DHS Will Not Leave Portland Even Though Leftist Leaders Want Them Out

By Jeremy Frankel Posted: July 17, 2020

Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf told Fox News on Thursday that even though Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Oregon Governor Kate Brown, both far-Left Democrats, refused federal help in securing the city from 47 days straight of violent rioting, the feds will not leave.

Wolf told Fox News’ Sean Hannity:

“Earlier this week I called not only the mayor but the governor. I offered DHS support to help them locally address the situation that’s going on in Portland and their only response was, ‘Please pack up and go home.’ That is just not going to happen on my watch. So we need to make sure we are supporting our law enforcement officers here and making sure that they are going to continue to protect the federal courthouse here.

“That’s our mission, we are not going to abdicate our mission, our responsibilities, however. Whatever the local leadership here is telling us, we’re going to do our job, we are going to do it professionally, but we are not going to have these violent anarchists who show up about the same time every night for a series of hours and having that federal destruction to property. It’s time we take a stand, it’s time the local leaders here publicly condemn what the violent anarchists are doing. And only then I think will police, local police, and federal police get this under control.

“What I’m asking all state and local leaders here in Portland, in Oregon, is come out specifically and publicly condemn these violent anarchists, because otherwise, you’re creating an environment, you are fostering an environment that continues to breed this type of lawlessness. We saw this back in 2018, unfortunately, here in Portland where they set siege to an ICE facility for over 28 days. So, this is the type of environment again that is fostered here. We’ve had enough of it, we’re going to continue to protect the courthouse and do our mission at the end of the day.”

It is great to hear that the Trump administration will not cave to the Left. And that should be a lesson to us all—never give them an inch.