What we covered here
• Legal battles erupt: President Donald Trump’s efforts to deploy federalized National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities have prompted a series of legal showdowns. The president has said the deployments are aimed at fighting lawlessness and to aid ICE agents carrying out his sweeping immigration enforcement agenda.
• Guard training in Illinois: Members of the Texas National Guard, mobilized by Trump, arrived at a military facility near Chicago for legal and crowd control training ahead of any specific assignments, a law enforcement source said.
• Hearings set for this week: Illinois and Chicago sued to stop the federalization of National Guard troops from their state and Texas. Meanwhile, the White House asked an appeals court to pause an order from a judge in Oregon that halts National Guard deployment to Portland. Both cases are scheduled to be heard Thursday.
• Trump debates using the Insurrection Act: Trump says he is considering invoking the act — which allows the deployment of troops in the US in certain limited situations — if courts keep blocking his deployments and violence in cities escalates. Democratic leaders have disputed his claims about rising violence and pointed to crime numbers being down in some places.
Our live coverage of the deployment of National Guard troops has now ended. See here for the latest.
National Guard deployments to Democratic-led cities spark backlash and court battles. Here’s the latest
President Donald Trump’s crusade to send hundreds of National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities – including Chicago and Portland, Oregon – has become a flashpoint in his efforts to federalize troops under the banner of restoring order in what he describes as ravaged areas, prompting a new front in the legal battles between the White House and state and local officials.
Here’s what we’re covering:
- Troop tensions: National Guard troops from Texas have arrived at a military facility near Chicago, in what Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called an “invasion.” Approximately 200 troops were part of the initial deployment, with more potentially on the way, a source said, alongside the 300 federalized Illinois Guard members. The state and the Windy City have challenged the cross-border deployment in court.
- Administration officials hit the road: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Portland Tuesday, meeting with local officials and touring an ICE facility just days after a Trump-appointed judge temporarily blocked the deployment of National Guard troops to Oregon. And FBI Director Kash Patel made a brief visit to Chicago Tuesday, a source said, as Illinois officials brace to argue against troop deployment in court. In Memphis, a small team of Guard commanders has arrived ahead of a larger deployment expected Friday, though local leaders say the troops will not take part in law enforcement.
- What Trump is saying: Trump claims Democratic-led cities need the military to restore order – though troops are generally barred from taking on law enforcement roles under federal law – and to protect federal immigration agents from protesters as the agents carry out his mass deportation policies. Yet in cities like Portland, protests have been largely peaceful.
- Simultaneous court battles: Judges in Oregon and Illinois will hear two pivotal cases at the same time Thursday. In Oregon, a federal appeals court will hear the administration’s challenge of a lower court ruling that temporarily blocked troop deployments in the state. In Illinois, a judge who declined to issue an immediate block earlier this week will hear arguments on the effort by Chicago and the state to halt mobilizations.
Trump’s National Guard deployments seen as ‘ominous escalation’ amid legal battles, analyst say
The Trump administration’s efforts to deploy National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities has sparked alarm over the unprecedented use of military forces to seemingly target political opponents, an analyst says.
“What’s happening in Chicago is an ominous escalation of what is already an ominous and explosive situation,” Ronald Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and Bloomberg opinion columnist, told CNN’s Rosemary Church.
His remarks follow Trump’s deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Chicago. The mobilization of troops, who are now training at a military facility in Illinois, faces legal challenges from the state and city, with a hearing in the case set for Thursday.
Brownstein noted this marks “the first time in modern memory that the National Guard of one state has moved into another unwelcome,” describing Texas sending its Guard to Illinois as “an invasion of one state by another on behalf of the administration.” He warned it could harden political divides in ways arguably unseen since the Civil War.
“The motivation has been clear,” Brownstein said. It’s “to numb Americans to the sights of the military on the streets of cities, particularly cities they view as hotbeds of opposition.”
He expressed concern over the long-term implications, suggesting the deployments could lay the groundwork for possibly using the Guard during the 2026 elections under the pretext of protecting the vote. “And perhaps using them to intimidate voters in Democratic-leaning areas,” he said.
Trump officials visit cities marked for federal military intervention amid mounting legal challenges. Here's the latest
White House officials visited some Democratic-led cities that have caught the ire of President Donald Trump amid his continued crusade to federalize hundreds of National Guard members for deployment to US cities he says are ravaged and in need of federal assistance.
