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Members of the squad of roughly 120, who are trained in the use of weapons from pistols to sniper rifles, are among the most highly trained federal agents who have been sent to Oregon’s largest city and the least frequently deployed to quell unrest within the U.S.

Border Patrol officials have declined to say how many Bortac agents have been deployed. A Trump administration official said 45 agents and officers from Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol’s parent agency, are among the approximately 100 federal agents sent to Portland to protect federal buildings from late-night violence that has followed protests over police violence and racism.

Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott said he volunteered the specially trained team, officially known as Border Patrol Tactical Unit, after the Federal Protective Service, which protects the federal government’s civilian facilities, requested help from other Department of Homeland Security divisions.

“FPS needed help, and Bortac was the right team,” Mr. Scott said. “Because of what they were facing, at least initially I didn’t want to send line Border Patrol agents. It’s a very urban environment, and we wanted to make sure we were sending our best.”

But local officials and civil rights activists have said highly trained federal agents like Bortac are unnecessary to protect federal buildings in Portland, and they have only heightened the tension at protests, which have grown in size during the past week.

R. Gil Kerklikowske, who ran Customs and Border Protection during the Obama administration, said having the elite unit protect buildings from unarmed civilians is overkill.

“This isn’t their expertise,” said Mr. Kerlikowske, who also previously served as police chief in Seattle. “It would be like assigning the FBI’s hostage rescue team.”

Bortac agents in Portland wear their standard-issued camouflage uniform, their faces typically covered by gas masks. They have ventured beyond the immediate vicinity of federal buildings at times and arrested at least two protesters, federal authorities have confirmed.

“We are driving around Portland, and we will arrest people who have committed a specific [federal] crime,” Mr. Scott said. “The only time they are doing anything off that compound—it’s a targeted enforcement.”

On Friday, a federal judge denied a request by Oregon’s attorney general for a temporary restraining order that would require agents to identify themselves, their agency and reasons before picking up citizens on the street, saying there was no evidence such actions were widespread.

Also Friday, Oregon’s U.S. attorney announced that 18 people had been charged with property and violent crimes committed at a federal courthouse in Portland.

Some Portland residents have said in interviews and on social media that they were frightened by the actions of federal agents they didn’t recognize. A witness who said she saw camouflage-clad agents pick up multiple protesters in a minivan with a Florida license plate said the agents didn’t say who they were or why the people were being arrested. Mr. Scott said Bortac agents have identified themselves as federal agents.

Such complaints have sparked investigations from the Justice and Homeland Security Departments’ inspectors general and congressional committees.

Mr. Scott said his agents are wearing U.S. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection patches on their sleeves, though he acknowledged that the insignia can be hard to read from a distance. Instead of nametags, which were removed to protect agents who have been threatened online, they wear identification codes on their sleeves.

Bortac was founded in 1984 to respond to riots and other civil disturbances in immigration jails and along the border. Based in El Paso, it has since expanded its mission to conduct high-risk raids, perform intelligence gathering at the border and train foreign law enforcement. In promotional materials, CBP says Bortac’s selection and training courses are designed to mirror those of the military’s special forces.

Among the times Bortac agents have previously operated inside the borders of the U.S. were the 1992 Los Angeles riots and the 2000 raid on the Miami home of relatives of young Cuban migrant Elian Gonzalez.

Tom Ridge, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania and the first head of DHS, under President George W. Bush, said while the federal government should protect its property, using elite agents trained for border enforcement sends the wrong signal.

“It doesn’t look right, doesn’t feel right, it feels like you’re brushing up against the Constitution,” Mr. Ridge said.

—Miriam Gottfried contributed to this article.

Corrections & Amplifications
Bortac agents in Portland, Ore., wear their standard-issued camouflage uniform, their faces typically covered by gas masks. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said some Bortac officers are dressed in blue uniforms. (Corrected on July 25)

Write to Alicia A. Caldwell at Alicia.Caldwell@wsj.com and Michelle Hackman at Michelle.Hackman@wsj.com