The chaotic riots that consumed Portland, Ore., during the summer of 2020 reverberated through a trial over President Trump’s efforts to send National Guard troops into the city's streets.

Federal officials and government lawyers have portrayed Portland as under siege in seeking to persuade a judge that Trump’s takeover of the state’s soldiers and plans to deploy them are lawful and necessary to protect federal immigration facilities.

But local police officers testified that, already, the presence of federal officers has inflamed tensions with demonstrators.

Protests have been mostly peaceful, they said, and improved local policing tactics have helped keep it that way — unlike during the months-long protests five years ago, which some of them helped quell.

“It was just an entirely different type of disorder,” Portland Police Bureau Cmdr. Franz Schoening said.

Trump called up Oregon's National Guard in September, vowing to protect "war-ravaged" Portland and its U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.

The move prompted a swift lawsuit from state and city officials seeking to block the president’s efforts. They argue that Trump should not be allowed to put military boots on U.S. soil to remedy a situation stoked by federal agents.

The president initially federalized and moved to deploy 200 Oregon National Guard members, but after U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut temporarily blocked the effort, he sought to send in troops from California and Texas, causing the judge to bar the deployment of any troops. The administration has appealed.

Though the case has little to do with the 2020 protests, spurred by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, it took an unexpected focus as Immergut heard evidence about the city’s protest scene and whether National Guard interference is warranted.

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