U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, who represents eastern Oregon in the House of Representatives, is the state’s only Republican in Congress.
He sat down with The Oregonian/Oregonlive Wednesday to talk about President Donald Trump’s attempts to deploy the National Guard to help quell protests at Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. He also discussed his thoughts on orders by U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, who temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts.
Bentz, like other Oregon Republicans, struck a careful tone. He decried violence at the facility and said he believes the Portland Police Bureau needs to step up to better handle the protests. But he stopped short of calling for full-scale intervention by the National Guard.
Bentz’s answers are verbatim, but have been condensed for length. Questions have been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: What do you think about the President’s attempt to deploy National Guard troops to Portland?
“Federal troops can only and should only be deployed in a state if allowed by the law, and if the direction to them is to operate within the law. I think the president has done both of those. …
I rather wish it wouldn’t have happened. And I say that because I think it is incumbent upon local law enforcement to take care of activities within their space. Sadly, really sadly, the Portland Police Bureau has been decimated. … I think their chief is doing a great job, but he’s got some real restrictions. …
But your question was: Do I think that the President did the right thing? And I don’t think he had much choice.”
Q: Do you agree with the assertion that Portland is “war ravaged” or that the protests are large enough to merit this response?
“It’s not war ravaged. It was war ravaged. And the damage that’s been done to Portland is really, really, really sad. …
The thing that’s most disquieting is when you go to the East Coast, and this is my fifth year of being there, to hear people talk about Portland as though it was still 2020 and that those images of burning and destruction have been branded into people’s minds across the nation. …No one wants a repeat of that.
So, it’s not a war zone. But it certainly is war ravaged.”
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Q: When you talk to your Republican colleagues on the East Coast, do you tell them that?: “Listen, that’s what it looked like five years ago, that’s not what it looks like now.”
“What I try to do, and I did this when I reached out to the Secretary of War by telephone a couple of weeks ago. … I said ‘Look, Portland was really bad five years ago, but they made progress and they’re trying to heal and make things better. And so let’s all work together to try to get there.’ …
I know (Immergut). She’s great. She’s an excellent judge. There’s no doubt of it. And I happen to think she’s wrong … or perhaps she didn’t have some of the facts that she should have included in her opinion regarding the challenges facing the Portland Police Bureau. She didn’t call out, for example, the fact that it has less than half the people it really needs to have to do its job….
With that kind of lack of support, she, the judge should have included that kind of shortcoming in her opinion, and that maybe would have changed her final outcome of deciding there should be a (temporary restraining order).”
Q: What did you ask the Department of Defense for?
“What I said was, ‘Look, Portland has a group of people that have made it their business to engage in almost constant protest and sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes hundreds, sometimes dozens, sometimes thousands. And this is a weakness of the city in some respects, because it makes it very, very difficult to have law and order. …
This is a fragile situation in Portland. And so my job, I thought, was to say ‘Look, can’t you reach out to local law enforcement and see if they can do more? And thus the troops would not be necessary’. …
One of the things that should have been noted, and it wasn’t in (Immergut’s) opinion, was the fact that the city of Portland and Oregon is a sanctuary state. And that creates a bias toward encouraging the type of protests that are ongoing and the non-cooperation with ICE.”
Q: Are you hoping that Judge Immergut’s temporary restraining order gets lifted and that National Guard troops are allowed to come to Portland?
“I’d absolutely rather see the local police step up and do their job. That’s what I want to see, and then the (temporary restraining order), all of this, would not be necessary.”