Federal agents can protect federal buildings, but don't have the authority to police the streets.
The federal government has broad power to enforce the laws of the United States, but not to police the streets or maintain order in a city if protests lead to violence.
But President Trump says he is willing and even anxious to break down the line separating federal authority from local policing. Federal agents clad in military gear clashed repeatedly with demonstrators outside the boarded-up federal courthouse in Portland, Ore.And on Wednesday, Trump said he envisioned a wider campaign of order imposed by federal agents, sending them next to Chicago. “We just started this process and, frankly, we have no choice but to get involved,” the president said.
“This is another instance of Trump stretching the law,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a former Homeland Security lawyer now at the R Street Institute, which calls itself a free-market think tank. “Yes, if they see someone about to throw a Molotov cocktail, they can arrest him. If they see a group gathering to do something like that, they can investigate. But this power is constrained. If they take someone off the street in a van and without probable cause, they could be sued for damages.
“We are asking the federal court to stop the federal police from secretly stopping and forcibly grabbing Oregonians off our streets,” she said. “The federal administration has chosen Portland to use their scare tactics to stop our residents from protesting police brutality and from supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.”
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