Camouflaged federal agents have descended on Portland. WASHINGTON — Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum sued the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies Friday night, alleging that federal law enforcement officers sent to Portland … On Friday night, a crowd gathered outside a fence erected around the federal courthouse; some in the crowd lit fires, lobbed fireworks over the fence and attempted to pull it down with power tools. She warned that all Americans need to be concerned about what is happening in Portland. They drove the protester away in an unmarked car. Portland protests: Federal agents swarm American-flag bearing demonstrator as clashes continue through night Federal agents were seen wrestling a protester holding a US flag and a … Federal officers in military gear … … clouds of tear gas … … crowd control munitions … [shots fired] … and locals who want those officers gone. It reeked of Prince. It hasn’t updated its Web page on its annual activities since 2013. Dan Handelman, who co-founded Portland Copwatch in 1992, has followed the department’s recent escalation of violent tactics—and its welcoming of federal … Claim: Operating under orders from U.S. President Donald Trump in summer 2020, federal agents used unmarked vehicles to "kidnap" Portland protesters and did not identify themselves as law en… Before departing Wednesday for a … One protester standing on a city street outside the federal courthouse was shot in the head with a crowd-control munition, leaving a bloody scene and a serious facial injury that required surgery. Most of the demonstrations during the evening, though, were peaceful. Federal agents used tear gas in Portland, Ore., against protesters gathered on Wednesday outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building near downtown. “We’re going to do that whether they like us there or not.” It’s a statement that technically is true — but goes against decades of norms and federalism traditions. Why is Donald Trump using little green men in American cities? There is broad agreement among legal scholars that the federal government has the right to protect its buildings. The claim: Federal agents quelling protests in Portland, Oregon, are mercenaries contracted by private security company ‘ZTI’ Versions of the claim received substantial attention on social media after reports of unidentified federal law enforcement agents detaining protesters in Portland. “This is not creeping authoritarianism,” Ms. Kristiansen said. The statutes that allow officials to serve in acting roles were crafted with the expectation that presidents would actually attempt to fill the jobs. How are we supposed to know you’re not kidnapping us and you’re civilians kidnapping us?” One protester was detained at this location nearby. A contextual reading of the powers granted to the DHS secretary in 40 U.S. Code § 1315 makes clear the statute’s intended purpose — to allow DHS to surge law enforcement personnel to disaster zones or genuine civil unrest. Now, after justifying the use of federal forces in Portland, the administration is expanding the model to Chicago and elsewhere. “What are you doing?” Federal officers wouldn’t identify themselves … “Use your words!” … but patches on the right and left sides of their uniforms match those used by members of BORTAC, the tactical unit from Customs and Border Protection. [chanting] Their actions often appeared to escalate rather than de-escalate matters. On July 18, a Navy veteran was batoned and pepper-sprayed in another unprovoked attack. Gas!” The president has doubled down, promising to send more federal officers to cities governed by his political rivals. But that’s not how Trump uses them — just one way his presidency has turned into a civics lesson in what’s possible if you ignore the spirit of the law and focus only on its letter. Apply to Medical Support Assistant, Special Agent, Specialist and more! They rejected creating an all-purpose domestic security agency, equivalent to the interior ministries of countries abroad, saying the potential for abuse of civil liberties outweighed the value. The article speculates these contractors could be in Portland. Yet it’s in this obscure corner of DHS that Wolf found the authority to dispatch agents and officers from ICE and the Border Patrol to the streets of Portland, against the wishes of state and local leaders. “I think it’s absolutely improper,” Oregon’s attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, said in an interview on Friday. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), who led the congressional subcommittee overseeing federal buildings, said, “We’re seeing the near collapse of the Federal Protective Service.”. Yet the force — which languished for years within the Department of Homeland Security, with depleted ranks and a dwindling budget — has suddenly become central to the Trump administration’s plan to assert federal power in America’s cities, against the wishes of local officials, in a ploy to demonstrate President Trump’s “law and order” credentials and further his reelection campaign. On Saturday, the Portland city commissioner, Jo Ann Hardesty, published an open letter to Mayor Wheeler in which she described federal agents as an “occupying force” and a “goon squad”. But how far that authority extends into a city — and which tactics may be employed — is less clear. But we could find no statements from public officials, public documents or news reports about the government using contractors in lieu of federal agents to quell protests in Portland. But it’s enough to justify bashing protesters in the streets. Federal Officers Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab People In Portland, DHS Confirms Agents are deployed in the Oregon city amid anti-police protests. His right hand was broken, and he needs surgery. Federal Agents Invade Portland, Citing Trump’s Executive Order Protecting Statues The Border Patrol says it has authority to “conduct arrests” in Portland. Others threw water bottles and fired fireworks toward the building. Federal officers to withdraw from Portland 02:00 Washington — The Trump administration and Oregon's governor have agreed to begin withdrawing federal agents from downtown Portland … Federal officers who arrived this month to help control protests over racial injustice and police violence have made dozens of arrests for federal crimes, including assaults on federal officers and failing to comply with law enforcement commands. It traces its roots to the first six night watchmen hired in the 1790s to guard the federal buildings in the new capital city, and it was shuffled into DHS from the government’s real estate manager, the General Services Administration, in 2003. Sometimes members of the press were hit. This is flat-out urban warfare.” At around the same time, a Customs and Border Protection plane was spotted circling overhead. The buildings have clearly been vandalized, and the Department of Homeland Security has a mandate to protect them. During 57 consecutive nights of protests, demonstrators have squared off first with the Portland police and then with federal agents in what at times have been pitched battles, with protesters