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Shortly after the Oregon governor’s office said all federalized National Guard members outside Portland will begin to demobilize within days, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military said this information was wrong.
While 100 Oregon National Guard troops outside Portland are indeed demobilizing, 100 remain in place, a U.S. Northern Command Spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Teresa Meadows told WW in a phone interview, and she said there is no plan for now to remove those 100 troops.
Meadows confirmed that her information contradicted an announcement put out by Oregon officials Wednesday afternoon.
In that announcement, Oregon leaders said all the troops based outside of Portland would soon be demobilizing, a development which, if true would mark the close of another chapter in the state’s thus-far successful effort to block the Trump administration from deploying the military in its largest city.
In the initial news release, Gov. Tina Kotek’s office said she was releasing the following statement “after receiving a verbal demobilization order from the U.S. Northern Command for the 200 Oregon National Guard members.”
Kotek’s statement said: “I am relieved that all 200 Oregon citizen-soldiers are finally heading home. They spent nearly 50 days away from their families, friends, and civilian jobs on an unnecessary mission that cost taxpayers millions of dollars.”
The specific cost of the mission, which in practice mostly consisted of troops waiting on bases after a federal court blocked their deployment almost from the start, likely came out to around $16 million, according to the Oregon Military Department. (The federal government bears the cost, the OMD says.)
A partial demobilization—which the military says remains the plan— had already been announced. Early this week, U.S. Northern Command, which oversaw the troops, confirmed that all 200 California National Guard members posted outside Portland would pack up, as would about half of the 200 Oregon National Guard members.
But the announcement Wednesday from state leaders, which the military spokeswoman contradicted, indicated that, in fact, the Trump administration plans to promptly demobilize all of the troops in question.
“We’re grateful the federal government is finally doing the right thing and sending the Oregon Guard members home, where they belong, with their families and communities in time for the Thanksgiving holiday,” Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement that said the feds would begin demobilizing all the troops by Friday.
He continued, “This outcome is a direct result of Oregon standing up, defending our state, and insisting that the rule of law still matters.”
Even if all the troops were sent home, it is unclear if this would be the last word in a saga that began in late September, when President Donald Trump said he would send troops to protect “War ravaged” Portland.
The ensuing legal battle resulted in a permanent block on the deployment, when a federal judge rejected federal officials’ legal case for the mission. But the Trump administration’s appeal to a higher court remains active.
There were developments on that front Wednesday afternoon as well. The 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals directed the federal government to file weekly status reports regarding the current status of any federalized Oregon National Guard, including updates on the defederalization of any troops.
Beyond that though, the case will be put on pause, the appeals court said, until the U.S. Supreme Courts rules on a similar case regarding the deployment of the National Guard in Illinois.
