The 1033 program is the vehicle that enables militarized responses against protestors, at the Southern border, and to advance the failed drug war.

Police do not need an 18th Century infantry sword to “protect and serve” communities. Nor do they need Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAPs), grenade launchers, or other weapons of war. Despite the dangerous nature of these weapons, local police departments continue to have access to them, free of charge, through the Department of Defense 1033 progra m. As we face a past due reckoning over our nation’s policing practices, it is time our leaders take the steps necessary to prevent these weapons of war from being used on the nation’s people, protestors, and Black and Brown communities.
 
Last week, the Senate decided to limit reforms to the 1033 program to just bayonets, tanks, weaponized drones, and some grenades. “Modest” would be a charitable way to describe the amendment to the defense authorization bill offered by Senate Armed Services Chairman Sen. Jim Inhofe. Weaponized vehicles and armed drones were never transferred under 1033, and most grenades can still be secured through the program, so that leaves bayonets as the most significant reform in this package.
 
The House could have taken up amendments to end or rein in 1033 last week with proposals from Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Hank Johnson. Instead they skipped the opportunity for real reform by passing on those amendments. The Senate voted down a more meaningful 1033 amendment from Sen. Brian Schatz. Despite passing Rep. Johnson’s Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act last month with the Justice in Policing Act, it seems Congress caved to pressure from the law enforcement lobby to leave 1033 reforms out of the must-pass defense bill.
 
With the administration maintaining militarized federal agents in Portland , and following their violent attack on protesters in Lafayette Square, Congress should take every oversight and legislative action available to stop the Trump-Barr "law and order" roadshow. This administration has followed those vile attacks with promises to "surge" federal law enforcement in Kansas City , Chicago , Albuquerque , Philadelphia , Cleveland , Detroit , Milwaukee , Baltimore , and Oakland . We can also expect to see the administration's response in Portland replicated in Seattle .
 
If this dispatch of federal agents throughout the country looks anything like Portland, this means more unidentifiable federal agents in camouflage, using tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper balls in their war against protestors. As federal agents bring their warrior mentality to tackle "violent crime" through Operation Legend and Operation Relentless Pursuit , it is essentially old fashioned over-policing, with its trademark profiling and excessive force.
 
The federal government has opened up its war chest to federal, state, and local law enforcement since 1990, transferring $7.4 billion dollars of military weapons and equipment to date. While some limited reforms that provided transparency were achieved under the Obama administration and through defense authorization bills in more recent years, 1033 has continued to put military weapons in the hands of law enforcement since the program first came under scrutiny during the protests that followed Michael Brown’s death in 2014, to the present day protests that followed George Floyd’s death.
 
The 1033 program is the vehicle that enables militarized responses against protestors, at the Southern border , and to advance the failed drug war. The program instigates the "surge" of various federal law enforcement that have been deputized to “lay down the law" in Portland and cities throughout the country. It is beyond time to end the 1033 program and the wave of brutality, racialized policing, and curtailing of civil liberties that it leaves in its wake.

Even in the midst of the hellish vortex of awful news that is our lives now, this week was a stand out. On Wednesday, President Trump announced he will send more than 30 federal agents to Albuquerque as part of Operation Legend, an initiative whose purpose is ostensibly to aid local law enforcement in “fighting violent crime.” While on the surface, this deployment might seem innocuous — even desirable to those worried about crime in our city —  this move should deeply trouble us all.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration’s acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security deployed a similar melange of militarized federal police to Portland, OR, where protests against police brutality and systemic racism have been ongoing since white Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin crushed the life out of George Floyd, a Black man, by kneeling on his neck for more than eight minutes. These federal forces, comprised of heavily armed paramilitary units in full battle dress from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marshall’s Service, and other federal agencies, have terrorized the predominantly peaceful protesters in Portland with beatings, heavy deployment of tear gas, rubber bullets, and even Pinochet style abductions of civilians off the street using unmarked rental vans.

It seems clear that the president would like nothing more than to use our community as the backdrop for another one of his campaign ads...

You might be asking yourself, “What the hell is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection SWAT unit even doing hundreds of miles from the nearest land border doing crowd control in the center of a major American city?" The legal justification for the deployment of federal paramilitary police to a city where they aren’t wanted or needed is a textbook example of the dangerous powers accrued to the post-9/11 security state. Under the vast DHS umbrella is the Federal Protective Service (FPS), an agency dedicated to the protection and security of federal buildings throughout the country. Claiming that the federal courthouse in downtown Portland was under attack by the protesters, DHS used its authority to attach units from other agencies under its umbrella  to form a de facto secret police force unaccountable to any elected official aside from the president.

President Trump appears to be so pleased with the resulting images of his federal shock troops brutalizing protesters that he threatened to deploy similar task forces to other cities. This week he made good on that threat, announcing deployments to Chicago and Albuquerque — both cities, like Portland, led by Democrat politicians with a history of refusing to cooperate with his draconian civil immigration enforcement efforts.

The legal justification for the deployment of federal paramilitary police to a city where they aren’t wanted or needed is a textbook example of the dangerous powers accrued to the post-9/11 security state.

Standing by his side when the announcement was made was Bernalillo County Sheriff Manny Gonzales. It’s of little surprise that Sheriff Gonzales is in favor of sending unmarked federal forces to our city. This is the same sheriff that has steadfastly stood in the way of reform, refused to equip deputies with body cameras, and resisted all forms of accountability for his department for years. His decision to align himself with Trump is not about public safety; it’s a continuation of the same reckless behavior he has demonstrated throughout his tenure as sheriff. Indeed, his media stunt with the president came one year to the day after three of his deputies shot 28-year-old Elisha Lucero 21 times, which resulted in a lawsuit costing county taxpayers 4 million dollars. In response to his dangerous and self-serving actions, the ACLU of New Mexico, along with New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich, have demanded his resignation.

All of us should be very concerned about the ramifications of this deployment. It seems clear that the president would like nothing more than to use our community as the backdrop for another one of his campaign ads to further the narrative that cities led by Democrats are rioting out of control and only he can restore law and order. There are plenty of federal buildings in Albuquerque that they could use as an excuse to don battle fatigues and start abducting people from unmarked vans. As we plan future protests in our city, we should take care to avoid physical confrontation with these federal forces where we can in order to avoid playing into Trump’s game.

Our colleagues at the ACLU of Oregon are already in the midst of suing federal agents to stop them from arresting and brutalizing reporters and legal observers in Portland. Make no mistake: if they try the same kind of unconstitutional brutality in our community, we will bring the full power of the ACLU of New Mexico to stop them. We must, however, realize that these are short term solutions to a long term problem. These kinds of rights violations by federal forces are facilitated by the unchecked powers created by the Homeland Security Act, Patriot Act, and other relics of the post-9/11 security state.

When Trump leaves office, we must rededicate ourselves to dismantling the monstrous security state we built during the paroxysms of fear that gripped our nation following the terrorist attacks of 2001. The seeds we planted at the beginning of this century have borne dangerous fruit, and the laws they said were to protect us have left us bloodied in our own streets.