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NLG Portland Chapter Statement on Federal Troops in Portland
For the past two months, after the police killing of George Floyd, tens of thousands of Portland residents have continued to engage in daily demonstrations against police violence and in support of the movement for Black lives. In response, the Portland Police and Multnomah County Sheriffs have used unnecessary and unlawful violence against them, including tear gas, OC spray, flash bang grenades, and other so-called "less than lethal" weapons to dispel protestors, enforcing a curfew in the early days and after the curfew was lifted, simply using force to clear the streets.
PORTLAND, Oregon
For the past two months, after the police killing of George Floyd, tens of thousands of Portland residents have continued to engage in daily demonstrations against police violence and in support of the movement for Black lives. In response, the Portland Police and Multnomah County Sheriffs have used unnecessary and unlawful violence against them, including tear gas, OC spray, flash bang grenades, and other so-called "less than lethal" weapons to dispel protestors, enforcing a curfew in the early days and after the curfew was lifted, simply using force to clear the streets. The Portland Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG-PDX) has had Legal Observers in the streets every day and night who, along with members of the press, have also been the subject of police violence. NLG-PDX condemns the federal government and its use of Border Control and U.S. Marshals in their effort to act as anti-protest shock troops in our city. We call on the federal government, the City of Portland, and the State of Oregon to immediately expel federal law enforcement from Portland, and for all charges related to arrests by those forces to be immediately and summarily dropped.
Members of NLG-PDX continue to monitor law enforcement conduct on the ground as Legal Observers, provide jail and court support to demonstrators who have been arrested, provide Know Your Rights training to community members, and have connected protesters, journalists, and movement organizations with criminal and civil litigation. On behalf of local Black-led organization Don't Shoot Portland, protesters, and members of the press, the NLG-PDX has filed two legal actions against local law enforcement, resulting in a court-ordered injunction against the indiscriminate use of tear gas and other weapons against demonstrators engaging in passive resistance. In addition, the protests and community-led campaigns have resulted in the first signs of long overdue action by the Portland City Council to begin the process of defunding the police by pulling police out of schools and off public transit, eliminating a police task force aimed primarily at Black communities, and taking $15 million from the police budget (far short of the $50 million demanded by community members) and allocating some of those funds for nonpunitive support for unhoused people.
As the protests continued, President Donald Trump saw an opportunity to distract from his failures with the COVID-19 pandemic and burnish his credentials as a so-called "law and order president." On the 4th of July, President Trump deployed federal law enforcement officers to Portland to "quell" the demonstrations. These federal officers--apparently including U.S. Marshals and members of BORTAC, a tactical unit within Border Patrol--have routinely subjected demonstrators to unconscionable violence. They have broken protesters' bones with baton strikes and tackles, shot at least one protester in the head with so-called "less lethal" munitions, and indiscriminately launched huge amounts of tear gas and other chemical agents at crowds of demonstrators, all without warning. These officers do not wear name badges; they are unidentifiable and unaccountable as they terrorize Portlanders on a nightly basis. Recently, unidentified agents in military camouflage pulled random protesters into unmarked vans, taking them into custody to search their persons and belongings. To date, residents and local officials have not received an explanation or reason why federal agents are abducting people off our streets. When Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf visited the city this week to applaud the actions of this federal occupying force, he did not meet with the Mayor or the Chief of Police but did meet with the defiant head of Portland Police union. Alarmingly, on Monday Trump applauded the disturbing actions of federal troops in Portland saying they have done a "fantastic job," and has signaled that similar responses to protests may be replicated in other U.S. cities.
NLG-PDX continues to stand in solidarity with activists fighting for Black liberation. We highlight the cruel irony that those protesting police brutality are met with police brutality, and we condemn the conduct of federal and local law enforcement officers who continue to escalate tactics and punish protesters in violation of their First and Fourth Amendment rights. We echo activists' demands that federal law enforcement leave our city, and support our community's continued resistance against the encroachment of a police state.
NOTE: The NLG National Office has launched a Federal Defense Hotline for activists and lawyers to report incidents of federal repression, such as FBI "door-knocks" at activists' homes, grand jury investigations and subpoenas, and any other federal law enforcement efforts to undermine civil rights, including federal grab squads and the use of unidentified federal agents to police protests. The line is live at: 212-679-2811.
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) works to promote human rights and the rights of ecosystems over property interests. It was founded in 1937 as the first national, racially-integrated bar association in the U.S.
(212) 679-5100LATEST NEWS
Trump Inflation Hit Average US Family With $1,625 in Higher Costs Last Year: Report
"While the president pledged that he would end inflation and now claims that prices are down, the data reflects what families are experiencing every day: higher costs that make it harder to make ends meet.”