throwing water bottles or fireworks and agents responding with frequent volleys of tear gas. And what methods are the officers using to protect federal sites? The Trump administration, by contrast, has employed them for run-of-the-mill political benefit. “How are we supposed to know who you are? The Portland Police Bureau ousted federal representatives from the city’s command post. But after federal officers arrived in the city on July 4, demonstrations became centered around this U.S. District courthouse and this building housing federal agencies. Federal officers advance on protesters during a Black Lives Matter demonstration at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, across from a park shaded by mature trees. The officer injured was one of many federal law enforcement agents called in to help settle the mayhem, deployed earlier this month among a dozen agencies and departments sent by the Department of Homeland Security, Fox News said. Videos taken by members of the public captured camouflaged personnel pulling protesters into unmarked vans. She also labeled the federal agents “stormtroopers,” a reference to the villains in Star Wars, or perhaps the Nazis. Militarized Federal Agents from a patchwork of outside agencies have begun policing Portland (in rented minivans vans) without the explicit approval of the mayor, the state, or … And in some instances, they attacked when there was no apparent threat. The legal fudging in this episode begins at the top. Our video shows how President Trump’s deployment ignited chaos. After an embarrassing series of incidents in 2007 — including one in which a man died in a vacant federal complex in Kansas City, Mo., and went undiscovered by guards for three months — D.C. Del. Portland: "DHS Federal Agents" = private contractors? Rioters destroying Portland being snatched up by federal law enforcement and are now crying about it. officials told The Times it was sending a live video feed of the crowd to law enforcement on the ground. Federal courthouse becomes center of protest movement in Portland. There was also a “Wall of Dads" carrying leaf blowers to combat the tear gas. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, said federal police officers in Portland are more like a “banana republic” than a democracy. Tweet: 13 replies, 1540 views. And officers assisting FPS are riding around in unmarked rental vans, snatching protesters off the streets with seeming disregard for civil liberties. Via contracts with FPS, more than 50 private security firms provide guards — referred to as protective security officers (PSOs) — to the agency in the Washington, D.C., area alone. “The authoritarianism is here.”. Washington — The Trump administration and Oregon's governor have agreed to begin withdrawing federal agents from downtown Portland … The aggressive incursion of federal officers into Portland has been stretching the legal limits of federal law enforcement, as agents with batons and riot gear range deep into the streets of a city whose leadership has made it clear they are not welcome. Mayor Ted Wheeler, who himself was hit with tear gas fired by federal agents on Wednesday night, called the federal deployment an abuse of authority. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a Democrat, compared the agents to an “occupying army.” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, called them “storm troopers.”, Mr. Trump criticized the police protests around the country in cities “all run by liberal Democrats” and defended the move to send in federal agents, warning that with the continuing turbulence in the streets, “They were going to lose Portland.”, Chad F. Wolf, the acting secretary of homeland security, described the protesters squaring off with federal agents outside the federal courthouse in Portland as “anarchists and criminals.”, “We will continue to take the appropriate action to protect our facilities and our law enforcement officers,” Mr. Wolf said at a news briefing this past week. But that hasn’t stopped them from trying. “I don’t care how many blocks away they are from that property.”. Their presence quickly became a political rallying point. “Ow, ow, ow!” In the middle of all this, protesters were detained in ways that alarmed civil rights advocates and former Homeland Security officials. “Gas! Later that night when field medics sought officers’ help for a wounded protester, they were aggressively cleared away. In the state’s legal challenge, Ms. Rosenblum argued that the operations of federal authorities, using unmarked vehicles to detain protesters, resembled abductions. (Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson used that process to deputize Border Patrol agents to protect civil rights marchers in the 1950s and 1960s, but only after careful behind-the-scenes negotiations with segregationist governors.) Photo: Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA via AP A federal … The Lead Federal Agency Responding to Protesters in Portland Employs Thousands of Private Contractors. Protestors run as tear gas is deployed on the steps of the U.S. District Court building on July 17, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. Three federal agents who were sent to Portland, Ore., to try to help quell the city’s violent protests were “likely left permanently blinded” from clashes, White House officials said Friday. 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. On Wednesday, July 22, Portland’s mayor joined the protests and was caught in a cloud of tear gas. The entire episode in Portland underscores the basic lesson of the Trump presidency: Our system of government rests on a foundation of trust and respect — trust that the president will, as the Constitution requires, “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Congress can’t possibly write legislation and policies if the person executing and interpreting them isn’t fundamentally trustworthy and doesn’t share a commitment to American democracy. 89 Federal Government Jobs jobs available in Portland, OR on Indeed.com. The lawsuit called on the court to order the agents to stop arresting individuals without probable cause and to clearly identify themselves and their agency before detaining or arresting “any person off the streets in Oregon.”, But in his ruling on Friday, Judge Michael W. Mosman of the U.S. District Court in Portland said the state attorney general’s office did not have standing to bring the case because it had not shown that the issue was “an interest that is specific to the state itself.”. Kate Conger contributed reporting from Portland, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs from Washington. Federal law enforcement agencies attempt to intervene as protests continue in Portland. Portland’s Democratic Mayor, Ted Wheeler, has accused the Department of Homeland Security of overstepping its authority by sending in dozens of federal agents … What began as a movement for racial justice became a broader campaign to dislodge the federal forces from the city. “My colleagues and I are looking at every possible legal option we have to get the feds out of here,” Mr. Wheeler said in an interview. 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