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July 20, 2020

Homeland Democrats Demand Documents from DHS on Trump Administration Deployment in Portland

(WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, along with Democratic members of the Committee, sent a letter to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on the Department of Homeland Security’s actions in Portland.  The Department has sent no justification to Congress for its actions. The Department has still not answered an overdue Congressional request for documents pertaining to its statue protection ‘Task Force’.

“[W]e are profoundly troubled by allegations that personnel from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), have detained protestors in Portland, Oregon, using procedures that may violate the rights guaranteed to all Americans under our Constitution,” the Members write. “Our concerns are only heightened by your inability to answer questions posed to you during a call on Saturday.”

“[T]he tactics that DHS appears to be utilizing to carry out the President’s Executive Order in Portland, Oregon, run contrary to the rule of law, including the most fundamental requirements of the Constitution, and are an intolerable anathema to everything for which our Republic stands.  Further, it appears that the deployment of DHS personnel in Portland is stringently opposed by both state and local officials.”

Link to letter

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