The use of violence and threats of violence by aspiring dictators is an old and repeated playbook.
My family and I immigrated from South Korea to the U.S. in the early 1980s after my parents became profoundly disillusioned with their country. At that time, South Korea was ruled by a military dictator, General Doo-hwan Chun, who had taken power via coup. In 1980, Chun suppressed pro-democracy protests in a city called Kwangju — by beating, jailing, and killing several hundred to several thousand protestors, including many college students who were leading the movement to stop Chun. Kwangju is my dad’s hometown.
Since entering the White House again in January, Trump has tried to broaden his powers at the expense of our democracy. Like many authoritarian-leaning figures throughout history, including Doo-hwan Chun, one of the ways that Trump has tried to grow his power is through the use of actual state violence through militarized federal agents like ICE and Customs and Border Patrol, as well as with threatened state violence through deployment of the National Guard and military.
When Trump tried to deploy the National Guard to Portland this September, the ACLU of Oregon and our partners were ready to stop him.
On September 27, 2025, when President Trump announced that he was taking control over and deploying 200 Oregon National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon’s elected leaders and our state’s pro-democracy coalition, Protect Oregon, were prepared to say NO.
Why were we ready? The ACLU of Oregon team had anticipated Trump’s attempt to deploy militarized federal agents and the military to Portland and that he would want to get images of so-called chaos and violence from Portland to justify his abuse of power. So, we had started sounding the alarm about this very likely scenario even before election day in November 2024 – speaking to Oregon’s elected and community leaders, pro-democracy partners, and everyday Oregonians.
Indeed, Trump’s use of actual and threats of violence to grow his power and suppress people from speaking truth to power was not a surprise to the ACLU of Oregon. We had experienced similar federal tactics during his first presidency.
In 2020, Trump had directed hundreds of federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, including border patrol tactical units, to storm Portland in an operation dubbed “Operation Diligent Valor.” This operation was marked by military-style federal agent violence directed at everyday people. While often referred to as “less lethal” impact munitions, the impact rounds, pepper balls, flash bangs, and tear gas that the feds used against protesters posed a severe threat to human life and health. And despite tear gas being banned as a weapon of war since 1925, federal agents in Portland used it with regularity against protestors, bystanders, and our environment. Additionally, in a deeply disturbing pattern of abuse, many people — including protesters, journalists, and medics — were shot in the head with impact munitions.
This fall, Oregon was successful in checking Trump’s attempt to use the National Guard to abuse the powers of the presidency.
When, in late September of this year, Trump took federal control of over 200 Oregon National Guard troops to deploy to Portland, attorneys for the State of Oregon and City of Portland immediately went to court to stop this abuse of power by the President. Soon thereafter, the Federal Court for the District of Oregon granted two separate restraining orders stopping federal deployment to Portland of any National Guard units from any state.
Multiple threads of legal process followed the initial orders, including an appeal that is still pending before an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Still, on November 7, 2025, the State of Oregon and City of Portland were granted a permanent injunction that stopped Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Portland on a longer-term basis, after attorneys for the State and the City presented overwhelming evidence at a trial before the Federal District Court that contradicted Trump’s claims of chaos and rebellion in Portland.
In a 106-page ruling, the federal judge who issued the permanent injunction wrote: “considering these conditions that persisted for months before the President’s federalization of the National Guard, this Court concludes that even giving great deference to the President’s determination, the President did not have a lawful basis to federalize the National Guard” under United States law.
Our communities’ constructive, intentional, and often creative actions helped Oregon stop Trump’s attempts to abuse the power of the presidency and misuse our National Guard.
Oregon was able to effectively neutralize Trump’s attempts to abuse the power of the presidency and misuse our National Guard because our communities worked together to support the legal fight in court. These constructive actions included:
- Many elected leaders and everyday Oregonians spoke up against military deployment, and we shared videos and photos of Portland showing that Trump’s so-called reasons for deployment were ridiculous and not consistent with the facts on the ground.
- The Protect Oregon coalition organized and supported Oregonians’ continued exercise of their First Amendment rights at rallies and demonstrations, including the No Military Deployment rally on September 27 and the No Kings demonstrations on October 18. The coalition also included organizations and people experienced in de-escalation and they engaged in de-escalation strategies at protests.
- Portland’s City Councilors voted unanimously to pass the Protect Portland Initiative against federal government overreach (led by Councilor Candace Avalos) and also unanimously codified Portland’s Sanctuary City protections (led by Councilor Sameer Kanal).
- The City of Portland, including the Portland Police Bureau, did not repeat mistakes from 2020 when they had continuously used heavy-handed tactics against protestors. As well, Portland police officers testified at the federal court trial that they believed that some federal agents’ use of force against protesters at the ICE building was unlawful.
- As well, protesters in Portland understood that Trump wanted the optics of chaos and violence to justify military deployment, and they adapted their protest strategies to highlight Trump’s untruths by wearing costumes, having dance parties, and engaging in other forms of nonviolent, creative protest.
The long-term work of racial justice and pro-democracy leaders and organizations helped our communities work more effectively together and not repeat mistakes from the past.
The ACLU of Oregon recognizes that our communities were able to work effectively together and not repeat mistakes from the past because of the long-term, important, and hard-won contributions of our justice community. For decades, Black and Brown leaders and organizations – such as, but not limited to, the Rev. Dr. Leroy Haynes, former Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, and Don’t Shoot PDX – have led the struggle for more accountability and better community-centered practices by the City of Portland and Portland police.
As well, when the City of Portland’s structure made it so that its elected officials were not effectively representing people and neighborhoods across the City, community leaders and pro-democracy organizations came together to change Portland's Charter to make City Hall work better, which ushered in a new era of elected leaders across the City who have leaned into defending everyday Portlanders in the face of federal overreach.
Stopping Trump from deploying the National Guard to Portland, to this point, has been a significant win for American democracy. We, the people, have checked Trump’s attempts to grab power and undermine our most basic freedoms.
We are grateful for all the people, organizations, and elected leaders who made these wins for democracy possible. The hard work to keep our democracy of, by, and for all the people carries on. Please continue to support the ACLU of Oregon and our partners in this critical work.