Keep. Law. Enforcement. Local.

Trump, Bill Barr, and their political appointees in Oregon want people to believe our Portland home is a war zone and that the streets are awash in fire and chaos. He uses our home as a prop, telling lie after lie to scapegoat the peaceful protests against police brutality that continue to this day.

The heart of the latest outrage, however, is over the deputization of Portland police officers as federal agents, accountable to the Trump administration and not to Portlanders.

Here's what I think: the federal deputization of these officers over the objections of local officials is unconstitutional and wrong.

There may be times when it makes sense to federalize local officers, but this should only be done with the express permission of the local officials and they should also have the right to rescind that permission at any time.

The people of Portland and our elected leaders have said clearly that this deputization is unwanted and must end.

But does the Trump administration care? Not one bit.

Which is why it's time to take action. And that's just what I'm doing with my Keep Law Enforcement Local Act.

When passed, this will bring certainty and clarify that they cannot commandeer local law enforcement for their own purposes.

This should not take legislation, but as Trump and his proclamation appointees have shown us, our institutions are not as strong as we thought and we will need to rethink and protect them when he is gone a few months from now, so we can rebuild and protect our democracy.

Stay tuned. There's a lot of work to do.

Courage.

Earl