Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told President Trump on Monday that sending federal agents to the city to quell violent crime “would spell disaster.”
“What we do not need, and what will certainly make our community less safe is secret, federal agents deployed to Chicago,” the mayor told the president in a letter. “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.”
The president on Monday praised the job of federal agents cracking down on violent protesters in Portland, Oregon. He said he plans to send more federal agents to cities including Chicago, New York and Baltimore to address a rise in shootings and other violence.
Referring to reports that the president will send 175 federal law-enforcement officers to Chicago, the mayor objected to “secret federal agents who do not know Chicago [and] are unfamiliar with the unique circumstances of our neighborhoods.”
In the letter obtained by the CBS affiliate in Chicago, she said the federal forces “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.”
Citing the actions of federal agents in Portland, Ms. Lightfoot told reporters, “We don’t need federal agents, without any insignia, taking people off the street and holding them, I think, unlawfully.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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