By Andrew Selsky and Gillian Flaccus
Federal agents in green camouflage uniforms have been taking into custody people in the streets of Portland, not close to federal property that they were sent to protect, in what the ACLU of Oregon on Friday said "should concern everyone in the United States."
"Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street we call it kidnapping. The actions of the militarized federal officers are flat-out unconstitutional and will not go unanswered," said Jann Carson, interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said President Donald Trump, who deployed Department of Homeland Security officers to Portland, "is looking for a confrontation in Oregon in the hopes of winning political points in Ohio or Iowa."
"Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government," Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement late Thursday.
Federal officers have charged at least 13 people with crimes related to the protests so far in Portland, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported Thursday. Some have been detained by the federal courthouse, which has been the scene of protests. But others were grabbed blocks away.
One video showed two individuals in helmets and green camouflage with "police" patches grabbing a person on the sidewalk, handcuffing them and taking them into an unmarked vehicle.
"Who are you?" someone asks the pair, who do not respond. At least some of the federal officers deployed in Portland belong to the Department of Homeland Security.
"Authoritarian governments, not democratic republics, send unmarked authorities after protesters," U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, said in a tweet.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations Oregon chapter said in a statement: "We are now seeing escalating tactics with protesters being unlawfully detained by unknown Federal law enforcement entities."
On Thursday night, federal officers deployed tear gas and fired less-lethal rounds into a crowd of protesters in Portland, hours after the head of the Department of Homeland Security visited the city and called the demonstrators, who are protesting racism and police brutality, "violent anarchists."
As the US braces for the what's the follow after the end of the Title 43 pandemic-related restrictions, experts discuss the ramifications with Cheddar News.
A man who kept a chokehold around the neck of an agitated fellow passenger in the New York City subway has turned himself in on a manslaughter charge.
New York State Senator John Liu spoke with Cheddar News about Asian-American representation in politics, his bill to make Asian-American history mandatory in schools, and the ongoing hate crimes against his community. State Sen. Liu also discussed the debate over student loan forgiveness and gave his take on artificial intelligence in education.
The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing Thursday on the cannabis bill the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking — a first step toward what advocates hope will be a full vote on the Senate Floor.
New blood donations rules will allow sexually active gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships to give in the FDA guidelines ease decades-old restrictions put in place to protect the blood supply from HIV.
During a contentious CNN town hall Wednesday night, former President Donald Trump dug in on his lies about the 2020 election, downplayed the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, and repeatedly insulted the woman whom a civil jury this week found him liable of sexually abusing and defaming.
Criminal defense attorney Tamara Holder joined Cheddar News to break down the charges that New York Republican Congressman George Santos is facing. "When the feds come after you -- and this is for anyone, a politician or not -- they generally have already built their case before they indict you," Holder said, regarding the timeline of Rep. Santos' arrest.
Officials in Missouri's largest city are moving to declare it a sanctuary for people seeking or providing gender-affirming care, defying state officials who are intent on banning it for minors and restricting it for adults.
The Biden administration on Thursday will begin denying asylum to migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through.
Federal health advisers said Wednesday that a decades-old birth control pill should be sold without a prescription, paving the way for a likely U.S. approval of the first over-the-counter contraceptive medication.
