20 State AGs Back Trump Admin in Fight With Portland Over National Guard Troops

Attorneys general from 20 states have stepped into the dispute between Oregon officials and the Trump administration over the use of National Guard troops to defend Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who have come under assault from protesters in Portland.

Led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, Brenna Bird of Iowa, Gentner Drummond of Oklahoma, and South Carolina’s Alan Wilson, the attorneys general filed an emergency appeal amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 8, charging that Portland police failed to protect ICE agents from “violent rioters,” and that “President [Donald] Trump’s deployment of a small number of National Guard members to defend against this lawlessness is responsible, constitutional and authorized by statute.”

On Oct. 4, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending 200 members of the Oregon National Guard into Portland. Ninth Circuit judges will now decide whether to reverse or uphold that ruling.

“There’s no question under federal law that when the president is being impeded from conducting and carrying out federal law, he can call on the National Guard to help out,” Knudsen told The Epoch Times. “That’s exactly what he’s doing here.”

The brief in support of the Trump administration was also signed by attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and West Virginia.

By contrast, 12 states plus the District of Columbia are considered by the Department of Justice to be “sanctuary states” for having laws or policies that impede the enforcement of federal immigration laws. They are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

City and state officials in Oregon have criticized Trump’s use of the National Guard in their jurisdictions.

“President Trump’s actions are an effort to occupy and incite cities and states that don’t share his politics, and I believe that we should expect him to continue to push the limits of his authority,” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek stated following Immergut’s ruling. “The president can expect Oregon to stand up to him at every turn.”

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson likewise stated that “our local police officers are focused on protecting Portlanders’ right to protest peacefully and keeping our community safe. Federal troops will not make our community safer, period.”

Officials from states that support the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement said that illegal immigration has caused significant harm in their communities, and that, given court decisions that put immigration authority exclusively under the jurisdiction of the federal government, action by the Trump administration is necessary.

“For the past four years, illegal open-border immigration policies flooded the country with illegal aliens, including criminals convicted of crimes in their home country, violent international gang members, and suspected ISIS terrorists,” the attorneys general stated in their brief. “Now, President Trump is executing Congress’s dictates and enforcing federal immigration laws—which includes valiant efforts by federal law enforcement to identify and deport alien criminals.”

Critics of immigration policy under the Biden administration said that it has increased crime and burdened state budgets, driving up costs for health care, housing, and education.

“We have been absolutely overrun with cartel fentanyl and Mexican drug cartel activity here in Montana,” Knudsen said.

“This is something we deal with a ton and we don’t have authority to enforce federal immigration law—the U.S. Supreme Court made that very clear,” he said. “So we have to rely on the federal government, and when they won’t do their job, historically under the Biden administration, that’s been a problem for us.”

A 2024 report by the Center for Immigration Studies estimates that 6 million people entered the United States illegally during the Biden administration, though some say the numbers are significantly higher.

Looking at just one state, the report stated that “taxpayers in Massachusetts have spent more than $1 billion to date on the emergency shelter system that has been overwhelmed with the task of housing thousands of newly arrived migrants, some who entered illegally and some who arrived under one of the Biden administration’s controversial parole programs.”

The center predicts that this cost will nearly double over the next two years.