Homeland Security is setting up a new task force to prepare to surge personnel to locations where riots threaten statues, monuments or other historic landmarks on federal property, the department announced Wednesday.

Homeland Security is setting up a new task force to prepare to surge personnel to locations where riots threaten statues, monuments or other historic landmarks on federal property, the department announced Wednesday.
Acting Secretary Chad F. Wolf said they’re getting in place ahead of the Independence Day holiday, and will be ready to assist other agencies. He said the task force is a response to President Trump’s executive order last week.
“DHS is answering the president’s call to use our law enforcement personnel across the country to protect our historic landmarks,” Mr. Wolf said in a statement. “We won’t stand idly by while violent anarchists and rioters seek not only to vandalize and destroy the symbols of our nation, but to disrupt law and order and sow chaos in our communities.”
Homeland Security’s combined agencies make up the country’s largest policing force, with the Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Protective Service all staffed with trained law enforcement officers and agents.
Some of those were used during the riots in Washington, D.C., last month. And CBP flew a Predator drone over protests and riots in Minnesota to keep tabs on the situation there.
Both of those deployments have sparked criticism from Democrats on Capitol Hill, who have demanded to know why federal forces were tasked with responding to local unrest.
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