Trump team urges Oregon judge to end restraining order blocking National Guard

The Trump administration urged a federal judge during a hearing in Oregon on Friday to terminate a restraining order and clear the way for the government to deploy National Guard troops in Portland.

The administration argued to Judge Karin Immergut that a higher court had already greenlit President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard there. Immergut, a Trump appointee, said she would decide by Monday whether to toss out her order.

"[I’ll be] working as fast as I can to get a decision that honors the 9th Circuit decision but also takes into account some of the new arguments and new information that’s been provided," Immergut said.

The Trump administration has remained blocked from deploying the reserved troops to support the president’s law enforcement crackdown in Portland, a liberal haven that Trump claims is rife with illegal immigrants, street crime and threats to federal law enforcement.

"I looked at Portland over the weekend, the place is burning down, just burning down," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office this week.

Immergut’s hearing was only the latest in a string of clashes between local Democratic leaders and the president over their division of law enforcement powers. The president has claimed he is authorized to deploy National Guard troops in cities to support federal immigration enforcement officers, while several blue states and cities claim Trump is wildly mischaracterizing the level of crime and unrest and that military reinforcements are unwarranted and encroach on their sovereignty.