Oregon governor, Trump aide hit deal on agents’ exit
The governor of Oregon and the Trump administration announced an agreement Wednesday aimed at deescalating tensions outside the federal courthouse in Portland, where federal agents and protesters have clashed during nightly unrest.
As part of the agreement, officials said, most Department of Homeland Security agents would move off what have become the front lines around the courthouse and then withdraw from Portland entirely if the nightly protests cease.
But the specific timing of how this would play out remained unclear.
Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, said the agents would
leave downtown today and then the city soon thereafter. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said federal officials would pull back from Portland “should circumstances on the ground significantly improve” as state troopers move to protect the courthouse.
Federal actions have drawn criticism from Portland officials and scrutiny from two inspectors general. The Trump administration has defended its response as a necessary move to stop people from attacking the courthouse.
Protesters have thrown fireworks, flares, rocks and ball bearings at federal agents, used green lasers to blind them and have spread graffiti over the front of the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse.
In both sides’ telling, the agreement between Oregon and the Trump administration seeks to replace the highly scrutinized federal forces with state troopers and local police. The broader aim of the accord is to turn down the temperature.
Also, it will immediately test the ability of state and local officials to control the streets, and there were contrasting characterizations of the pact between Brown and Wolf.
“After my repeated requests, the federal government has agreed to a phased withdrawal of federal officers that have been deployed to the Mark Hatfield United States Courthouse over recent weeks,” Brown said in a statement. “These federal officers have acted as an occupying force, refused accountability and brought violence and strife to our community.”
Brown said officials from Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — who had gone to Portland as part of a Homeland Security deployment called “Operation Diligent Valor” — would leave downtown Portland beginning today “and shortly thereafter will begin going home.”
The Oregon State Police would protect “free speech and the security of the exterior of the courthouse with the Federal Protective Service,” Brown said. A more limited group of federal officials who secure the building normally also would stay put and focus on the inside of the courthouse, she said.
DIFFERENT STANCE
Wolf’s characterization of the plan was different, and he said the Homeland Security Department would begin drawing down forces when “we are assured that the Hatfield Federal Courthouse and other federal properties will no longer be attacked and that the seat of justice in Portland will remain secure.”
“DHS law enforcement officers will remain in Portland,” he said. “We repeat: Our entire law enforcement presence that is currently in Portland yesterday and in previous weeks will remain in Portland until we are assured the courthouse and other federal facilities will no longer be attacked nightly and set afire.”
“We will continue to reevaluate our force posture over time, as we do at every other facility around the country, and we will surge up and surge down, depending on circumstances on the ground,” he added.
Speaking to reporters after the agreement was announced, Wolf said Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel would pull back from the front lines but remain downtown on standby.
The Federal Protective Service — the Department of Homeland Security agency responsible for protecting federal properties around the country — will remain at the courthouse with assistance from U.S. Marshals, Wolf said.
Some state police will join them inside the perimeter fence.
Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton said his agency would deploy a special operations team and some uniformed troopers to the courthouse for a two-week rotation. The agency hopes its efforts will allow the protective fence to be removed and “restore a semblance of normalcy, while meeting community expectations and our obligations to protect the federal property,” Hampton said, adding that the troopers were Oregonians.
The agreement also calls for the U.S. government to clean the graffiti off the courthouse, which is federal property. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has previously said the federal government refused to clean the courthouse, which contributed to the mistaken impression that the entire city was under siege.
“The federal occupation of our community has brought a new kind of fear to our streets. Federal agents nearly killed a demonstrator, and their presence has led to increased violence and vandalism in our downtown core,” he said.
Wednesday’s announcement was an abrupt aboutface from just two days earlier, when the U.S. government said it might send more federal agents to Portland.
In fact, the U.S. Marshals Service was taking steps to identify up to 100 additional personnel who could go in case they were needed to relieve or supplement those who work in Oregon, spokesman Drew Wade said.
OVERDUE WORK
Brown also acknowledged that the unrest in Portland, which has seen nightly protests for two months, predated the clashes with federal officials, noting that the demonstrations would probably continue even if the forces pulled back.
“We need to recognize that the protests in Portland are not solely about the federal presence,” she said. “We have an opportunity that we cannot afford to waste. The departure of federal forces represents the beginning of a process that will be as difficult as it is overdue.”
Many protesters want to see the Portland Police Bureau defunded and are angry that officers used tear gas on protesters multiple times before federal agents arrived. Brown said the departure of the agents was a chance to address that anger and begin to make improvements in community policing.
Protesters have tried almost every night to tear down a fence erected to protect the courthouse. Authorities this week reinforced the fence by putting concrete highway barriers around it.
Demonstrators near the courthouse Wednesday were met before dawn with tear gas, pepper balls and stun grenades fired by agents.
President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that if the federal agents had not gone into the city, “there would be no Portland — It would be burned and beaten to the ground.” He warned that federal authorities could still go back.
Wolf did not strike a conciliatory tone, bristling at statements from the governor blaming the federal forces for stoking violence.
“No other city in the country has refused to work with federal law enforcement like Portland has,” Wolf said. “I’m glad that they are finally seeing the errors of their way, and stepping up and doing what they should have been doing for the past 60 days, and that is partnering with federal law enforcement to do their job.”
OTHER CITIES
Separately, federal prosecutors worked Wednesday to dispel concerns that federal agents headed to a number of U.S. cities will be used to break up protests, insisting that the agents will work sideby-side with local and state investigators to solve violent crimes.
Trump announced last week that he was sending agents to more U.S. cities — including Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee — to combat a rise in violent crime as part of an operation that started last year.
The operation was dubbed Operation Relentless Pursuit but was renamed Operation Legend after 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro was shot and killed in Kansas City, Mo., last month.
Matthew Krueger, the U.S. attorney in Milwaukee, told reporters during a news conference Wednesday that the media was confusing agents’ missions.
Agents being sent to cities other than Portland were part of a Department of Justice effort to bolster manpower in high-crime cities dubbed Operation Legend, he said. That initiative began in December. It was supposed to have been expanded this spring, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed that until this month, he said.
Krueger said he spent the past week updating local and state authorities in Wisconsin on the agents’ mission, and stressed that the agents wouldn’t be used to go after protesters and instead would work with local authorities, just as federal agents have long done.
He said 25-30 agents from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would be deployed in Milwaukee. Ten who arrived this month are in the city temporarily. The others will be permanently assigned to the city.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said that after speaking with Krueger, she is supportive of the operation in Milwaukee.
In Detroit, federal authorities said dozens of agents and deputy marshals were being assigned to the city to combat gun violence and arrest fugitives, among other tasks. They will collaborate with the local police.
Matthew Schneider, the U.S. attorney for eastern Michigan, said “federal troops” would not be patrolling the streets, and he dismissed as “irresponsible rhetoric” any suggestion that the government wants to disrupt lawful protests against racism and the excessive use of force by police.