A national organization on Tuesday joined the call demanding Oregon leaders investigate federal agents accused of criminal behavior in Portland and throughout the state.
In a letter, national legal advocacy group Free Speech For People urged Portland and Oregon leaders including Attorney General Dan Rayfield and Portland police Chief Bob Day to launch criminal investigations into federal agents who have “repeatedly committed criminal acts that are not immunized by federal law.”
Rayfield and Portland area district attorneys have already put the federal government on notice that they will investigate and prosecute any federal agents in the state who use force “beyond the reasonable scope of their duties.”
Free Speech For People listed various examples of potentially criminal behavior including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ laying on top of a man for two minutes during a Portland arrest, despite the man’s warnings that he couldn’t breathe. They also cited a case in Gresham where agents stormed into an apartment with rifles drawn and detained the wrong men, one of whom was later left stranded in Mississippi.
“Committing crimes is not part of a federal agent’s job duties,” Ben Clements, chairman and senior legal advisor at Free Speech For People, based in Massachusetts, said in a statement. “When the president or his subordinates order federal agents to commit crimes in Oregon to terrorize their political enemies, state and local prosecutors have a responsibility to protect Oregon residents and enforce state criminal law.”
In their own letter to federal officials last month, Oregon leaders said that federal agents have used munitions that struck local police, fired tear gas against non-violent protesters outside the ICE office in Portland and pointed guns at teenagers at a Dutch Bros Coffee drive-thru in Hillsboro.
Asked to respond to the Free Speech For People demands, Rayfield pointed to his earlier pledge that the Oregon Department of Justice would review federal use of force and, when appropriate, forward cases to local prosecutors.
“No government agency is above the law,” Gov. Tina Kotek said in a social media video in late November. “Oregon is monitoring all ICE actions closely. We will investigate misconduct and if a federal officer breaks Oregon law, they will be held accountable.”
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