White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller declared Saturday that a judge blocking President Donald Trump from mobilizing troops to Portland was a “legal insurrection.”
“The President is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, not an Oregon judge,” Miller wrote Saturday on social media. “Portland and Oregon law enforcement, at the direction of local leaders, have refused to aid ICE officers facing relentless terrorist assault and threats to life. (There are more local law enforcement officers in Oregon than there are guns and badges in the FBI nationwide). This is an organized terrorist attack on the federal government and its officers, and the deployment of troops is an absolute necessity to defend our personnel, our laws, our government, public order and the Republic itself.”
Trump announced last week he would deploy the National Guard to Portland to handle “domestic terrorists.” But on Saturday, after state and local officials sued to stop the deployment, a federal judge in Oregon blocked it, writing in her decision that the small protests that have popped up in Portland did not justify the deployment of the National Guard.
“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut wrote in her decision. “This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.”
Protests against ICE in Portland have escalated within the past few weeks. Conservative influencer Nick Sortor was arrested Thursday on a disorderly conduct charge. It’s not immediately clear what led to the arrest. Sortor wrote on social media that his arrest was proof that Portland police are controlled by the “violent Antifa thugs who terrorize the streets.”
“This incident is part of a troubling trend in Portland where left-wing mobs believe they get to decide who can visit and live in their city,” Leavitt said. “It is not their city. It is the American people’s city and President Trump is going to restore that.”
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Miller’s statement about ICE officers “facing relentless” “threats to life” is seemingly about a 39-year-old Portland woman being charged with a felony offense for allegedly assaulting a federal officer Tuesday near an ICE office in South Portland. Prosecutors allege that the woman applied red paint to the driveway of an ICE office. While officers processed her, the woman allegedly struck one of the officers in the jaw with a closed fist.
Portland police also said in a Saturday news release that they arrested two protesters who were blocking traffic during an ICE protest over the weekend.
