City attorney updates committee on restraining orders as other cities describe National Guard, ICE tactics

The Community and Public Safety Committee met Oct. 7 and heard a legal update from Robert Taylor, Portland’s city attorney, about federal deployments and temporary court orders, followed by descriptions from staff in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago about how National Guard and federal immigration operations played out in their cities.

Taylor told the committee the U.S. District Court in Oregon granted a temporary restraining order and later issued a second TRO enjoining any National Guard deployment from other states to the city of Portland. He said that order lasts two weeks, that the city may ask to extend it, and that a preliminary injunction hearing in the district court is scheduled for Oct. 29. Taylor also said the federal government has appealed an earlier TRO to the Ninth Circuit and that the court will consider a motion to stay at a hearing Thursday morning at 9 a.m.

The committee then heard from staff members who described how federal actions affected residents in their cities. Jen…