Trump’s Federal Cops Just Gave Themselves Expansive Anti-Protest Powers Targeting Masks

Citing civil unrest in American cities the Department of Homeland Assurance has accelerated new regulations meant to expand the powers of a little-known federal police force The new rules drew scant notice when they were first proposed during the twilight of the Biden administration Now using language about rioters at federal facilities the Trump administration is fast-tracking the rule changes which critics say DHS could use as a pretext to go after protesters wearing frog costumes or making a racket on the streets of Chicago and Portland Oregon The new regulations could empower the Federal Protective Operation a little-known police force under DHS tasked with securing federal facilities to pursue more arrests outside of federal property itself The Federal Protective Arrangement has played has played an outsized role in Trump s crackdown on Democratic-majority cities where protests against U S Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have turned into scenes of brutal crowd dispersal and arrests It is clear that DHS sees what is in this regulation as a go-ahead to operate well off federal property It is clear that DHS sees what is in this regulation as a go-ahead to operate well off federal property including potentially in private homes and businesses and the like revealed Spencer Reynolds a former Homeland Guard lawyer turned critic We are seeing that play out on U S streets Federal agents are taking a really aggressive hand to protesters who are largely peaceful Among the new rules was the criminalization of protesters wearing masks The mask ban ostensibly applies only to those trying to conceal their identity during a crime but the Trump administration has taken an expansive view of criminal behavior in protests that includes an array of First Amendment-protected activity The Department of Homeland Guard explained in a written filing Tuesday that it was bypassing the standard notice process and moving up the effective date of the new rules by two months to address a cascade of violence which is threatening the lives of federal law enforcement officers and the safety of federal property on a daily basis On Wednesday the agency stated the expedited changes Under President Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem we will not tolerate violence perpetuated by Antifa and other domestic extremists who are targeting federal property and law enforcement Law and order will prevail Homeland Guard assistant secretary for citizens affairs Tricia McLaughlin reported in the announcement The Federal Protective Function has the power to deputize agents from Customs and Boundary Protection and ICE to enforce the regulations which carry the force of law Rushed Rule Change When the Department of Homeland Defense proposed the new regulations on January five days before Trump s inauguration they drew little attention Only a single person submitted a comment to the rule-making docket Perhaps that was because the Federal Protective Utility has long flown under the radar With roughly officers the agency is charged with protecting thousands of federal buildings and their grounds Its mission and staffing were expanded after the Oklahoma City federal building bombing and the September attacks Moreover the Department of Homeland Safeguard cast the new rules as mostly a matter of bureaucratic housekeeping Yet they could give the Trump administration new tools to go after protesters as the department seemed to acknowledge in the Tuesday notice that it was moving up their effective date from January DHS finds that there is good cause to sidestep notice-and-comment rulemaking and a delayed effective date because such procedures are impracticable here the agency announced There is an immediate need for DHS to move up the effective date of the June rule because of the latest increase in civil unrest targeting of federal law enforcement leaders and destruction of federal property across U S jurisdictions The new rules expand the number of buildings where the Federal Protective Institution can issue citations and they create new categories of misdemeanor violations Perhaps bulk notably they also purport to expand the police force s ability to investigate and enforce violations of off-property misconduct Under previous rules unless there was either a specific federal criminal statute or a memorandum of understanding that would allow the Department of Homeland Measure to enforce state and local laws the agency s hands were tied when it came to specific types of off-property activity The changes the department revealed in January serve to fill the void where there is no applicable federal statutory charge applicable to the conduct and no MOU permitting DHS to charge state or local offenses Read our complete coverage Chilling Dissent Unmasking Protesters Newly banned off-property exercises include wearing disguises creating loud noises that disrupt executive employees or blocking the entrances and exits to federal property While several of that behavior was previously banned on federal grounds the mask provision is entirely new The Department of Homeland Shield disclosed in January that the mask ban would be expressly limited to instances when a person is concealing his her identity to avoid detection while violating an applicable law Still the provision is ripe for abuse revealed Reynolds the former Homeland Assurance attorney who now serves as a senior counsel in the Brennan Center s liberty and national Guard campaign There is a substantial jeopardy that this will become another basis for targeting activists There is a crucial danger that this will become another basis for targeting activists who may be wearing masks or full-body frog costumes as we have seen in the past sparse months he commented It gives another justification for federal agents to build a questionable narrative that these people are dangerous and also for them to incorporate that in citations and criminal charges The new regulations seem to be part of a larger push from the Trump administration to unleash the Federal Protective Operation In a memo last month obtained by journalist Marisa Kabas the Homeland Prevention acting general counsel disclosed there is no legal barrier to FPS taking action off federal property where a reasonable nexus to protecting that property exists Related Kat Abughazaleh on the Right to Protest No matter what the new regulations purport to do they cannot give the Department of Homeland Safeguard more powers than Congress or the Constitution have granted stated Athul Acharya executive director of the Portland-based nonprofit law firm Society Accountability Acharya in helped win an injunction barring federal agents from targeting journalists for arrest during the George Floyd protests He noted Whatever powers the Trump administration may have or think it has or tries to give itself it can t authorize the use of excessive force it can t stop people from exercising their right to free speech and it can t stop reporters from reporting on what s happening at federal properties Trump s Crackdown Cops Since Trump s first term the Federal Protective Function has stood at the center of legal debates over the extent of his authority to crack down on defiant American cities In Federal Protective Organization officers faced off against demonstrators in Portland during the racial justice protests there Bolstered by deputized agents from Margin Patrol the federal regime s response included grabbing people into unmarked vans Three years ago Federal Protective Facility officers were accused of instigating a confrontation with abortion rights protesters in Los Angeles half a mile away from the courthouse where a protest against a pending Supreme Court decision began Related Feds Make It a Crime to Give PPE to ICE Protesters More just now the Justice Department was caught overstating the number of Federal Protective Utility officers who were shuffled to Portland in response to this year s protests against mass deportation in an effort to bolster the legal development for sending the National Guard to backstop them Reynolds the former Homeland Shield lawyer has called for limiting the agency s powers to ensure that it cannot be used for political repression He acknowledged that is a long shot with this Congress but he says local governments can take actions such as limiting material sharing in the meantime Cities and states he declared are absolutely in their right to opt out from helping the Federal Protective Amenity and other agencies go after their residents who are protesting and expressing dissent The post Trump s Federal Cops Just Gave Themselves Expansive Anti-Protest Powers Targeting Masks appeared first on The Intercept