US President Donald Trump has sent troops from California to Oregon after a court denied his attempt to deploy the National Guard in Portland.
The deployment circumvents a judge’s order blocking the deployment by instead using National Guard soldiers already serving in Los Angeles.
California Governor Gavin Newsom vowed to file a lawsuit over the move, which he called a “breathtaking abuse of the law”, while Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said Trump was also redeploying the Texas National Guard.
Portland is the latest Democrat-led city targeted as part of the president’s attempt to address what he says is out-of-control crime, amid protests over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
The Pentagon confirmed 200 members of the California National Guard had been reassigned to Portland to “support US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal personnel performing official duties”.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said: “President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement.”
She attacked Newsom, saying he should “stand on the side of law-abiding citizens instead of violent criminals destroying Portland and cities across the country”.
Pritzker said late on Sunday night that Trump was “ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States”.
He called on Texas Governor Greg Abbott to “immediately withdraw any support for this decision and refuse to co-ordinate”.
Over the summer, there were large daily protests in Los Angeles after the city became a target of increased immigration raids.
Trump deployed the state’s National Guard to quell the unrest in June – a significant decision, as deployments are typically left to a state’s governor.
Newsom argued that using the military in Los Angeles was unnecessary and inflamed tensions. Trump said it saved the city from burning to the ground.
It is the troops still in Los Angeles from that deployment who the Trump administration redeployed to Portland.
“This isn’t about public safety, it’s about power. The commander-in-chief is using the US military as a political weapon against American citizens,” Newsom said, accusing the president of ignoring courts.
“We will take this fight to court, but the public cannot stay silent in the face of such reckless and authoritarian conduct.”
Protests have been ongoing in Portland and other cities over the Trump administration’s increased immigration enforcement.
Portland, in particular, has long drawn Trump’s ire over its alleged concentration of people his supporters describe as Antifa, short for “anti-fascist”. The president recently signed an executive order designating the group, which is a loosely organised movement of far-left activists, as a domestic terrorist organisation.
The Portland deployment came one day after Trump authorised the deployment of 300 National Guard troops to Chicago under a similar pretext.
The city in Illinois has also seen protests over increased immigration enforcement. On Saturday, protests became violent, with immigration authorities saying they opened fire on an armed woman after she and others allegedly rammed their cars into law enforcement vehicles.
The woman’s condition is unclear, but officials said she drove herself to hospital.
State and local leaders have decried Trump’s deployment plans there and called it an abuse of power. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said Trump was “attempting to manufacture a crisis”.
On Sunday, Gov Pritzker told CNN that the authorisation of troops there will incite protests. He accused the administration of creating a “warzone” to rationalise the response.
“They want mayhem on the ground. They want to create the warzone so that they can send in even more troops,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “They’re using every lever at their disposal to keep us from maintaining order.”