Jan 20, 2026
A congressional report published Tuesday further undercut US President Donald Trump's claim that he has defeated inflation, estimating that the average American family paid $1,625 in higher costs last year as the Republican president's tariffs and broader policy agenda drove up prices across the nation's economy.
The new analysis by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) found that the $1,625 total includes $323 more for housing expenses and $241 more for transportation costs. In some states—including Alaska, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York—the average family paid more than $2,000 in higher costs in 2025 as prices for groceries, housing, and other necessities continued to rise under Trump's leadership.
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the ranking member of the JEC, said in a statement that "President Trump has imposed reckless tariffs, driven up healthcare costs, and created economic uncertainty. And because of these choices that he made, Americans are paying over $1,600 more than when he came into office."
“While the president pledged that he would end inflation and now claims that prices are down," Hassan added, "the data reflects what families are experiencing every day: higher costs that make it harder to make ends meet.”
The JEC report was released just weeks after Trump falsely proclaimed in a year-end address to the nation that "inflation is stopped" and "prices are down." CNN fact checker Daniel Dale noted that inflation data released on the morning of Trump's December 17 speech showed that "average consumer prices were 2.7% higher in December than they were a year prior and 0.3% higher than they were in November."
Trump also used his primetime speech to hail the supposed successes of his tariff regime. But a report released Monday showed that US consumers and businesses, not foreign exporters, are shouldering nearly all of the burden of the White House's import taxes.
"Despite President Trump’s claims that 2025 was the 'greatest first year in history' for an American president, Americans’ attitudes about their economic security and the latest economic data say otherwise," experts at the Center for American Progress wrote Tuesday. "With increased costs of everyday items due to tariffs and fewer job opportunities, families are feeling the direct impacts of the Trump administration’s harmful economic policies."
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Report Details Trump's Rapid Escalation Toward Authoritarianism in First Year of Second Term
“We are all witness to a dangerous trajectory under President Trump that has already led to a human rights emergency,” said the leader of Amnesty International USA.
Jan 20, 2026
Exactly a year into President Donald Trump's second term in office, a leading human rights group on Tuesday released a report cataloging the administration's rapid escalation of authoritarian practices—and outlining the steps that can and must be taken in the US to halt Trump's attacks on immigrants and refugees, the press, protesters, and his political opponents.
Amnesty International's report, titled Ringing the Alarm Bells: Rising Authoritarian Practices and Erosion of Human Rights in the United States, details 12 interlocking areas in which the president is "cracking the pillars of a free society."
The group has documented human rights abuses and the patterns followed by authoritarian regimes around the world and has found that while the rise of autocratic leaders can happen within numerous contexts, the similarities shared by authoritarian escalations include the consolidation of government power, the control of information, the discrediting of critics, the punishment of dissent, the closure of civic space, and the weakening of mechanisms that ensure accountability.
Those patterns have all been documented in the US since January 20, 2025, when Trump took office for a second time.
“We are all witness to a dangerous trajectory under President Trump that has already led to a human rights emergency,” said Paul O’Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “By shredding norms and concentrating power, the administration is trying to make it impossible for anyone to hold them accountable."
The 12 areas in which Trump is eroding human rights and accelerating toward authoritarianism, according to Amnesty, include:
- Targeting freedom of the press;
- Targeting freedom of expression and assembly;
- Targeting political opponents and critics;
- Targeting judges, lawyers, and the legal system;
- Undermining due process;
- Attacking refugee and migrant rights;
- Scapegoating populations and rolling back non-discrimination policies;
- Using the military for domestic purposes;
- Dismantling checks on corporate accountability and anti-corruption measures;
- Increasing state surveillance; and
- Undermining international systems that protect human rights.
Amnesty emphasized that the authoritarian tactics are "mutually reinforcing," with Trump cracking down on protesters early in his term—targeting foreign-born students who had organized protests against Israel's US-backed assault on Gaza and revoking thousands of student visas, hundreds of which were revoked after the administration began monitoring foreign students' social media and accused visa holders of "support for terrorism" under a broad federal statute.
In recent months, Trump's attacks on refugees and immigrants have gone hand in hand with his militarization of law enforcement and targeting of First Amendment rights.
The president has deployed the National Guard and sent thousands of armed, masked federal agents into communities including Chicago; Los Angeles, Portland, and Minneapolis; in the latter city, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed a woman who had come out to help protect immigrants in her neighborhood earlier this month.
Masked agents have "seized migrants, asylum seekers, and US citizens" as they have searched for people to arrest to fulfill Trump's campaign pledge to ramp up deportations.
Those who have been detained are being held in facilities like Camp Montana East in El Paso, Texas, which recently recorded its third detainee death in less than two months, and "Alligator Alcatraz" in Florida, where Amnesty last month documented treatment that amounts to torture.
