memorandum

WASHINGTON — Two hundred members of the Oregon National Guard are being placed under federal control and deployed within the state, a move the Trump administration says is needed to protect immigration enforcement officers and government facilities, according to a Defense Department memo received by state leaders on Sunday.

The deployment is being made over the objections of state leaders and is similar to one in June in Los Angeles, where protesters demonstrated against federal immigration raids, though on a much smaller scale.

There was no immediate comment from the White House. Multiple Pentagon officials were contacted, but none would confirm or deny the authenticity of the memo.

President Trump had announced Saturday that he would send troops to Portland. The state’s governor, Democrat Tina Kotek, said Sunday that she objected to the deployment in a conversation with the president.

“Oregon is our home — not a military target,” she said in a statement.

Dan Rayfield, the state attorney general, said he was filing a federal lawsuit arguing that Trump was overstepping his authority.

“What we’re seeing is not about public safety,” he said. “It’s about the president flexing political muscle under the guise of law and order, chasing a media hit at the expense of our community.”

The Pentagon memo provided by Oregon leaders drew a direct comparison between the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles and the proposed deployment to the state, adding, “This memorandum further implements the President’s direction.”

While the memorandum does not specifically cite Portland as the target of the proposed deployment, Trump, in a social media post Saturday, said he directed the Pentagon, at the request of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, “to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”

“I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary,” Trump added.

Unlike in Los Angeles, it does not appear that Trump or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are currently directing the deployment of active-duty troops to the state. The Trump administration deployed about 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles, who were withdrawn about a month later.

The action also would be far less than Trump’s deployment to Washington, D.C., where more than 1,000 National Guard troops, including units from other states, have patrolled the streets for weeks. He also has been suggesting that he will send troops into Chicago, but so far has not done so.

Megerian and Toropin write for the Associated Press.

Sept. 16 (UPI) — President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Monday to deploy U.S. National Guard troops into Tennessee to “restore law and order” in the city of Memphis.

The move comes one month after the president sent the National Guard into Washington, D.C.

“Today, at the request of Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee, who’s standing with us as you know, I’m signing a presidential memorandum to establish the Memphis Safe Task Force and it’s very important because of the crime that’s going on not only in Memphis, but in many cities and we’re going to take care of all of them,” Trump said.

“Just like we did in D.C. We have virtually no crime in D.C., right now and we’re going to keep it that way. It’s our nation’s capital,” Trump added, before announcing “Chicago is probably next,” as well as St. Louis and New Orleans.

According to the White House, violent crime in Memphis has “overwhelmed its local government’s ability to respond effectively.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Memphis had the highest rate of violent crime per capita last year to include murder, robbery, aggravated assault and property crimes.

“We have to save these cities,” Trump repeated throughout Monday’s signing ceremony.

“A person is four times more likely to be murdered today in Memphis, Tenn., than in Mexico City,” Trump said, according to statistics. “It’s been overrun with carjackings, robberies, shootings and killings. There were 249 murders, 429 rapes, 5,616 burglaries and 12,522 violent assaults” within the last year, according to the FBI data.

The Memphis Safe Task Force will increase policing and investigations with aggressive prosecution to “restore public order,” according to the signed memorandum.

Tennessee’s governor has been instructed to use National Guard units from his state first, with the federal government adding additional personnel, if needed.

“The task force will be a replica, as I said, and I think will be equally as successful as in Washington. We essentially had the crime down to a very low rate in 12 days,” Trump claimed.

“The effort will include the National Guard, as well as the FBI, ATF, DEA, ICE, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Marshals,” Trump said, adding that the Department of Justice would also be involved in the prosecutions.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young and other Democrats have said they do not want the administration’s help and do not believe it will lower crime.

“We don’t have a say in the National Guard, but our goal is to ensure that we have influence in how they engage in the community,” Young told reporters Friday.

Lee, a Republican, thanked the Trump administration Monday for providing the federal resources to Memphis.

“We are very hopeful and excited about the prospect of moving that city forward,” Lee said. “I’ve been in office for seven years. I’m tired of crime holding the great city of Memphis back.”

Nearly 300 Los Angeles city employees were saved from being laid off after two major unions signed off on cost-cutting measures.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents more than 8,700 rank-and-file officers, agreed to create a voluntary program in which its members can take days off in exchange for some of the overtime hours they previously worked.

The layoffs would have affected 222 civilian LAPD employees, such as clerks and administrative support workers. No sworn LAPD officers were slated to be laid off, but some would have had to do the work of the civilians who departed.

“We are continuing to do everything we can to bring layoff numbers down and I want everyone to know that we are still working and anticipate this number to get even lower,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “These numbers are not final.”

Meanwhile, the Engineers and Architects Assn. authorized a deal for its 6,000 members to take as many as five unpaid vacation days — in effect furloughs — between Jan. 1 and June 30, which could amount to about a 2% pay cut.

The deal saved the jobs of 63 members who do not work for the Los Angeles Police Department, in roles such as city planner, analyst and civilian investigator.

Some of the LAPD civilian employees who had been in danger of being laid off are represented by the Engineers and Architects Assn., and others are represented by other unions. The Police Protective League represents only sworn officers.

City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, who oversees labor negotiations at City Hall, said the money freed up by the agreements whittled the number of remaining layoffs to 75. He sent a memorandum to the city’s personnel department on Wednesday to “immediately hold in abeyance the layoff process” for employees represented by the Engineers and Architects Assn., as well as all LAPD employees.

