The Department of Homeland Security has refused demands from the state government to « remove all federal officers. »
Oregon’s Democratic governor and other state lawmakers are demanding that President Donald Trump immediately remove all federal law enforcement officials from the streets of Portland after alarming video footage posted online late Thursday showed unidentified officers dressed in combat fatigues arresting Black Lives Matter protesters without explanation and throwing them into unmarked vehicles.
“This political theater from President Trump has nothing to do with public safety,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said in a statement. “The president is failing to lead this nation. Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government.”
“Trump is looking for a confrontation in Oregon in the hopes of winning political points in Ohio or Iowa.”
Brown said she told Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to “remove all federal officers from our streets” but he refused, claiming that Portland “has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob.”
Wolf’s response, said Brown, shows “he is on a mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes.
