Portland protests: Constitutional crisis looms over unwanted deployment of federal agents in city.
Governor wants feds out as clashes continue
PORTLAND, Ore. – A potential constitutional crisis is looming over the actions of federal officers at protests in Oregon’s largest city that have been hailed by President Donald Trump but were done without local consent. The standoff could escalate there and elsewhere as Trump says he plans to send federal agents to other cities, too.
In Portland, demonstrators who have been on the streets for weeks have found renewed focus in clashes with camouflaged, unidentified agents outside the city’s U.S. courthouse. Protesters crowded in front of the courthouse and the Justice Center late Monday night, before authorities cleared them out as the loud sound and light of flash bang grenades filled the sky.
State and local authorities, who didn’t ask for federal help, are awaiting a ruling in a lawsuit filed late last week. State Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said in court papers that masked federal officers have arrested people on the street with no probable cause and whisked them away in unmarked cars.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security was planning to deploy about 150 of its agents to Chicago, according to an official with direct knowledge of the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The agents are expected to stay for at least two months and could be sent to other locations, the official said. Homeland Security said in a statement that the department does not comment on “allegedly leaked operations.”
“We’re going to have more federal law enforcement, that I can tell you,” Trump said Monday. “In Portland, they’ve done a fantastic job. They’ve been there three days, and they really have done a fantastic job in a very short period of time.”
As Oregon officials have, Chicago’s mayor has pushed back against the deployment of federal agents. It’s not clear what what they will do there, but Trump has pointed to rising gun violence in the city where more than 63 people were shot, 12 fatally, over the weekend.
The ACLU of Oregon has sued in federal court over the agents’ presence in Portland, and the organization’s chicago branch said it would similarly oppose a federal presence.
“This is a democracy, not a dictatorship,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, said on Twitter. “We cannot have secret police abducting people in unmarked vehicles. I can’t believe I have to say that to the President of the United States.”
Constitutional law experts said federal officers’ actions are a “red flag” in what could become a test case of states’ rights as the Trump administration expands federal policing.
Top leaders in the U.S. House said Sunday that they were “alarmed” by the administration’s tactics against the cities. They have called on federal inspectors general to investigate.
The protests have roiled Portland for 52 nights.