Mayors of several major US cities are condemning President Donald Trump's decision to deploy federal forces in Portland, Oregon, characterizing it as an "abuse of power" for political purposes.
Last week, Oregon's two Democratic senators condemned what they described as the Trump administration's "authoritarian tactics" amid reports that federal law-enforcement agents — in unmarked vehicles, with no discernible chain of command — were snatching people off the streets of the state's biggest city.
Portland has been rocked by nonstop protest since George Floyd's May 25 killing in Minneapolis, with Trump seizing on the actions of a violent few as part of a last-ditch "law and order" campaign for reelection.
The deployment has been opposed by local leaders. On Monday, the state's governor, Kate Brown, and mayor, Ted Wheeler, sent a letter to US Attorney General William Bar and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf demanding "immediate action to withdraw your forces."
The letter was cosigned by the mayors of Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, and Washington, DC.
"The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a national uprising and reckoning," the letter said. "Millions have joined the protests and exercised their constitutional rights. The majority of the protests have been peaceful and aimed at improving our communities."
Even when that is not the case and protests turn violent, the politicians wrote, "it still does not justify the use of federal forces."
Speaking with CNN over the weekend, Wheeler said the deployment was "leading to more violence and more vandalism."
The administration has threatened to repeat the practice elsewhere, an idea firmly rejected by local officials.
"Unilaterally deploying these paramilitary-type forces into our cities," the public officials said, "is wholly inconsistent with our system of democracy and our most basic values."
The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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