Here’s the latest:
Portland: After a Trump-appointed federal judge blocked the administration twice over the weekend from sending National Guard troops to Portland, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Oregon’s biggest city Tuesday, where she met with the governor, police chief and visited the local ICE facility. On Thursday, an appeals court is scheduled to consider the administration’s request to suspend the judge’s weekend order blocking troops.
Chicago: FBI Director Kash Patel was in the Chicago area for just over three hours on Tuesday, a source familiar with the visit told CNN, a day after the city and the state of Illinois sued to stop the federalization of National Guard troops from their state and Texas. A judge will hear their argument on Thursday that the president is exceeding his authority and should be blocked from deploying troops in the Windy City.
Memphis: The Tennessee city is preparing to be the next target for federal operations as a “small” group of National Guard commanders is on the ground ahead of a larger contingent expected to arrive Friday, but the troops will not take part in law enforcement activities, local officials said. The Memphis Safe Task Force, a joint effort of more than 20 local, state, and federal agencies, has been actively deployed to work alongside local police in the city since September 29.
Secretary Noem met with Portland mayor during tense Oregon visit
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met with Portland Mayor Keith Wilson during her Tuesday trip to Oregon’s biggest city, telling Fox News she left the meeting “extremely disappointed” and without promises the city would back federal agents there.
Noem said she threatened during the meeting to send “four times the amount of federal officers” to Portland if the mayor doesn’t follow through on security measures for government officers.
“I intend to explore options to protect our community and our right to free expression,” Wilson said in a statement. “We believe a constitutional federal government must be accountable to the community in terms of clear limits on use of force, officer identification, limits on chemical munitions, and body-worn cameras.”
‘None of this is following the law,’ former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel says
Former Chicago mayor and Obama administration chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said none of what the Trump administration is doing is “following the law.”
“There is a menu of things — the federal government could go to any police chief, any mayor, and say, ‘How do we help you? How do we partner with you?’” Emanuel told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Tuesday night. “This isn’t even close. It’s not a second cousin.”
Emanuel criticized the Trump administration’s argument that federal resources help with public safety — saying Texas National guard members don’t know the areas the way local law enforcement might, and that 200 officers is a drop in the bucket compared with the roughly 12,000-officer Chicago police force.
“I mean, the basic strategy of reducing crime is putting more police on the street and getting kids, gangs and guns off the street,” Emanuel said. “It’s about community policing, knowing the neighborhoods, knowing the residents of that neighborhood and working with them.”
Border Patrol official denies racial profiling factors in immigration arrests, says officers do consider whether people appear “panicked” or “scared”
The Border Patrol official in charge of the Trump administration’s immigration-enforcement crackdown in Chicago denied that racial profiling factors into arrests made by federal officers.
“We need reasonable suspicion to make an immigration arrest,” Gregory Bovino said. “You notice I did not say probable cause, nor did I say I need a warrant. We need reasonable suspicion of illegal alienage that’s well-grounded within the United States immigration law.”
The Supreme Court in a September decision cleared the way for a person’s ethnicity to be at least a partial factor behind immigration stops by law enforcement. After that decision, Bovino told a reporter for Chicago radio station WBEZ that the “particular characteristics of an individual,” including “how they look” would be among the factors that dictates whether someone is stopped by immigration officers.
Bovino told CNN Tuesday his remarks to WBEZ were mischaracterized before expanding on what factors officers may consider.
“Perhaps you look panicked when you see a border patrol agent,” he said. “Perhaps you look scared. Perhaps your demeanor changes. Perhaps you’re gripping the steering wheel so tightly that I can see the whites of your knuckles. There’s a myriad of factors that we that we would look at to develop articulable facts for reasonable suspicion.”
Portland congresswoman urges protesters to leave ICE facility to avoid contributing to "war zone narrative"
Portland Rep. Maxine Dexter urged protesters to relocate from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city, saying it risks escalations with federal agents that play into a visual spectacle that is fueling a false narrative about protesters being largely aggressive.
“By going to that facility, people are not being strategic. Protesting in the streets is absolutely important, just don’t protest right there because then you’re playing into their story that is not the reality,” Dexter, a Democrat, told CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz on Tuesday.
Protesters can easily “become part of a war zone narrative if they decide that that’s the time they’re gonna go out there and provoke,” she said.
Dexter said she defends people’s right to protest “wherever they want, peacefully” but questioned whether it’s strategic or effective for protesters to be there. Federal agents, she said, can “march out at any moment and start throwing tear gas canisters and flash-bangs,” and those incidents only add to the misconceptions most protests are “war zones.”
