Police declare riot in Portland after union headquarters set on fire

Police declare riot in Portland after union headquarters set on fire

National controversy is errupting right here in our state.

The backlash continues in portland -- after the trump administration sent federal authorities there to handle the protests.

State and local officials say the presence of these federal agencies --- is doing more harm than good.

Here's andrew dymburt with the details.

After more than seven weeks of generally peaceful - but contentious protests in portland oregon - federal officials have moved in - units from the department of homeland security and other federal agencies now facing backlash over their militarized approach ((sot governor kate brown it's like pouring gasoline on a fire.)) an internal dhs memo obtained by the new york times- says many on the ground are not even properly trained.

The times reporting -- one tactical team dispatched to portland -- is normally tasked with investigating drug smuggling, not local protests.

However, a department of homeland security spokesperson telling abc news that report in the times is incorrect - and officers did receive additional training for their deployment to portland.

The state's attorney general suing a list of agencies for "overstepping their powers" claiming they're seizing citizens without probable cause, in a violation of their civil rights sot conner (protestor) four or five men came out, jump out and just start rushing//it was absolutely terrifying president trump defending his administration's actions this morning - tweeting: we are trying to help portland, not hurt it.

?telling fox news trump: if we didn't take that stand, right now you would have a problem like you, you - they were going to lose portland.

Portland's mayor says the federal presence is escalating the situation cnn sotu: mayor: their presence is actually leading to more violence and more vandalism.

It's not helping the situation at all.

They're not wanted here, we haven't asked them here in fact we want them to leave house speaker nancy pelosi and oregon representative earl blumenauer releasing a joint statement against the tactics being used by federal officers in portland writing in part: the house is committed to moving swiftly to curb these egregious abuses of power immediately."

Stand-up close oregon senator jeff merkley says when he gets back here to washington dc next week - he will introduce an amendment to the defense bill in an effort to limit the trump administration's power to deploy federal agents.

Andrew dymburt, abc news washington, dc