New Letters Urge State and Local Prosecutors to Launch Criminal Investigations into Unlawful Assaults, Detentions, and Political Retaliation by Federal Agents Against Massachusetts and Oregon Residents.

BOSTON, MA (December 11, 2025) – Free Speech For People, a national nonpartisan legal advocacy organization, today submitted two major legal requests calling on state and local authorities in Massachusetts and Oregon to open criminal investigations into federal agents involved in unlawful assaults, detentions, kidnappings, and politically motivated retaliation against state residents.

The letters, sent to top officials in both states, including Attorneys General, District Attorneys, and municipal leaders, detail a pattern of criminal conduct by federal agents operating under the Trump Administration’s “Patriot” initiatives and related deployments. The conduct spans from May 2025 in Massachusetts and June 2025 in Oregon, continuing through the fall, and includes both immigration-focused actions and violent crackdowns on peaceful protestors.

Free Speech For People’s letter alleges that these acts were part of a coordinated criminal conspiracy directed by President Donald Trump and senior administration officials, intended not to enforce federal law but to punish and terrorize immigrants and political opponents.

Across Massachusetts and Oregon, federal agents allegedly engaged in repeated and unlawful acts, including:

• Detaining individuals, including minors, without cause;
• Using excessive force against residents and citizens;
• Raiding homes or businesses without warrants or probable cause;
• Kidnapping and racially targeting communities of color;
• Deporting residents without due process;
• Assaulting and detaining peaceful protestors;
• Using chemical agents in Portland at such frequency that a local school was forced to close;
• In some cases, arresting and detaining the wrong individuals for months;
• Obstructing medical care for injured residents.

“Federal agents are not enforcing the law, they are punishing President Trump’s perceived political enemies,” said Courtney Hostetler, Legal Director for Free Speech For People. “The President is using federal agents as his private army to detain and kidnap residents and terrorize communities. State and local officials must protect their state’s residents.”

Massachusetts: Calls for Criminal Investigations Across Four Counties

In Massachusetts, Free Speech For People urged Attorney General Andrea Campbell and the District Attorneys of Suffolk, Middlesex, Essex, and Worcester Counties to investigate a series of violent assaults, unlawful detentions, intimidation, and racially motivated targeting.

Announced by the Department of Homeland Security in May and September, 2025, “Patriot 1.0” and “Patriot 2.0” were purportedly aimed at apprehending gang-affiliated noncitizens. Yet public evidence, including Trump’s own remarks, shows that the operation’s true intent was to “brutalize, terrorize, and intimidate” residents of Massachusetts.

“Committing crimes is not part of a federal agent’s job duties,” said Ben Clements, Chairman and Senior Legal Advisor at Free Speech For People. “When the President or his subordinates order federal law enforcement to commit crimes in Massachusetts, the Constitution does not stand in the way of enforcing state criminal law.”

In Oregon, Free Speech For People urged Governor Tina Kotek, Attorney General Dan Rayfield, Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez, as well as Mayor Keith Wilson and Police Chief Bob Day, to launch criminal investigations into federal agents operating in Portland and throughout the state.

Federal forces in Oregon have been documented violently confronting peaceful protestors, deploying chemical agents, and detaining residents without cause, all while Trump and senior officials falsely characterized Portland as a “war zone.”

“There is no legitimate reason for federal agents to be beating peaceful protestors,” said Hostetler. “Their only assigned jurisdiction is protecting a single building. Instead, they are assaulting residents.”

“Committing crimes is not part of a federal agent’s job duties,” said Ben Clements, Chairman and Senior Legal Advisor at Free Speech For People. “When the president or his subordinates order federal agents to commit crimes in any state to terrorize their political enemies, state and local prosecutors have a responsibility to protect residents and enforce state criminal law.”

Free Speech For People emphasizes that while federal prosecutors have been compromised by the administration’s own misconduct, state and local authorities retain independent jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes committed within their borders.

“There is a vast disconnect between federal officials’ narrative and the reality on the ground,” said Ben Horton, Counsel at Free Speech For People.“States cannot rely on an administration that encourages its agents to break the law, Massachusetts and Oregon must act to protect their residents.”

Read press coverage of the Oregon letters in the Oregonian and on local CBS affiliates.

Read press coverage of the Massachusetts letters in the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Eagle Tribune. 

Read the letter to state and local prosecutors in Massachusetts here. 

Read the letter to state and local prosecutors in Oregon here.