Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot To President Trump: Sending Federal Agents Would Be Disaster

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is warning President Trump against sending federal agents to confront racial justice protesters, saying if the same tactics used in Portland, Oregon, are used in the city, it could lead to disaster.

The Trump administration is set to deploy federal agents to Chicago in the next week, following promises by President Trump to crack down on violence and rising crime in several U.S. cities. CNN reported the plan would place 150 federal agents in Chicago for 60 days, with a focus on illegal gun sales, gun violence, outstanding warrants and other unspecified crimes.

This comes about a week after federal agents were sent to Portland to protect federal buildings from the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests. Reports followed of agents in unmarked vehicles arresting protesters indiscriminately and taking them to an “undisclosed location.”

“Any other form of militarized assistance within our borders that would not be within our control or within the direct command of the Chicago Police Department would spell disaster,” Lightfoot said in a letter to Trump published by the Chicago Sun-Times. She emphasized a "clear" and "detailed operations plan" is what's needed when people's lives are involved.

"Secret, federal agents who do not know Chicago, are unfamiliar with the unique circumstances of our neighborhoods and who would operate outside the established infrastructure of local law enforcement would not be effective, regardless of the number, and worse will foment a massive wave of opposition.

"Deploying resources like we have seen in Portland does not make residents safer, particularly when gun violence plays a significant role in Chicago’s loss of life," Lightfoot said.

In a separate statement, a spokesman for Lightfoot said she "will not hesitate to take decisive action to stop this unwanted and dangerous intrusion."

Trump defended the action in Portland, saying “law and order” needs to be restored. He also repeatedly has criticized the mayors of cities where protests are taking place for letting them become “a mess.”

“We're not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore and all of these, Oakland is a mess,” Trump said Monday. “We're not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.”

House Democrats called for an investigation into what happened in Portland. The Oregon Department of Justice is suing the Department of Homeland Security over the deployment.