The National Guard deployment to Portland has been delayed beyond the guard’s standard timeline as the Oregon Military Department works to prepare the 200 soldiers who have volunteered, at a cost to the federal government of at least $3.8 million.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth moved Sunday to federalize Oregon National Guard troops to deploy to Portland. The process to get all the troops ready to deploy normally takes about 96 hours, but it’s going to take longer in this case, Lt. Col. Stephen Bomar said Tuesday, because of administrative tasks.
“We thought we’d probably be in the ‘walk’ phase now, but we’re still in the ‘crawl’ phase, administratively,” Bomar said.
Bomar previously said troops could be in Portland as soon as Thursday, and has now said that he thinks “we bump it out a couple more days.”
The mission length of 80 days includes several days of training, a 60-day deployment and demobilization, running through Dec. 16.
Russell Gibson, governmental and legislative affairs director for the Oregon Military Department told state lawmakers Tuesday that it will cost the federal government about $3.8 million to pay the troops, not including the cost of logistics such as food, lodging and transportation.
Already that figure is drawing groans from Democratic elected officials who have said Oregon doesn’t need a militarized response to protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in South Portland.
“It’s a waste of money,” said U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum. “There are other projects that we really do need help with here in the state, and we have every expectation that those should have been funded instead.”
The troops must go through administrative processing, which takes one to two days, and through use of force training, which takes three to five days, Gibson also told lawmakers.
The new timeline means the deployment is unlikely to happen before a Friday hearing in federal court that could delay the deployment indefinitely. Oregon has filed for a temporary injunction, arguing in a motion this week that the decision to mobilize troops is illegal, unnecessary and harmful.
Gov. Tina Kotek has said the next step for her administration is to “delay, pause, redirect” the troop deployment, citing the legal case and her so-far unsuccessful attempts to persuade President Donald Trump to reconsider.
The U.S. North Command has taken control of two National Guard companies, Gibson said. One company is military police and the other is regular infantry, and both have training in crowd control, Gibson said.
Troops won’t be allowed to do any “direct law enforcement” because that would violate a law forbidding the military from being used to police civilians, Gibson said.
The Oregon Military Department has discovered that some guard members need updated training to allow them to be deployed. Others were out of town or faced other administrative barriers such as an out-of-date hearing test.
All 200 troops must be ready to be deployed as one unit before troops hit the ground, Bomar said.
“I’m not saying we’re disorganized,” Bomar said. “It’s just — smooth is fast for us, and it would be way better to ensure everything is dialed in perfectly before any movement.”
Carlos Fuentes of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed reporting.
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