⁍ Six U.S. mayors on Monday called on Congress to halt President Donald Trump’s deployment of federal forces to their cities.

---

⁍ They said their presence has escalated tensions at anti-racism protests spreading across the country.

---

⁍ Federal agents dispatched to Portland, Oregon, have drawn national attention for whisking away demonstrators in unnmarked cars.

---

– The “law and order” rationale used by President Trump to justify sending in federal agents to deal with anti-racism protests is coming under increasing fire. Six Democratic mayors, including those in Portland, Seattle, Kansas City, Missouri, and Washington, DC, have called on Congress to pass legislation to “make clear that these actions are unlawful and repugnant,” reports Reuters. Homeland Security has said the agents are there to protect government property from “violent anarchists” in the wake of protests in cities including Minneapolis and Chicago. The mayors say the presence of federal agents has exacerbated tensions and given Trump the “images he wants to justify sending federal agents into US cities,” the Los Angeles Times reports. In a letter to the leaders of both parties, the mayors call on Congress to “make clear that these actions are unlawful and repugnant.” In recent days, federal agents have been accused of beating activists and the mayor of Portland, Oregon, while driving away protesters in unnmarked cars. In a tweet Monday, the US Marshals Service said it was sending 100 personnel to Oregon to “either relieve or supplement officers already in the state for the federal agency’s ‘civil unrest mission.'”