Heavier security presence seen around Portland ICE facility compared to previous days
There is a heavier security presence around the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement today compared to recent days, with a large perimeter preventing people from coming up to the building and more local police officers.
On Monday, people were able to stand much closer to the building while protesting.
The changes come after the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited the facility today.
The Portland Police Bureau said that “due to the fluidity of the situation,” there is no timeframe for reopening the area, and roads ” will be impacted likely for the next several hours and possibly overnight.”
Oregon senator says Trump would cross ‘incredible red line’ if he invokes Insurrection Act
Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon warned on Tuesday that any potential move by President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and send National Guard troops to Portland would cross “an incredible red line” into authoritarianism.
Merkley disputed President Trump’s view that Portland has been ravaged by crime and war and told CNN’s Manu Raju it has been “incredibly peaceful.” But he warned that the Trump administration could be faking riots in the city to help lay the groundwork to invoke the Insurrection Act in the future.
The senator cited local reporting about a recent incident when law enforcement confronted what Merkley said were peaceful protesters, and deployed pepper balls, flash bangs, and tear gas. Merkley argued the actions, which dispersed protesters, created the appearance of a riot.
“This is the first time I know of, at least in my lifetime, that the federal government has faked a riot in order to try to justify, if you will, the Insurrection Act being invoked,” Merkley said.
He continued, “So I’m ringing the alarm bells. This is an incredible red line that we do not cross, because we are a republic, not an authoritarian state, and for the president to try to get the court decisions and the clearance to be able to use troops against our peaceful protesters and send them into our cities is a line that will lead to an enduring authoritarian state and the destruction of government by (and) for the people. We can’t let it happen.”
DHS secretary met with Portland police chief who opposes military deployment, source says
During her visit to Portland Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met with the city’s police chief, who has previously said the deployment of National Guard troops into the city is unnecessary, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the meeting.
In a recent interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Portland Police Bureau Chief Bob Day said, “We’re talking about one city block.”
“We are not tolerating violence or vandalism, illegal behavior,” Day added, “but we also are huge proponents of free speech and for people to be able to travel freely and safely about the city.”
Asked about recent comments by senior White House adviser Stephen Miller that law enforcement in Memphis had been “unleashed,” Day told Collins: “We are public servants. And the use of our discretion in the area of arrest is based upon the rule of law.”
National Guard troops in Chicago will focus on facility protection, rapid response to "exigent circumstances," Border Patrol official says
National Guard troops deployed to Chicago will be focused on protecting federal facilities or acting as quick-response teams to riots or other violent events, the Border Patrol official in charge of the city’s crackdown told CNN.
President Donald Trump has mobilized members of the Texas National Guard to respond to Chicago, where his administration has also been upscaling other aspects of federal law enforcement. The troops are training at a military facility in Illinois.
Both Illinois and Chicago have sued to stop the mobilization, and a federal judge is set to hear the case on Thursday.
Bovino said allocating the soldiers to protect facilities would free up federal law enforcement to focus on other aspects of their job.
He said the troops could also be used to quickly “respond to exigent circumstances, such as a riot or a violent situation.”
Border Patrol official says he won’t abide by Chicago mayor’s order prohibiting immigration enforcement on city property
The order from the Chicago mayor prohibiting immigration enforcement on city property is a “pipe dream,” the federal official overseeing that city’s enforcement crackdown told CNN.
“We go anywhere where that threat is,” Gregory Bovino, who holds the title of chief Border Patrol agent of the El Centro sector and has been the lead on the administration’s immigration crackdown in cities, said in an interview. “And if they’re going to create … another sanctuary, behind signs? We’ll go behind the signs and ensure that it’s not a sanctuary.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order on Monday that establishes “ICE free” zones on city property, including public schools and city-owned parking lots, as the city has become the latest epicenter of President Donald Trump’s focus on immigrationenforcement.
Asked whether he was going to decline to abide by the order, Bovino said “you would be spot on.”
“There is no sanctuary here in Chicago,” Bovino said. “So, Mayor Johnson, you can keep onputting those executive orders out, but we’re going to keep on enforcing the law.”
Bovino added the coordination between local and federal authorities has been “fantastic” and that he speaks with Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling “quite often.”
California governor backs Illinois in court fight over National Guard deployment
Attorneys for the state of California and Gov. Gavin Newsom submitted a brief Tuesday in support of the lawsuit filed by Illinois and Chicago against the Trump administration’s move to deploy National Guard troops.
If the federalization of troops is allowed to be carried out, Illinois will experience the “same irreparable injuries” than California suffered earlier this year, the California leaders wrote in the filing.
