Loud but peaceable protests continued outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in South Portland on Saturday, the day after a federal judge prohibited the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops to protect the building.
U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut found Friday the protests weren’t the rebellion that the Trump administration had described. On Saturday, a member of Oregon’s congressional delegation hailed the court ruling during a Portland town hall.
Here’s what we know.
Dexter hails Immergut ruling in Portland town hall
U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter — wearing frog earrings — told The Oregonian/OregonLive before a North Portland town hall Saturday that Immergut’s order barring troops from any state being deployed in Portland was a “huge win for the people of Portland.”
The Oregon Democrat also discussed the Trump administration’s broad immigration crackdown and the government shutdown entering its 40th day Sunday.
Protest crowds grow after court order, favorable weather
The protests outside ICE drew the biggest crowds in several days on Saturday — more than 100 demonstrators and counter demonstrators in all — as the week’s rain abated.
But federal agents were largely out of sight, and vehicles came and went unimpeded from the ICE facility’s driveway through 9 p.m. Federal agents occasionally shot pepper balls from the building’s roof after protesters stepped onto the property.
Portland police, who made visible patrol throughout the night, intervened in confrontations between protesters and a conservative live streamer. Officers arrested Travis Juhr, 41, on suspicion of criminal mischief.
What we’re watching for today
The legal landscape remains uncertain.
The federal government has vowed to appeal Immergut’s ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and to ask for Immergut’s injunction to be put on hold in the meantime.
The appellate court has already ordered that the status quo be maintained. That means National Guard members can remain federalized but not deployed to the ICE building. Meanwhile, the court is considering a government appeal over Immergut’s prior temporary injunction.
The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, has been asked to weigh in on the deployment of the National Guard in Illinois that could directly impact Oregon’s legal challenge.
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