🔗 Share this article

Kristi Noem, currently serving as the head of the Department of Homeland Security, visited the ICE location in Portland on Tuesday. During her visit, she observed a limited demonstration outside, which contrasts sharply to the fiery "blockade" described by the former president.

Joined by Right-Wing Media Figures

Noem was accompanied by a group of MAGA-aligned personalities who were driven from the airport to the site in her official convoy. DHS has recently produced more aggressive online posts showing federal officers carrying out raids and firing tear gas at protesters.

Protest Scene

Portland police cleared the street outside the facility in the city’s south waterfront neighborhood before the secretary’s appearance. A small group protesters, featuring one wearing a costume of a fowl and another as a sea creature, were kept at a distance.

A song was audible from a demonstration site close by, with lyrics referencing Trump and Epstein files. A demonstrator shouted to a government videographer filming from the roof, challenging whether the DHS had been dubbed the "propaganda department".

Press Coverage

Members of the press from nonpartisan media organizations were also kept at the security perimeter outside, while the MAGA-aligned figures in Noem’s entourage—the conservative trio—posted social media updates of the Noem conducting federal officers in a prayer session inside, delivering a encouraging words, and instructing a member of the state guard to "Get ready".

Background Developments

The secretary has supported the Trump's assertions that the handful of protesters—who have rallied in their limited groups outside the ICE facility since recent months, including one in an amphibian suit—are "radicals" who have placed the facility "in a state of siege", making the deployment of federal troops essential.

Yet, on a recent weekend, a court official in the city blocked the former president's effort to nationalize the state's guard, stating that the president’s allegations that the largely peaceful city was "in flames" were "without evidence".

A day later, the judge, Judge Immergut—who was appointed to the bench by Trump—broadened the ruling to block guard members from other states from being deployed in Oregon. She acted after Trump responded to her first order by seeking to use members of the another state's militia to Oregon.

Increased Confrontations

Since the former president focused on the modest but continuous demonstration outside the office and made unsubstantiated allegations that Portland is "war ravaged", a growing number of his followers, including conservative personalities, have arrived to confront the protesters.

Some of these confrontations have resulted in altercations and fistfights, resulting in apprehensions by the Portland police. A conservative personality was one of those detained after he attempted to push through a demonstration site on a walkway near the site and was involved in a scuffle over an national banner. He had earlier removed the flag from a protester who was burning it.

Criminal counts against him were later dropped after an backlash in right-wing outlets induced the chief of the civil rights division of the DOJ, a department official, to suggest a review of the local police over supposed partisan treatment.

Two individuals Sortor was detained over a conflict with still face charges.

Authorities' Comments

On Sunday, Governor Tina Kotek, the governor, alleged government personnel in the site of trying to irritate the crowds by using excessive quantities of tear gas in a residential neighborhood and inviting partisan figures to document the protesters from the top of the building. "Their actions are meant to provoke," Kotek said.

Three of those MAGA-aligned figures were referred to in a law enforcement document last month as "counter-protesters" who "constantly return and harass the protesters until they are confronted or pepper sprayed" and resist "ongoing instructions from police to avoid" the group.

Influencer Activities

A conservative personality, a ex-reporter who transitioned as a Christian nationalist influencer after being dismissed from a media outlet for ethical violations, posted video of Noem viewing from the upper level of the site at the handful of protesters below, including Jack Dickinson who wears a chicken costume to ridicule Trump. He described the video of her viewing the placid scene below: "Secretary Noem confronts Antifa militants and a costumed protester".

In spite of the difference between the assertions from the former president and the secretary that this site is "encircled" from "radicals" and obvious footage of a handful of demonstrators in harmless costumes, the influencers with her continued to refer to the protesters as threatening extremists.

Discussion with Law Enforcement

On site, Governor Noem also held a discussion with the city's top cop, Chief Day, who has been portrayed as "politically correct" in right-wing outlets for allowing his officers to detain Sortor. In a online post on the discussion, Benny Johnson asserted that the chief had "aligned with violent ANTIFA militants assaulting journalists and officers outside ICE facility".

The secretary's convoy then exited the facility past a small group of protesters on the exterior, including one in the costume of a bear wearing a sombrero.