Trump has repeatedly called Portland “war-ravaged” and riddled with violent crime, but in Saturday’s (local time) court order, US District Judge Karin Immergut wrote “the President’s determination was simply untethered to the facts”.
Although the city has seen scattered attacks on federal officers and property, the Trump administration failed to demonstrate “that those episodes of violence were part of an organised attempt to overthrow the Government as a whole”, Immergut wrote in granting a temporary restraining order.
Protests in Portland did not pose a “danger of rebellion” and “regular law enforcement forces” could handle such incidents, Immergut wrote.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden applauded the order, saying the “victory supports what Oregonians already know: we don’t need or want Donald Trump to provoke violence by deploying federal troops in our state”.
Earlier, a federal officer in Chicago shot a motorist after law enforcement agents were “boxed in by 10 cars”, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.
“Agents were unable to move their vehicles and exited the car. One of the drivers who rammed the law enforcement vehicle was armed with a semi-automatic weapon,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
“Law enforcement was forced to deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots at an armed US citizen,” she said.
AFP could not independently verify the DHS version of the event.
The agency said the motorist “drove herself to the hospital to get care for wounds”.
McLaughlin also accused Chicago police of “leaving the shooting scene” with officers refusing “to assist us in securing the area”.
Chicago police told local broadcaster Fox 32 that officers responded to the scene but the department “is not involved in the incident or its investigation. Federal authorities are investigating this shooting”.
– Agence France-Presse
