By Devlin Barrett and Nick Miroff Washington Post
July 27, 2020 at 1:27 p.m.
The Trump administration is sending more federal agents to Portland, Ore., as officials consider pushing back harder and farther against the growing crowds and nightly clashes with protesters, vandals, and rioters, The Washington Post has learned.
To strengthen federal forces arrayed around the city’s downtown courthouse, the U.S. Marshals Service decided last week to send 100 deputy U.S. Marshals to Portland, according to an internal Marshals email reviewed by The Post. The personnel began arriving Thursday night.
The Department of Homeland Security is also considering a plan to send an additional 50 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel to the city, but a final decision on the deployment has not been made, according to senior administration officials involved in the federal response.
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Such moves would mark a significant expansion of the federal force currently operating at the courthouse — there were 114 federal agents there in mid-July — though it is unclear how many personnel there now would be relieved and sent home once the reinforcements arrive.
Spokesmen for the Marshals Service and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately address requests for further information.
White House officials are expected to discuss the plans privately Monday afternoon.
Inside Operation Diligent Valor, the federal effort to quell unrest in Portland
Portland has been the scene of long-running protests over police mistreatment of minorities, centered largely around the large federal courthouse downtown. Confrontations between the heavily-armed federal agents and black-clad protesters have intensified in recent weeks, and Trump administration officials have pledged to defeat the “violent anarchists” who they say are trying to burn down the building.
