Trump’s troops ‘a poll ploy’
NEW YORK: The mayor of New York has vowed to go to court to stop Donald Trump sending federal troops to the city, as the US President puts law and order at the forefront of his re-election bid.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security deployed scores of Border Patrol police and federal marshals — many in combat fatigues — to Portland, Oregon, to crack down on anti-racism protests.
On Tuesday (AEST), Mr Trump said they had done “a fantastic job” locking up “anarchists”, and he threatened to deploy the military-garbed law enforcement agents to other Democrat-led cities.
Mr Trump called the move necessary, even claiming Chicago was “worse than Afghanistan”, but critics labelled it an election-year political stunt.
“This President blusters and bluffs and says he’s going to do things and they never materialise,” New York mayor Bill de Blasio said.
“If he tried to do it … we would take action in court to stop it. From my point of view, this would be another example of illegal and unconstitutional actions by the President.”
Mr Trump’s decision to have federal law enforcement agents, some of whom don’t wear identification badges, intervene in protests in Democrat-run cities has sparked widespread anger.
Local leaders who are responsible for running local police forces say the deployment has escalated tensions.
Since the DHS force arrived in Portland, video has showed them taking demonstrators away in unmarked vehicles.
Most of those detained have been freed, but critics — including Oregon’s governor and senators — likened the federal agents to “secret police” in repressive societies. Oregon has sued DHS for rights violations, while the state’s governor, Kate Brown, demanded the officers be withdrawn, calling the deployment a political “photo op”.
The mayors of six major cities — Atlanta, Washington, Seattle, Chicago, Portland and Kansas City — wrote a letter to DHS acting secretary Chad Wolf and Attorney-General Bill Barr claiming the uninvited paramilitary deployments violate the constitution.
The White House denies accusations of abuse of power, insisting the agents are needed to protect federal buildings targeted by demonstrators.
“If we left tomorrow, they would burn that building down,” Mr Wolf said, calling the protesters “violent anarchists” and denouncing local officials’ inaction.