Featured image via the Canary
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