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Unidentified floor speaker criticizes federal deployment of agents and troops to Portland
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Summary
An unidentified floor speaker criticized President Donald Trump's deployment of federal agents, ICE and National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, calling the action unlawful, costly and unnecessary and citing federal court rulings and past alleged abuses in 2020.
Unidentified Speaker, who identified themself as Oregon's senior senator, spoke on the chamber floor to condemn what they called an "authoritarian occupation" by President Donald Trump, saying the administration had "again deployed agents and troops" to Portland, Oregon, and other U.S. cities.
The speaker said federal authorities announced orders to use "full force," that the Department of Homeland Security had sent agents, and that 200 members of the Oregon National Guard had been activated. The speaker also said the administration had tried to deploy an additional 300 National Guard troops from California and 400 from Texas. "Activating the Oregon National Guard alone is gonna cost $10,000,000," the speaker said, adding that the deployment would pull guard members away from other duties and leave them unpaid during a government shutdown.
The speaker cited federal judicial rulings as part of their critique, saying a federal judge in Oregon has repeatedly ruled against the troop deployment and that a federal judge in California found previous Los Angeles deployments violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits domestic use of the military. They also quoted Portland police as saying federal agents were unnecessary and that ICE deployments had made local policing harder.
Recalling events in 2020, the speaker alleged that federal agents used military-grade equipment in Portland, tear-gassed families, detained people in unmarked vehicles and sometimes failed to identify themselves. "There is no question in my mind that another deployment by this administration is going to result in similar abuses," the speaker said.
The speaker urged colleagues to oppose the deployments and said they intended to work with other members to "fight back against Trump's federal occupation" and to highlight Portland's civic life. Earlier in the floor sequence, the chamber granted consent to vacate the quorum call without objection, and the speaker yielded the floor.
The claims and figures above were presented on the chamber floor by the unidentified speaker. The transcript attributes assertions about costs, troop numbers and judicial findings to that speaker; the article does not independently verify those claims.
