Report: Trump Sending More Federal Agents to Portland

President Donald Trump is sending additional federal agents to Portland as riots in the Democrat-run city show no end in sight, according to a Monday report.

The Washington Post reports:

To strengthen federal forces arrayed around the city’s downtown courthouse, the U.S. Marshals Service decided last week to send 100 deputy U.S. Marshals to Portland, according to an internal Marshals email reviewed by The Post. The personnel began arriving Thursday night.

The Department of Homeland Security is also considering a plan to send an additional 50 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel to the city, but a final decision on the deployment has not been made, according to senior administration officials involved in the federal response.

Both the CBP and Marshals Service have yet to comment on the matter.

Over the weekend, federal agents in Portland continued to combat rioters attempting to breach the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. The city’s police said Sunday that it found a bag stuffed with loaded rifle magazines and Molotov cocktails.

Thus far, 18 people have been arrested and face federal charges in connection to riots, the Department of Justice announced Friday.

The DOJ’s announcement followed rioters attempting to barricade federal agents inside the courthouse as they moved to set the building on fire.

“Around midnight rioters attempted to set the courthouse on fire, as they have done numerous times before. They also threw smoke bombs into the flames causing the interior of the courthouse to fill with smoke,” a Department of Homeland Security official wrote in an email obtained by the Washington Examiner. “In response, a team of federal officers was forced to leave the building, taking one individual into custody. When they did, a rioter threw a bag filled with hard objects at officers.”

As the protests raged over the weekend in Portland, demonstrations for police reform in other cities around the U.S. were hit with violence. Protesters set fire to an Oakland, California, courthouse; vehicles were set ablaze in Richmond, Virginia; an armed protester was shot and killed in Austin, Texas; and two people were shot and wounded in Aurora, Colorado, after a car drove through a protest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.