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Oregon clashes with Trump over 'secret police' abducting citizens

DEMONSTRATORS against US President Donald Trump’s deployment of camouflaged federal agents to crack down on Black Lives Matter protests were driven away from the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, on Monday night with flash-bang grenades.

State and local authorities have filed a lawsuit against the president’s action in sending out the unidentified enforcers without local consent.

State attorney-general Ellen Rosenblum has submitted to the court that masked federal officers are arresting people on the street with “no probable cause” and whisking them away in unmarked cars.

But Mr Trump says he will extend the programme to other cities. “We’re going to have more federal law enforcement, I can tell you,” he declared on Monday.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown said: “We cannot have secret police abducting people in unmarked vehicles. I can’t believe I have to say that to the president of the United States.”

But the Department of Homeland Security tweeted that “Portland is rife with violent anarchists assaulting federal officers and federal buildings ... these are federal crimes.”

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