Not a single Department of Homeland Security law enforcement officer deployed to Portland has left the city in the 10 days since the Oregon governor announced their departure, two senior DHS officials told the Washington Examiner.
None of the surged DHS agents and officers have left Portland as of Monday, the first official confirmed, adding that this included Customs and Border Protection, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel. The same official said DHS does not plan to announce a withdrawal any time soon and that the 140 supplemental personnel who were sent to Portland in late June and early July will remain there until federal buildings are secure.
A second DHS official confirmed the account, and on Monday afternoon, acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said claims they have withdrawn, including those made by Democratic Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, were “absolutely false.”
“Our personnel will remain in Portland until we are sure that the targeted violence directed at our facilities and our personnel no longer requires our presence,” Morgan said during public remarks. “We’re not there yet. So we remain in Portland.”
On July 29, Brown and acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf separately announced having reached a deal that would result in pulling supplemental DHS personnel from downtown, where dozens to hundreds had been surged from the border and other parts of the country to protect a federal courthouse from people attempting night after night to burn it down.
“Beginning Thursday [July 30], all Customs and Border Protection and ICE officers will leave downtown Portland and shortly thereafter, will begin going home,” Brown said at the time.
Instead, all 140 surged DHS personnel remain in Portland but are not assisting at the courthouse, where Brown has sent in state police to guard the facility.
Brown’s office did not respond to a request for comment on why she said DHS personnel were leaving and if she was aware that they were not actually departing.
Since Aug. 1, when DHS personnel were largely removed from the courthouse, the Portland Police Bureau has declared unlawful assemblies eight days, as well as four riots. Federal agents have arrested approximately 100 people on federal charges for attacks against federal police and facilities. Another 400 people have been arrested by local police since late May.
The Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front, an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist group led by three teenagers, has organized much of the early morning rioting that has resulted in millions of dollars in damage to the city. Administration sources told the Washington Examiner that the FBI was investigating who is behind the nightly attacks.
The Oregon city has been ground zero in a fight between the Trump administration and local Democratic leaders who say the White House overstepped its bounds by allowing federal law enforcement to come into the city and guard a federal courthouse.
