New Letter Urges Oregon Governor, Legal professional Basic, District Attorneys, and the Mayor and Police Chief of Portland to Launch Felony Investigations into Illegal Assaults, Detentions, and Political Retaliation by Federal Brokers In opposition to Oregon Residents
PORTLAND, OR — Free Speech For Individuals, a nationwide nonpartisan authorized advocacy group, at present submitted a letter urging Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, Legal professional Basic Dan Rayfield, the Multnomah County District Legal professional Nathan Vasquez, Mayor Keith Wilson and Police Chief Bob Day to open legal investigations into the illegal actions of federal brokers working in Portland, Oregon and all through the state.
The submission particulars a constant sample of legal exercise by federal brokers throughout Oregon since June 2025, together with illegal detentions, violent assaults, kidnappings, and racially motivated focusing on of communities of colour, as a part of the Trump Administration’s immigration operations. Since late September 2025, Trump has additionally focused peaceable protestors in Portland, claiming that their First Modification-protected exercise justifies each the military-style deployment of federal brokers and the precise deployment of the army. Federal brokers have assaulted, detained, and intimidated residents who train their proper to protest.
Free Speech For Individuals’s letter alleges that these acts had been a part of a coordinated legal conspiracy directed by President Donald Trump and senior administration officers, supposed to not implement federal regulation however to punish and terrorize immigrants and political opponents.
“Federal brokers in Portland have been documented assaulting and detaining peaceable protestors,” stated Courtney Hostetler, Authorized Director for Free Speech For Individuals. “These brokers are charged solely with defending a single constructing from property injury. There is no such thing as a official purpose for them to be interacting with a lot of the protestors, and positively no official purpose for them to be beating them.”
Whereas the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts had been purportedly geared toward apprehending gang-affiliated noncitizens, publicly out there proof signifies many residents being detained and deported don’t have any legal report. Equally, though Trump and his subordinates describe Portland as a “warfare zone,” it’s not. Trump is finishing up a military-style operation to intimidate Portland’s residents into silence.
Federal brokers engaged in a sequence of violent and illegal actions, together with:
Detaining people, together with minors, with out trigger;
Utilizing extreme pressure in opposition to residents and residents in the midst of immigration arrests;
In a number of circumstances, arresting and detaining the incorrect particular person for months;
Utilizing chemical brokers with such frequency a college was pressured to shut;
Assaulting and detaining a number of protestors for exercising their First Modification rights;
Pointing firearms at ambulance drivers and denying an injured protestor medical care.
The letter outlines quite a few violations of Oregon legal regulation, together with assault, harassment, menacing, illegal use of a weapon, recklessly endangering one other individual, disorderly conduct, coercion, kidnapping, legal mistreatment, in addition to potential hate crimes and civil rights violations. It highlights that Supremacy Clause immunity doesn’t shield federal brokers who act outdoors lawful authority or have interaction in conduct they know to be illegal. The letter additionally highlights that Trump himself can’t declare immunity for these illegal actions since they don’t qualify as official acts.
“Committing crimes will not be a part of a federal agent’s job duties,” stated Ben Clements, Chairman and Senior Authorized Advisor at Free Speech For Individuals. “When the president or his subordinates order federal brokers to commit crimes in Oregon to terrorize their political enemies, state and native prosecutors have a duty to guard Oregon residents and implement state legal regulation.”
Free Speech For Individuals emphasizes that whereas federal prosecutors have been compromised by the administration’s personal misconduct, state and native authorities retain impartial jurisdiction to analyze and prosecute crimes dedicated inside their borders.
“There’s a huge disconnect between federal officers’ narrative and the truth on the bottom in Portland,” stated Ben Horton, Counsel at Free Speech For Individuals. “Oregon can’t depend on an administration that’s actively encouraging its brokers to interrupt the regulation to carry its brokers accountable. It should act to guard its residents.”
Learn the letter to state and native prosecutors in Oregon right here.
