It has been just over two weeks since Donald Trump called the federal police to curb the unrest in Portland. Protests against police violence against blacks have shaken the city since the death of African-American George Floyd in connection with a police intervention on May 25 this year.

But the move has led to an escalation of violence between protesters and federal police, according to city mayor Ted Wheeler.

"The situation has escalated sharply by the federal police," the mayor told CNN, according to the BBC.

The federal police, which according to Ted Wheeler can number up to several hundred in number, are accused, among other things, of having fired trains at the protesters and of having carried out illegal arrests of protesters.

Accused of kidnappings

According to local media, federal police have jumped out of unmarked vans and abducted protesters without legal support.

In a statement on Twitter, Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats' speaker in the House of Representatives, accuses the federal police of having "kidnapped" protesters.

"This is not how a democratic republic acts," she writes.

The mayor of Portland is now demanding that Donald Trump withdraw his troops.

- They are not wanted here. We did not ask them to come here. We actually want them to leave, says Ted Wheeler.

Is the government right?

Oregon's Democratic Gov. Kate Brown also condemned the effort. She accuses the federal police of abusing power and that Donald Trump used them to win political points. The state's chancellor of justice has in turn filed a lawsuit against the government in an attempt to stop the federal police from arresting the protesters, according to the BBC.

The Trump administration has defended the federal police and praised their efforts against what is called a "violent crowd" and "anarchists."

- Portland was completely out of control. The federal police went in, and right now I guess we have put a lot of people in custody. We stopped the riots, and if it starts again, we will stop it very easily, said Chad Wolff, Minister of Homeland Security, last Monday.