The report also details Trump's attacks on the press, with the president hand-picking outlets that are permitted to cover the White House and barring the Associated Press from "restricted spaces" in the government building because of its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico by Trump's preferred name, the "Gulf of America." The Pentagon also demanded that journalists sign agreements waiving their First Amendment rights, resulting in reporters walking out and turning in their press badges, pledging to continue covering the Department of Defense without the administration's approval.
A White House official also aggressively attacked a journalist last week for asking about an ICE agent's killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, accusing him of being a "left-wing activist" who was posing as a reporter when he did not accept the administration's claims that the agent had shot Good in self defense.
The report also details the Department of Justice's efforts to investigate groups it deems "domestic terrorist" organizations" while moving toward classifying the filming of immigration arrests—a constitutional right—as domestic terrorism; Trump's weaponization of the DOJ against his political opponents including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey; his executive actions targeting law firms that represent individuals and groups that challenge the government, which resulted in some firms acquiescing; and his abandonment of due process, including through his "extraordinary" use of the Alien Enemies Act to expel hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers to an El Salvador prison known for torture.
"Trump's attacks on civic space and the rule of law and the erosion of human rights in the United States mirrors the global pattern Amnesty has seen and warned about for decades,” said O’Brien. “Importantly, our experience shows that by the time authoritarian practices are fully entrenched, the institutions meant to restrain abuses of power are already severely compromised.”
The report warns that "the Trump administration has moved swiftly—oftentimes outside the bounds of the law—to trample on rights and dangerously consolidate power," and calls on institutions to take decisive action to respond to the "alarm bells" detailed in the report.
"We know where this path leads, and we know the human cost when alarm bells go unanswered," reads the report.
Recommendations for the US Congress include:
- Strengthening guardrails against the domestic use of the military for law enforcement and prohibiting finding for "militarized protest suppression that violates human rights standards";
- Conduct oversight of discriminatory press restrictions;
- Pass legislation to develop national guidelines on respecting and facilitating the right to peaceful protest and for all law enforcement agencies to review their policies and the equipment used in the policing of demonstrations;
- Conduct oversight of immigration agencies including through "unannounced inspections of detention facilities and immigration enforcement"; and
- Decriminalize migration and establish a pathway to citizenship for people within the US.
The group also called on international leaders to continue scrutiny of human rights developments in the US, oppose US reprisals and sanctions against international courts and investigators, and mitigate humanitarian harms where US assistance is abruptly withdrawn by coordinating support for affected communities and frontline organizations.
Kerry Moscugiuri, interim chief executive of Amnesty International UK, called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "use every tool at his disposal to confront Donald Trump’s seemingly out of control anti-rights agenda."
"A year into Trump’s second term and it’s never been clearer: this is a pivotal point in world history," said Moscugiuri. "Starmer must also speak out on the US government’s support for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Failure to oppose and stop the genocide has led us all to where we are now. Silence and inaction as the global human rights architecture is dismantled is not an option. Leaders across the globe must wake up to the world they seem to be sleepwalking into—before it is too late.”
O'Brien added that "authoritarian practices only take root when they are allowed to become normalized. We cannot let that happen in the United States."
"Together," he said, "we all have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to rise to this challenging time in our history and to protect human rights.”
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Trump Declares 'There Can Be No Going Back' as Denmark Deploys More Troops to Greenland
Asked if he would try to seize Greenland by military force, Trump responded, "No comment."
Jan 20, 2026
US President Donald Trump declared Tuesday after a call with the head of NATO that "there can be no going back" on his push to seize Greenland as Denmark deployed more troops to the island, amid widespread concerns that Trump could try to take it by military force.
In an early morning post to his social media platform, Trump said he agreed to a "meeting of the various parties" in Davos, Switzerland and reiterated his view that Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, "is imperative for National and World Security."
"There can be no going back—On that, everyone agrees!" the US president wrote. "The United States of America is the most powerful Country anywhere on the Globe, by far... We are the only POWER that can ensure PEACE throughout the World—And it is done, quite simply, through STRENGTH!"
Trump later appeared to leak text messages he received from French President Emmanuel Macron, who—according to screenshots posted by the US president—wrote to Trump: "I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland."
"Let us try to build great things," one of the messages reads.
Trump also posted a screenshot of a text message purportedly from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who wrote that he is "committed to finding a way forward on Greenland."
The developments came as the head of the Royal Danish Army and a "substantial contribution" of soldiers reportedly landed in Greenland to participate in multinational military exercises known as Operation Arctic Endurance. Germany, Sweden, France, Norway, the Netherlands, and Finland have also sent troops to Greenland in recent days.
Wielding the threat of economic warfare, Trump has demanded that European nations capitulate to a deal for "the complete and total purchase of Greenland" by the US. But the American president has also declined to rule out using force to seize the mineral-rich island, which Trump donors and allies have long been eyeing greedily.
Asked Monday whether he would try to seize Greenland by force, Trump replied: "No comment."
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