Law enforcement officers stand in tear gas outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilityin Portland, Oregon
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I US President Donald Trump has threatened to usurp the authority of the judiciary by allowing members of the armed forces to occupy spaces unknown before in the recent history of the country.
Trump has deployed or threatened to deploy troops in several U.S. cities, particularly ones led by Democrats, including Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago and Memphis.
Speaking Tuesday to U.S. military leaders in Virginia, he proposed using cities as training grounds for the armed forces.
Last month a federal judge ruled that the president’s deployment of some 4,700 National Guard soldiers and Marines in Los Angeles this year was illegal, but he allowed the 300 who remain in the city to stay as long as they do not enforce civilian laws.
The latest standoff happened in Oregon, when a federal temporarily blocked President Trump’s administration from deploying the National Guard in Portland, ruling Saturday in a lawsuit brought by the state and city.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut issued the order pending further arguments in the suit. She said the relatively small protests the city has seen did not justify the use of federalized forces and allowing the deployment could harm Oregon’s state sovereignty.
“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” Immergut wrote, she said, adding that this historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition that the US is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.
The Trump administration late Saturday filed a notice of appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
State and city officials sued to stop the deployment last week, one day after the Trump administration announced that 200 Oregon National Guard troops would be federalized to protect federal buildings.
President had earlier on called the city “war-ravaged.”
“This characterization is ludicrous. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in the city has been the site of nightly protests that typically drew a couple dozen people in recent weeks before the deployment was announced,” said the judge.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield called the ruling “a healthy check on the president.”
“It reaffirms what we already knew: Portland is not the president’s war-torn fantasy. Our city is not ravaged, and there is no rebellion,” Rayfield said in a statement. He added: “Members of the Oregon National Guard are not a tool for him to use in his political theatre.”
Abigail Jackson White House spokesperson said that President Trump exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland.
“This followed violent riots and attacks on law enforcement — we expect to be vindicated by a higher court,” she said.
Other officials sounded that the Portland protests have been limited to a one-block area in a city that covers about 145 square miles (375 square km) and has about 636,000 residents.
Sentimental moves by Trump recently backfired when his government agreed this year to settle an excessive force lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union by paying compensating several plaintiffs for their injuries.
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