Donald Trump, the president of the United States, in September of 2025, sent troops to the city of Portland, Oregon. Trump says Portland needs to be controlled and is war ravaged, even though the ICE protests are quite peaceful. Tina Kotek, Oregon’s Governor, blocked him from deploying Oregon’s National Guard and in response Trump decided to send up California’s Guard.
This action against fellow American citizens exercising their freedom of speech is diabolical and offensive to the foundation of the United States of America. This isn’t the first time this has happened either under Trump. Other cities like Chicago, Memphis, Washington D.C, and Los Angeles have also had troops deployed and more cities may be on the way. What do these cities all have in common? They are all Democrat run. Even Memphis, a Republican state, has a Democratic mayor. This isn’t about keeping peace, this is about keeping control.
The protests around ICE buildings had to have begun for a reason. The reason is pretty scary for a lot of people in the U.S, ICE is using aggressive methods on deporting illegal immigrants and even U.S citizens. According to a former ICE agent the tactics have changed. Before, ICE had done lots of research ahead of detaining any person, but now they are doing large sweeps of areas, like stopping people on the street or using traffic stops from other law enforcement to find immigrants. Lack of research leads to the wrong people getting detained, many citizens have been taken just for how they look. How does our country, filled with all kinds of people, still have systems that target innocent people wanting to live their lives. All people in the U.S should be able to walk down the street and feel safe and confident. The Trump administration is making that impossible for the majority of the population.
The majority of these states highly detest troops coming into their area and Oregon is one of them. Kotek has rightfully filed a lawsuit on the Trump administration for sending the national guard to Portland and got a restraining order in place. Yet, when it was clear that Trump’s interference wasn’t wanted, he still persisted. He decided to send in California’s and Texas’ national guard to skirt around this. He was again blocked with a restraining order. Still the Trump administration wouldn’t back down! Another trial took place, even though local and state courts had ruled against this the 9th circuit took back the first restraining order. It seems Trump doesn’t care about what the citizens of the United States wants, he just wants to further his agenda.
Our country was built on the idea that people have the power, so why should people be scared to exercise their freedom of assembly? The protests have been quite peaceful and in general the cities have had a decline in criminal activity. It has been made very clear by the leaders and people of Oregon that the troops aren’t wanted or needed. That doesn’t stop the president’s agenda. The United States of America is supposed to be the land of the free, yet is it really free with troops breathing down the necks of protestors, who are just trying to stop the actual violence that is happening.
