Two lawmakers have called for the Drug Enforcement Administration to stop conducting covert surveillance on civilians as part of the government’s plan to confront widespread protests following the killing of George Floyd last week.

The Justice Department temporarily expanded the DEA’s power to collect information on protesters — and to share that intelligence with other law enforcement agencies and make arrests for non-drug related crimes — last weekend. The measure, first reported by BuzzFeed News, followed remarks by Attorney General William Barr that blamed, without evidence, “anarchistic and far left extremist groups” for the unrest.

In a letter sent to Barr and Timothy Shea, the acting administrator of the DEA, Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Karen Bass on Friday called the expansion of the drug agency’s powers “antithetical to the American people’s right to peacefully assemble and to exercise their Constitutional rights without undue intrusion.”

Nadler chairs the House Judiciary Committee, of which Bass is also a member. The two lawmakers demanded Barr and Shea "immediately rescind" the sweeping new authority granted to the DEA and asked for “a briefing detailing the timeline and rationale for the expansion of authority."

As unrest about racial injustice spread across America over the past two weeks, at times spilling over into property destruction and looting, the Trump administration has taken an increasingly adversarial posture.