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In Sunday’s emergency hearing, Immergut told one federal government lawyer that conditions on the ground in Oregon had not changed and that she saw no legal basis or need for the military to assist local law enforcement.

Lawyers for the federal government tried to argue that Oregon and Portland did not have standing and that California could show no harm by having some of its National Guard dispatched to another state.

Scott Kennedy, the lawyer representing Oregon, said he learned of the Texas National Guard mobilisation just 24 minutes beforehand. “It feels a little bit like we’re playing a game of rhetorical Whac-A-Mole here,” he told Immergut.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a post on X Sunday night that he had authorised the call-up of guard troops from his state. “You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let Texas Guard do it,” he wrote.

Kotek said the latest move by federal officials was an attempt to circumvent Saturday’s court ruling.

“There’s no need for military intervention in Oregon. There’s no insurrection in Portland. There’s no threat to national security,” Kotek said during a news conference.

The events in Oregon come a day after the governor of Illinois made a similar announcement about troops in his state being activated.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, on Sunday called the deployment of California’s Guard “a breathtaking abuse of the law and power”. He said these troops had been “federalised” and put under the president’s control months ago over his objections, in response to unrest in Los Angeles.

“The commander-in-chief is using the US military as a political weapon against American citizens,” Newsom said.

In a related court filing, a lawyer in the California Military Department said the US Army Northern Command advised the department on Sunday that an order would be issued keeping the 300 guard personnel federalised through to the end of January.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland has recently been the site of nightly protests. A small number of demonstrators gathered on Sunday evening cheered when they learned about the judge’s order.

The protest was relatively small and localised to just one block of the city of 650,000 residents, Kotek said.

Immergut issued Saturday’s order pending further arguments in a lawsuit brought by the state and city. She said the relatively small protests did not justify the use of federalised forces and allowing the deployment could harm Oregon’s state sovereignty.

California Attorney-General Rob Bonta said Trump’s move to deploy the National Guard of one state to another “is well outside of the norms or practices” of any president.

“But this president is determined to take as much power as the courts will give him. This fight isn’t over, but today’s rebuke of the president’s illegal actions is a step in the right direction,” Bonta said after Sunday night’s ruling.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson on Sunday said he saw federal agents engaged in what he described as unjustified use of force and indiscriminately using pepper spray and impact munitions during a protest outside the ICE facility.

“This is an aggressive approach trying to inflame the situation that has otherwise been peaceful,” Wilson said.

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Portland had alerted the civil rights division of the Department of Justice to the agents’ actions, Wilson said.

Trump has characterised both Portland and Chicago as cities rife with crime and unrest, calling the former “war-ravaged”. Since the start of his second term, he has sent or talked about sending troops to 10 cities.

Trump authorised the deployment of 300 Illinois National Guard troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago on Saturday.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s office said the situation in Chicago “does not require the use of the military and, as a result, the governor opposes the deployment of the National Guard under any status”. Pritzker didn’t receive any calls from federal officials about the deployment, his office said.

AP