From the ACLU, this is At Liberty, a podcast about the civil rights and civil liberties

questions of our time. I'm Molly Kaplan, your host for this episode.

In the last month, we've seen the Trump administration deploy federal law enforcement officers

to Portland, Oregon. Those agents have been documented

using sharpshooters to maim protesters, sweeping people away in unmarked cars, and attacking

journalists, legal observers, and medics with tear gas. The federal government just agreed to

withdraw most of the federal presence there, but simultaneously announced they plan to send

agents to other cities, including Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee, to quote, fight violent

crime. Critics, including the ACLU, are concerned about how this presence encroaches on fundamental

civil rights and are calling for an end to federal abuses. Joining us to discuss the surge of federal law

enforcement in the U.S. is Hina Shamsi, the director of the ACLU's National Security Project.

Hina, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me, Molly. I want to start from the beginning.

There's a perception, I think, that the deployment of federal agents started

with Portland, but that's actually not the case. I'm wondering if you can sort of walk us through

where and when we trace the beginning of this surge. Sure. So I think it's really important to

recognize that this is part of a longstanding pattern of over criminalization and over

prosecution of black communities, black led movements protesting against police brutality, joined by allies to protest against justice and

systemic racism. The Trump administration responded with hostility, and we started seeing

escalating federal deployment, which is layered on top of the

injustices of local police that often are what are being protested.

You know, we saw that in D.C.

Where there was military involvement as well.

...