By Gabriella Borter

Reuters

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has deployed more than 100 federal agents to Portland, Oregon, on a mission named “Operation Diligent Valor” to patrol government buildings as anti-racism protests flared this month, court documents show.

The documents, filed on Tuesday, helped shed light on what had been a secretive operation that involved days of violent clashes between unidentified federal law enforcement officers and anti-racist protesters outside a federal courthouse.

The operation has involved the Department of Homeland Security’s Rapid Deployment Force. It stepped up its response to “increasingly violent attacks” in the Oregon city on July 4, the day after a group of people broke into the courthouse, according to the affidavit by the Federal Protective Services (FPS) regional director, Gabriel Russell.

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