Pentagon calls up 200 National Guard troops to Portland, citing threat from 'domestic terrorists'. What does it mean?
The Pentagon orders the deployment of 200 Oregon National Guard troops to Portland, acting on President Donald Trump's directive to quell protests over his immigration policy.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday ordered the deployment of 200 Oregon National Guard troops under federal command, even as the state filed a lawsuit opposing President Donald Trump’s decision to send military forces into Portland, a city governed by Democrats.
A day earlier, Trump, a Republican, announced the deployment, saying the troops were intended to protect federal immigration facilities from what he described as "domestic terrorists," and authorised them to use “full force, if necessary.”
Trump's deployments of military forces into other municipalities led by Democrats, including Los Angeles and Washington, DC, have spurred legal challenges and protests.
What does the lawsuit against Trump say?
Oregon's suit was filed against Trump, Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in federal court in Portland on Sunday by Democratic Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield. The suit accused Trump of exceeding his powers.
“Citing nothing more than a baseless, wildly hyperbolic pretext - the President says Portland is a 'War ravaged' city 'under siege' from 'domestic terrorists.' Defendants have thus infringed on Oregon's sovereign power to manage its own law enforcement activity and National Guard resource,” the lawsuit said, as reported by Reuters.
The lawsuit stated that protests against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in Portland have been small and relatively contained since June.
What does the National Guard deployment mean?
US President Donald Trump's planned troop deployment came as a surprise to many at the Pentagon, according to six US officials who spoke to Reuters anonymously.
“Sending in 200 National Guard troops to guard a single building is not normal,” Rayfield said in a statement, apparently referring to an ICE facility.
Also Read: Trump defends National Guard Deployment amid backlash, fires back at critics: ‘I’m not a dictator’
Violent crime in Portland has dropped in the first six months of 2025, according to preliminary data released by the Major Cities Chiefs Association in its Midyear Violent Crime Report. Homicides fell by 51% compared to the same period a year earlier, according to these statistics.
Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has made crime a major focus of his administration, even as violent crime rates have fallen in many US cities.
In 2020, protests erupted in downtown Portland, the Pacific Northwest enclave with a reputation as a liberal city, following the killing in Minneapolis of an African-American man named George Floyd by a white police officer. The protests dragged on for months, and some civic leaders at the time said they were spurred rather than quelled by Trump's deployment of federal troops, Reuters reported.
It was unclear whether Trump's warning that US troops could use "full force" on the streets of Portland meant he was somehow authorising lethal force and, if so, under what conditions. US troops are able to use force in self-defence on domestic US deployments.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, like other Oregon officials, learned of Trump's order from social media on Saturday.
Many in Trump's own Pentagon were caught off guard.
"It was a bolt from the blue," one of the US officials said, adding that the military was previously focused on carrying out prudent planning for potential deployments of troops by Trump into cities such as Chicago and Memphis.
There have been growing tensions in major US cities over Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown days after a shooting targeting an ICE facility in Dallas left one detainee dead and two others seriously wounded.
(With inputs from Reuters)