Washington – The Trump administration and the Oregon governor have agreed to begin withdrawing federal agents from downtown Portland after violent nightly clashes between police and protesters, the governor said Wednesday. But the White House and the Department of Homeland Security said federal police will leave the city once attacks on the federal court there, which officers were sent to protect, have stopped.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, said the removal of federal law enforcement The Department of Homeland Security comes after talks with Vice President Mike Pence and other Trump administration officials.
“After my repeated requests, the federal government agreed to a gradual withdrawal of federal officers who have been deployed to the United States Palace of Justice Mark Hatfield in recent weeks,” he said in a statement. “These federal officials have acted as an occupying force, rejected accountability, and brought violence and conflict to our community.”
Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs officers will begin to leave downtown Portland on Thursday, he said. They will also clean the courthouse and remove graffiti.
“Local Oregon officers from the Oregon State Police will provide protection for freedom of expression and security outside the courthouse with the Federal Protection Service,” said Brown. “A limited contingent of federal officials, who act as building security throughout the year, will remain and will be concentrated inside the United States Courthouse.”
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a separate statement that he and Brown reached a “joint plan to end violent activity in Portland targeting federal properties and law enforcement officers.”
“This plan is possible due to the valiant efforts of DHS law enforcement officers protecting federal property in Portland from violent activity for the past two months,” said Wolf. “The department will continue to maintain our current and increased federal police personnel in Portland until we are confident that the Hartfield Federal Courthouse and other federal properties will no longer be attacked and that the Portland headquarters will remain secure.”
Still, details of the withdrawal are confusing, as White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews said in a statement that “as President and Secretary Wolf have made clear, federal law enforcement officers will not leave until make the seat of justice in Portland safe. “
Devin O’Malley, Pence’s press secretary, said the vice president told Brown earlier this week that the federal police would remain in Portland until the violence was directed at them and the court ceased.
“The vice president was very clear that law and order must be restored in Portland,” O’Malley said in a statement. “Vice President Pence welcomes Governor Brown’s decision to deploy the Oregon State Police in Portland and is confident that federal, state and local law enforcement will be able to end violence directed at federal properties and agents of public order and restore peace in the streets of the city. ” “
The Trump administration increased the presence of US police in the Portland court earlier this month after the city experienced nearly 40 nights of protests in response to George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in late May.
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As the number of federal officials in Portland increased, state and local officials denounced his presence and said that agents were increasing tensions with protesters. On several occasions, federal officials guarding the court used tear gas and other tactics to disperse protesters, while the Trump administration said protesters threw projectiles at officers, fired fireworks at court, and used lasers to blind people. law enforcement.
The federal police deployment from the Department of Homeland Security was dubbed “Operation Diligent Valor” and included more than 100 officers from the Federal Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border and Customs Protection Service.
President Trump defended the administration’s response to the Portland riots and launched a separate initiative through the Justice Department to send officers to other US cities experiencing an increase in violent crime, despite objections. of their leaders.
The president told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that the Portland court is “very well protected” and said the officers “will not leave until they have secured their city.”
“If they don’t secure their city soon, we have no choice, we will have to go in and clean it up,” he said. “We will do it very easily. We are all prepared to do it.”
Sara Cook contributed to this report.
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