DHS Secretary Noem visits Portland ICE facility as lawsuit over National Guard deployment continues
As Oregon awaits more clarity from a federal appeals court on the Trump administration’s attempts to deploy National Guard troops from multiple states to Portland, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem traveled to the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Tuesday.
The ICE processing facility in south Portland has been the center of mostly small protests for months. Ahead of Noem’s arrival Tuesday, about two dozen demonstrators waited outside the ICE facility playing music and holding signs. About an hour before Noem’s arrival, federal police took down protest signs that had been affixed to nearby walls and fences for weeks.
Oregon Guard and combat veteran Noah Mrowczynski was among the small group of protestors. Mrowczynski, 45, hadn’t been to the facility before but said he wanted to join the protest when he heard Noem was coming.
“I’m a combat veteran, a veteran who fought real wars against real terrorists,” he said. “Not this so-called insurrection and so-called terrorists Trump would have you believe we are in Portland.”
Federal District Judge Karin Immergut, appointed by President Donald Trump in his first term, blocked Trump from mobilizing 200 Oregon National Guard troops on Saturday. On Sunday, she issued a broader order blocking troops from anywhere in the U.S. from coming to Portland after the administration began sending federalized troops from California and called up 400 Texas National Guard members to federal service.
On Tuesday, Gov. Tina Kotek sent a letter to the head of the U.S. Northern Command, which is overseeing Oregon and California troops, urging him to immediately send home the 200 Oregon soldiers stationed at Camp Rilea in Warrenton and the 200 California soldiers stationed at Camp Withycombe in Happy Valley.
“Our citizen soldiers deserve better than to be uprooted from their families and careers, only to be mobilized for an illegal mission positioning our soldiers in opposition to the U.S. Constitution’s 1st, 4th and 10th amendments, of which they have taken an oath to uphold,” Kotek wrote.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals set oral arguments for Thursday morning on the federal government’s request to stay Immergut’s ruling. Without a stay, a restraining order will continue to block troops from being deployed until mid-October, when Immergut will decide whether to renew the order. She set a trial on the merits of the state’s case for the end of the month.
Attorneys for Oregon, the city of Portland and now California have argued that deploying federalized troops violates the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees that police power within the states resides with the states. They argued that sending troops to Portland would cause irreparable harm, including financial harm, by inciting greater protests than would exist without the federal troops.
Immergut agreed, saying in her Saturday ruling that there was no evidence of a rebellion or danger of a rebellion in Portland protests.
“Furthermore, 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. “This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law. Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power — to the detriment of this nation.”
Noem visits
Federal agents pushed protesters and local reporters back from the ICE facility before Noem arrived, but a handful of conservative influencers — including one arrested for fighting outside the ICE facility last week — accompanied her. One posted a video on X showing Noem praying over a meal from Burgerville, the Vancouver-based regional fast food chain.
After that meal, Noem was spotted on the roof of the ICE facility looking out at the small group of protestors and press.
Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement Tuesday that she met Noem at the airport Tuesday after hearing through unofficial channels that she might visit. Kotek said she told Noem that Oregon is united in opposition to military policing in communities.
“Today, in my meeting with Secretary Noem, I reiterated again that there is no insurrection in Oregon,” Kotek said. “Twice now, a federal judge has affirmed that there is no legal basis for military deployment in Portland. I was clear that I have confidence in local law enforcement to meet the moment.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, also a Democrat, was harsher in his statement.
“Kristi Noem is cosplaying as a public official,” Wyden. “In reality, she’s been sent by Trump to incite violence.”
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Alex Baumhardt has been a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media since 2017. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post. She previously worked in Iceland and Qatar and was a Fulbright scholar in Spain where she earned a master's degree in digital media. She's been a kayaking guide in Alaska, farmed on four continents and worked the night shift at several bakeries to support her reporting along the way.
Julia Shumway is editor of Oregon Capital Chronicle and has reported on government and politics in Iowa and Nebraska, spent time at the Bend Bulletin and most recently was a legislative reporter for the Arizona Capitol Times in Phoenix. An award-winning journalist, Julia most recently reported on the tangled efforts to audit the presidential results in Arizona.
