Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has signed a letter, along with a dozen other large city leaders, calling on President Donald Trump to refrain from deploying federal agents to quell protests.
Last week, Trump sent at least 100 border patrol agents to Portland to make arrests. Videos posted on social media show unidentified agents taking demonstrators into custody in unmarked vehicles.
The letter, which is undated and addressed to U.S. Attorney General William Barr and acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, notes that Trump has also threatened to send agents into Seattle, Chicago and Washington D.C.
“The unilateral deployment of these forces into American cities is unprecedented and violates fundamental constitutional protections and tenets of federalism,” the letter states.
It also says that the killing of George Floyd in May by a white Minneapolis police officer ignited a national uprising and reckoning.
“Millions have joined protests and exercised their constitutional rights,” it says. “The majority of the protests have been peaceful and aimed at improving our communities.”
On Monday, Bottoms told MSNBC’s Joy Reid that “Donald Trump and his minions are the architects of chaos.”
Bottoms, along with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, pledged to fight the deployment of federal troops with every resource at their disposal.
In addition to Bottoms, the mayors of Kansas City, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Washington D.C., Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Jose, Tucson and Portland signed the letter.
All are Democrats.
In recent weeks, Bottoms has often been mentioned as being seriously vetted as a potential running mate for Joe Biden, the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti serves on Biden’s VP vetting committee.
About the Author
