Trump sends more agents to quell Portland protests
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is sending more federal agents to Portland, Ore., as officials consider pushing back harder and farther against the growing crowds and nightly clashes with protesters, vandals and rioters, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Meanwhile, the mayors of six cities appealed Monday to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to send agents to cities that don’t want them.
“This administration’s egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen,” the mayors of Portland; Seattle; Chicago; Kansas City, Mo.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Washington D.C. wrote to leaders of the U.S. House and Senate.
Despite the mayors’ pleas, the U.S. Marshals Service decided last week to send 100 deputy U.S. Marshals to Portland to strengthen federal forces arrayed around the downtown courthouse, according to an internal Marshals email reviewed by The Post. The personnel began arriving Thursday night.
The Department of Homeland Security is also considering a plan to send an additional 50 U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel to the city, but a final decision on the deployment has not been made, according to senior administration officials involved in the federal response who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
Such moves would mark a significant expansion of the federal force operating at the courthouse — there were 114 federal agents there in mid-July — though it is unclear how many personnel there now would be relieved and sent home once the reinforcements arrive.
“The agency took steps to identify up to 100 personnel to send to the District of Oregon in case they were needed to relieve or supplement deputies permanently stationed in the district,” Drew Wade, a spokesman for the Marshals Service, said in a statement. “They may also be used to rotate with personnel already sent there to support district operations during the civil unrest mission to insure the function and safety of judicial proceedings.”
A spokesman for the
Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.
President Donald Trump tweeted Monday that the federal properties in Portland “wouldn’t last a day” without the presence of the federal agents.
Portland has been the scene of long-running protests over police mistreatment of minorities, with demonstrators’ anger increasingly focused at a large federal courthouse downtown. Confrontations between the heavily armed federal agents and black-clad protesters have intensified in recent weeks, and Trump administration officials have pledged to defeat the “violent anarchists” who they say are trying to burn down the building.
But the mayors said the officers have patrolled areas distant from the federal properties and arrested citizens without cause.
Early Monday, U.S. agents repeatedly fired tear gas, flash-bang devices and pepper balls at protesters outside the courthouse. Some protesters had climbed over the fence surrounding the building, while others shot fireworks, banged on the fence and projected lights on the building.
The mayors said they support legislative efforts to require notice and consultation with and consent from local authorities before deployments; to require visible identification at all times on federal agents and vehicles unless on an undercover mission authorized by the local U.S. attorney; and to impose limitations on federal agents’ crowd-control activities to protect federal property.
As the nightly street battles in Portland have gotten more attention, they have triggered internal investigations into the conduct of federal agencies like the Marshals Service and CBP. Federal law enforcement officials have grown increasingly worried that they may be losing control of Portland’s streets while also losing the public debate over their handling of the unrest, according to people familiar with the internal discussions who were not authorized to discuss those conversations with reporters.
The decision to boost the size of the federal force is likely to anger local officials who have accused the Trump administration of making the situation worse and called for the federal agents to leave the city.
Congressional Democrats also have criticized the administration’s response, accusing the president of using conflict as a rallying point for his re-election.
Sparked by the violence in Portland, demonstrations in support of racial justice and police reform resumed en masse in other cities around the U.S. over the weekend, and several were hit with violence. Protesters set fire to an Oakland, Calif., courthouse; vehicles were set ablaze in Richmond, Va.; an armed protester was shot and killed in Austin, Texas; and two people were shot and wounded in Aurora, Colo., after a car drove through a protest.