DOJ deputized 400 Homeland Security officers as US marshals to respond to police protests: report

On Tuesday, The Daily Beast reported that the Trump administration deputized hundreds of officers from the Border Patrol to act as U.S. marshals during the George Floyd protests.

"When the Justice Department brought a small army of often-unidentified federal police officers to the streets of Washington, D.C. amidst protests against racist policing, it made at least some of them into temporary U.S. marshals," reported national security correspondents Spencer Ackerman and Erin Blanco. "The unusual command structure, in which Department of Homeland Security officials acted on the orders of the Justice Department, is the latest detail to emerge about the highly controversial deployment – one that officials said was coming to an end. "

"Customs and Border Protection, which documents indicated loaned 400 personnel for the protest crackdown, told The Daily Beast that the Justice Department had requested its assistance," said the report. "CBP is a component of the Department of Homeland Security. But, an official there said, 'We were deputized as Special Deputy US Marshals, so we weren’t using our DHS authority.'"

"A senior Justice Department official confirmed the deputization," said the report. "'Some DHS agents were federally deputized as marshals and served under DOJ,' the official told The Daily Beast. A letter from Attorney General Bill Barr to Mayor Muriel Bowser said the department assigned additional law enforcement responsibility to the Drug Enforcement Administration and that the U.S. Marshal’s Service 'has deputized officers from the Department of Homeland Security and from [the Bureau of Prisons] ... to assist in the enforcement of federal law.'"

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