In June, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to disperse protests sparked by immigration raids. At the time, Newsom called the deployment “purposefully inflammatory” and warned it would only escalate tensions.
“Whether the troops number in handfuls, hundreds, or thousands, their presence inflames tensions in communities when residents perceive an unwanted, militarized police force in their community,” the filing said.
DHS secretary was “receptive” during meeting, Oregon governor says
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was “receptive” during an in-person meeting with Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, calling it a “straightforward conversation.”
During their conversation, Kotek said she asked Noem for federal law enforcement to be respectful of protestors and to follow local laws about tear gas use, she said while speaking to CNN’s Kasie Hunt. She also said local law enforcement has been careful to deescalate situations with protestors where they can, and asked that federal law enforcement reassess their tactics.
During protests Monday night, federal officers appeared to be shooting pepper bullets from the roof of the building.
Kotek hopes Noem sees during her visit that the characterization of Portland as a war zone is incorrect. “She needs to see what the reality is here,” she said.
Oregon Gov. Kotek asks NORCOM to demobilize Oregon and California guard members in her state
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek asked the United States Northern Command in a letter on Tuesday to demobilize the 400 Oregon and California National Guard members who are currently staging in her state.
The letter comes after a Trump-appointed federal judge in Oregon delivered repeated blows over the weekend to the president’s effort to send National Guard troops into Portland, twice temporarily blocking the deployment of National Guard members from anywhere in the US to the city.
“Judge Karin J. Immergut’s orders are a clear and forceful rebuttal to President Trump’s misuse of states’ National Guard. Thus, I am directing Northern Command to send Oregon’s citizen-soldiers home from Camp Rilea immediately,” Kotek said, according to a statement.
200 other National Guard members from California are currently staged at Camp Withycombe in Oregon.
CNN has reached out to Northern Command for comment
National Guard troops scheduled to arrive in Memphis as soon as Friday will not take part in law enforcement, officials say
A “small” group of National Guard commanders are on the ground in Memphis to prepare for a larger contingent expected to arrive Friday, but the troops will not take part in law enforcement activities, local officials said.
“In a few days we’ll see the first group of individuals come to our city,” Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis told Memphis City Council members Tuesday. Davis didn’t say how many members of the National Guard were set to arrive.
She said “a small contingency of commanders” in Memphis are organizing lodging and other logistics for additional troops that will arrive “it looks like maybe October 10,” Chief Davis said.
National Guard members deployed to Memphis will not conduct law enforcement activities, according to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris.
“This concession that troops will not be in a law enforcement capacity is a partial recognition that the Tennessee constitution does not give the Tennessee Governor or any state official the power to invade Tennessee communities with troops of any kind,” Harris said.
“We will continue to make the case to Governor Lee that he can stand up to Trump and protect Tennessee communities from ever having to see any Guardsman on the ground whatsoever,” he said.
The Memphis Safe Task Force, a joint effort involving more than 20 local, state, and federal agencies, has been actively deployed to work alongside local police in Tennessee’s second-most populous city since September 29.
More than 700 task force members are already working in the city, Davis said Tuesday.
FBI director makes brief visit to Chicago amid troop deployment
FBI Director Kash Patel made a brief stop in Chicago on Tuesday before traveling back to Washington, DC, according to a source familiar with his visit.
Patel was in the Chicago area for just over three hours as the city has become a focal point of the Trump administration’s efforts to ramp up federal resources to combat violent crime and illegal immigration, the source added.
Patel had said in an earlier post on X that he was flying into the city Tuesday.
The specific details of Patel’s visit remain unclear, but the chief FBI official noted on social media the agency would “continue to crush violent crime” in the city.
On the same day, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Portland, Oregon – another recent flashpoint as demonstrators have frequently clashed with federal agents over the topic of immigration enforcement.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrives at Portland ICE facility
Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has arrived at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Oregon, which has been the site of protests since earlier this year.
About a dozen protestors were at the facility at the time of her arrival.
DHS Secretary says she wants to "have peace and secure some partnerships" during Portland trip
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a reporter with CNN affiliate KGW she hopes to “have peace and secure some partnerships that will keep our officers safe” during her trip to Portland, Oregon.
Noem arrived in the city to visit an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility that has been the center of protests.
When asked if she had interest in speaking with Portland residents to get a view of what is happening there, she responded “We believe the president has the right to keep every single citizen safe in this country.”
Her visit comes after a legal battle over National Guard deployment ensued over the last week, with local government opposing the federalized presence.
