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President Donald Trump denounced the protests and Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf criticized the protesters as “lawless anarchists” on a visit to the city on Thursday.
Before aggressive language and action by federal officials, the riots had frustrated Mayor Ted Wheeler and other local authorities, who had said a small group of violent activists was drowning out the message from peaceful protesters in the city. But Wheeler said the federal presence in the city now exacerbates a tense situation and has told them to leave.
“Keep your troops in your own buildings, or have them leave our city,” Wheeler said Friday.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum sued Homeland Security and the Marshals Service in federal court Friday. The complaint says unidentified federal agents have captured people from the streets of Portland “without warning or explanation, without a court order, and without providing any way to determine who is leading this action.”
Rosenblum said he was seeking a temporary restraining order to “immediately stop federal authorities from illegally detaining Oregonians.”
The administration has recruited federal agents, including the U.S. Marshals Special Operations Group and an elite team of U.S. Customs and Border Protection based at the U.S.-Mexico border, to protect federal property.
But Oregon Public Broadcasting reported this week that some agents had been driving in unidentified vans and snatching protesters off the streets that were not near federal property, without identifying themselves.