In her proposed budget released in April, Bass called for about 1,600 layoffs as part of a strategy to eradicate a $1-billion shortfall. Weeks later, the City Council made a series of other cost-cutting moves, reducing the number of layoffs by half.

To close the budget shortfall, the council also decided to slow down police hiring — though the mayor and council president later announced that they are looking for money to avoid that outcome.

Since the budget was finalized, hundreds of workers have either left city employment or transferred to positions that are safe from the budget ax, leaving 360 positions targeted for layoff before this week’s agreements, according to a memorandum by Szabo on Aug. 15.

The Police Protective League’s Board of Directors called its agreement with the city a “win-win for all parties.”

“Officer safety is always top of mind for our union and the thought that any additional officers would be pulled away from enforcement duties and moved to non-enforcement duties compelled our union to act,” the board said in a statement. “We worked with the city to create a program that will save money to preserve civilian LAPD jobs while also providing a benefit to our members.”

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who chairs the city’s budget committee, said that
“even in a tough budget year, we’ve ensured there will not be a single LAPD civilian layoff.”

“That was always our goal, but it was never guaranteed,” she said. “It was only possible because the Engineers and Architects Assn., the Police Department and City leadership worked in partnership to keep officers on the street and protect public safety.”

Roy Samaan, president of the Engineers and Architects Assn., said his union’s members authorized the agreement with the city in an online vote Sunday.

“We don’t want anyone to lose their jobs,” he said.

WASHINGTON — A former Homeland Security official during President Trump’s first administration who authored an anonymous op-ed sharply critical of the president is calling on independent government watchdogs to investigate after Trump ordered the department to look into his government service.

Miles Taylor, once chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, warned in an interview with the Associated Press of the far-reaching implications of Trump’s April 9 memorandum, “Addressing Risks Associated with an Egregious Leaker and Disseminator of Falsehoods,” when it comes to suppressing criticism of the president. That memo accused Taylor of concocting stories to sell his book and directed the secretary of Homeland Security and other government agencies to look into Taylor and strip him of any security clearances.

Taylor sent a letter via email to inspectors general at the departments of Justice and Homeland Security on Tuesday.

Coming on the same April day that Trump also ordered an investigation into Chris Krebs, a former top cybersecurity official, the dual memoranda illustrated how Trump has sought to use the powers of the presidency against his adversaries. Speaking to the AP, Taylor said the order targeting him sets a “scary precedent” and that’s why he decided to call on the inspectors general to investigate.

“I didn’t commit any crime, and that’s what’s extraordinary about this. I can’t think of any case where someone knows they’re being investigated but has absolutely no idea what crime they allegedly committed. And it’s because I didn’t,” Taylor said. He called it a “really, really, really scary precedent to have set is that the president of the United States can now sign an order investigating any private citizen he wants, any critic, any foe, anyone.”

Trump has targeted adversaries since he took office

Since taking office again in January, Trump has stripped security clearances from a number of his opponents. But Trump’s order for an investigation into Taylor, as well as Krebs, marked an escalation of his campaign of retribution in his second term.

Trump fired Krebs, who directed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in November 2020 after Krebs disputed the Republican president’s unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud and vouched for the integrity of the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Taylor left the first Trump administration in 2019. In the anonymous New York Times op-ed published in 2018, he described himself as part of a secret “resistance” to counter Trump’s “misguided impulses.” The op-ed’s publication touched off a leak investigation in Trump’s first White House.

Taylor later published a book by the same name as the op-ed and then another book under his own name called “Blowback,” which warned about Trump’s return to office.

After signing the memorandum April 9, Trump said Taylor was likely “guilty of treason.”

The letter by Taylor’s lawyer to the inspectors general calls Trump’s actions “unprecedented in American history.”

“The Memorandum does not identify any specific wrongdoing. Rather, it flagrantly targets Mr. Taylor for one reason alone: He dared to speak out to criticize the President,” the letter reads.

Taylor’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the request to the inspectors general was an attempt to “get the administration to do the right thing.” Lowell said that depending on the outcome of their complaint, they’ll explore other options including a possible lawsuit. Lowell, a veteran Washington lawyer, announced earlier this year that he was opening his own legal practice and would represent targets of Trump’s retribution.

Violation of First Amendment rights alleged

In the letter, Lowell calls on the inspectors general to do their jobs of “addressing and preventing abuses of power.”

The letter says Trump’s April 9 memo appears to violate Taylor’s First Amendment rights by going after Taylor for his criticism of the president, calling it a “textbook definition of political retribution and vindictive prosecution.” And, according to the letter, Trump’s memo also appears to violate Taylor’s Fifth Amendment due process rights.

The letter highlights Taylor’s “honorable and exemplary” work service including receiving the Distinguished Service Medal upon leaving the department, and it details the toll that the April 9 memorandum has taken on Taylor’s personal life. His family has been threatened and harassed, and former colleagues lost their government jobs because of their connection with him, according to the letter.

Taylor told the AP that since the order, there’s been an “implosion in our lives.” He said he started a fund to pay for legal fees, has had to step away from work and his wife has gone back to work to help pay the family’s bills. Their home’s location was published on the internet in a doxxing.

Taylor said that by filing these complaints with the inspectors general, he’s anticipating that the pressure on him and his family will increase. He said they spent the last few weeks debating what to do after the April 9 memorandum and decided to fight back.

“The alternative is staying silent, cowering and capitulating and sending the message that, yes, there’s no consequences for this president and this administration in abusing their powers in ways that my legal team believes and a lot of legal scholars tell me is unconstitutional and illegal,” Taylor said.

Santana writes for the Associated Press.