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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon on Friday called actions of federal officers against protesters in the northwestern city of Portland "flat-out unconstitutional."
"What is happening now in Portland should concern everyone in the United States," said Jann Carson, interim executive director of ACLU Oregon. "Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street, we call it kidnapping."
Crowds protesting police brutality demonstrated Thursday for the 50th consecutive night since late May, gathering just hours after Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, who was in the city meeting with federal law enforcement officials, issued a statement calling the protesters "violent anarchists."
One of two large groups marched near the municipal police bureau's Southeast Precinct, where officers say they heard the chanting crowd threaten to burn the facility, while another large group gathered outside the federal courthouse and county jail in the city center.
Local KATU news reported that police officers "disengaged with the crowd after making arrests," although some protesters continued blocking nearby streets before dispersing.
Meanwhile, dozens of armed federal officers in camouflage uniforms arrived in the city center, firing impact munitions, tear gas and smoke to move the crowd past the federal courthouse. Federal agents then reportedly took people into custody.
Homeland Security Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli speaking on NPR's "All Things Considered" on Friday, said federal agents had used unmarked vehicles to pick up people in Portland. But he said it was done to keep officers safe and away from crowds and to move detainees to a "safe location for questioning."
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that Andrew Jankowski, a freelance journalist, was booked and later released from the Multnomah County Detention Center early Friday.
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon on Friday sued the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Marshals Service to block federal law enforcement from dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, or using physical force against journalists or legal observers.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of legal observers and local journalists and adds the federal agencies to an existing lawsuit the ACLU of Oregon filed last month against local law enforcement.
Jankowski's arrest came a day after U.S. District Judge Michael Simon extended to October 30 an injunction blocking such action by law enforcement.
Oregon officials have voiced strong opposition to President Donald Trump's deployment of Department of Homeland Security officers to Portland.
Governor Kate Brown stated Thursday that Trump was looking for a confrontation in hopes of winning political points with his base.
Brown revealed she had told Wolf to remove all federal officers from Portland's streets, saying that Wolf was "putting both Oregonians and local law enforcement officers in harm's way."
In response to Wolf's and the DHS leadership's visit on Thursday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler stated: "We're aware that they're here. We wish they weren't."
Wheeler also responded to news about the White House press secretary reportedly telling Chicago's mayor, Lori Lightfoot, to request federal help to secure the city.
"This is clearly a coordinated strategy from the White House," Wheeler stated Thursday. "It is irresponsible, and it is escalating an already tense situation. Remove your heightened troop presence now."
According to the ACLU statement, federal officers shot a protester in the head Sunday with a rubber bullet, fracturing the person's face and skull.
The rights group also condemned recent accounts of camouflaged federal agents driving around in unmarked minivans and grabbing people off the streets - seemingly at random - nowhere near the federal facilities that they were sent to protect.