It appears that the 300 California National Guard troops held over at Joint Forces Training Base following the recent demobilization, as reported by ENE, are at the center of a growing controversy over their deployment to the City of Portland, Oregon.
According to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Oregon officials, the troops involved have been deployed; however, the ENE is awaiting confirmation directly from military officials.
Media reports include confirmation from the Oregon Department of Justice that 100 of the 300 National Guardsmen who have arrived in Portland were deployed from the JFTB in Los Alamitos. Their release did acknowledge that these National Guards had received special training to qualify them for this mission.
In addition, multiple news reports citing official statements confirm that California National Guard troops ordered to Portland in October 2025 were deployed from the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, CA.
According to official court and government documents, the Oregon Department of Justice confirmed the deployment of California National Guard members from Los Alamitos in a news release dated October 5, 2025, in which it sought a new restraining order to block the action.
Governor Newsom called the deployment “a breathtaking abuse of the law and power” before filing a suit through the state’s Attorney General’s office seeking a temporary restraining order.
Only 100 troops of the 300 had been deployed when the state was granted a temporary restraining order. United States District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, granted a series of temporary restraining orders to examine the complaint (filed by California and others), halting, at least temporarily, the JFTB troop deployment.
In her rulings, Judge Immergut found that the administration had exceeded its constitutional authority and had not met the necessary legal threshold for the deployment. Important statements from her judgments include:
“This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law”. The judge used this phrase to emphasize the foundational principle that military power should not intrude on civil affairs, as federalized troops were not needed to handle the situation, according to reports.
In addition, her order suggested the Portland protests were not violent enough to justify federal intervention. Judge Immergut ruled that the demonstrations outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility were “not significantly violent or disruptive”.
She noted that while some incidents were “inexcusable,” they did not require military intervention and could be handled by regular law enforcement.
President Trump’s statements were “simply untethered to the facts.” The court found that the president’s justifications for deploying federalized National Guard members were not “conceived in good faith”. This was in response to statements describing Portland as “war-ravaged” or “burning down,” which Immergut and Oregon officials claim were not accurate.
The deployment would violate the Tenth Amendment. The judge agreed that the state of Oregon and the city of Portland were “likely to succeed” on their claim that the president’s order exceeded constitutional authority and violated the Tenth Amendment, which reserves powers to the states.
President Trump, meanwhile, claims the troops are necessary in Portland because the city is “under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” accordin to published statements.
The ENE also spoke to JFTB Commander Jubilee Satele, who said he would discuss the situation with top California National Guard officials in Sacramento before commenting, in view of the legal maneuvers underway.