Hundreds of National Guard members to leave Portland, Chicago, source says
Hundreds of National Guard troops sent to Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, Illinois, from California and Texas in response to protests over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown will return to their home states, a Defense Department official confirmed to CBS News on Saturday.
Last month, about 200 federalized California National Guard troops were sent to Portland, while another 200 federalized Texas National Guard troops were sent to Chicago. All those soldiers will return, the official said.
In both cases, the White House had argued that the troops were sent to “protect federal assets and personnel,” the president invoking title 10 of the federal code, which allows its use if the president believes that “there is rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States.”
However, federal judges – in response to lawsuits filed by municipal and state authorities – had so far blocked federalized National Guard soldiers from being effectively deployed on the streets of Portland and Chicago, thus preventing them in a sort of holding pattern while waiting for the legal wrangling over their case to play out.
The Trump administration on Friday he appealed a decision to the Supreme Court which definitely banned the deployment of National Guard troops to Portland.
The defense official also told CBS News that the number of federalized members of the Oregon National Guard would be reduced from 200 to 100. The approximately 300 members of the Illinois National Guard who were previously federalized as part of the operation would remain under federal control, the official added.
Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images 
This comes after the U.S. Northern Command released a statement Friday that the War Department, the Trump administration’s preferred name for the Department of Defense, would “relocate and/or resize our Title 10 footprint in Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago to ensure a consistent, sustainable, long-term presence in each city.”
Portland and Chicago were the sites of months-long protests at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mr. Trump’s controversial decision to attempt to deploy federal troops in response has drawn strong pushback from local and state officials, who criticize the move as an unnecessary escalation.
Citing either crime or the need to protect federal property and personnel from protesters, Mr. Trump also deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C.Los Angeles and Memphis.
