![]() ![]() The three main immigration agencies under the department – Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and US Citizenship and Immigration Services – have been helmed by acting officials for more than a year. Of 27 top roles at DHS, 10 are filled in an acting capacity. Those remaining are neither accountable to Congress nor empowered to push back against unreasonable political pressure,” said Carrie Cordero, a senior fellow at Center for a New American Security and CNN legal analyst. “The President has fired or forced out nearly every Senate confirmed leader in DHS. In the last three years, DHS has rolled out some of the most stringent immigration policies, and most recently, deployed personnel to respond to protests, some of them violent, after George Floyd’s death – nearly all under leadership that hasn’t been confirmed by the Senate. See the Portland mayor’s interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”įurther complicating things is the fact that DHS, as CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez and Geneva Sands write, is mostly run by temporary appointees the Trump administration has used to skirt the confirmation process: Trump defended the actions and said the agents are trying to help Portland, not hurt it. And multiple House committee chairs are also calling for an immediate watchdog investigation. A US attorney has demanded an investigation by DHS of the tactics. Here’s how they started.īoth Wheeler and Oregon’s governor have demanded the federal authorities leave. Related: Protests in Portland have carried on for more than 50 days. They don’t even know who’s pulling them into the vans.” “Apparently, they are being denied probable cause, and they’re denied due process. “People are being literally scooped off the street into unmarked vans, rental cars,” Wheeler told CNN on Sunday. The atmosphere has not been helped by the efforts of federal agents, according to Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who called the administration’s actions “abhorrent.” A police association office was set on fire Saturday. Meanwhile, the militarized response has led to more violent levels of protest in Portland, where racial justice and anti-police brutality demonstrations have lasted more than 50 days. The fact that DHS would deploy its own warriors into American streets without much discussion and without a clear mandate (they’re vaguely supposed to be protecting federal buildings?) is dark-of-night dystopian stuff. So let’s focus on Portland example from over the weekend. ![]() If he follows through with this threat, it’s not yet clear what kind of agents would be dispatched. All run by liberal Democrats,” Trump said. ![]() We’re not going to let this happen in our country. “We’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore and all of these, Oakland is a mess. Responding to a question about a report that said he will send federal troops to certain cities, Trump said “well it depends on what your definition of troops is. What sort of federal presence will this be? Speaking Monday at the White House, Trump suggested more federal agents will soon be headed to more American cities. They’re trained for drug missions, but with Trump demanding “law and order” and disagreeing with local authorities, they’ve been dispatched to American streets. The teams of masked authorities seen in Portland dressed up for war like special forces apparently belong to the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection Unit. And it’s particularly distressing that the President is openly threatening cities based on the political affiliations of their leaders. And it’s not a good look for a country that’s supposed to be an open society. The strange and frightening images of unidentified military-looking men taking protesters off the streets of Portland, Oregon, and into unmarked vans may be headed to a city near you if that city is, as President Donald Trump declared Monday, run by “liberal Democrats.” ![]()
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