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Portland Pushes Back on Troops 09/12 06:10
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A gas mask dangled from Deidra Watts's backpack as
she joined a couple dozen others outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement building in Portland, just as she has many nights since July.
The protesters toed a blue line painted across the building's driveway.
"GOVERNMENT PROPERTY DO NOT BLOCK," read its white, stenciled letters. When
they lingered too close, what appeared to be pepper balls rained down on them
from officers posted on the building's roof.
No one was injured Wednesday, and some of the crowd began to dissipate by
about midnight.
While disruptive to nearby residents -- a charter school relocated this
summer to get away from the crowd-control devices -- the nightly demonstrations
are a far cry from the unrest that gripped the city following the murder of
George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020.
They nevertheless have drawn the attention of President Donald Trump, who
often sparred with the city's mayor back then.
Last week, Trump described living in Portland as "like living in hell" and
said he was considering sending in federal troops, as he has recently
threatened to do to combat crime in other cities, including Chicago and
Baltimore. He deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and as
part of his law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C.
Most violent crime around the country has actually declined in recent years,
including in Portland, where a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs
Association found that homicides from January through June decreased by 51%
this year compared to the same period in 2024.
"There's a propaganda campaign to make it look like Portland is a
hellscape," said Casey Leger, 61, who often sits outside the ICE building
trying to observe immigration detainee transfers. "Two blocks away you can just
go to the river and sit and sip a soda and watch the birds."
The building is off a busy road leading into Portland from the suburbs, and
next to an affordable housing complex. During the day, Leger and a few other
advocates mill about and offer copies of "know your rights" flyers featuring a
hotline number for reporting ICE arrests.
At night, Watts and other protesters, many dressed in black and wearing
helmets or masks, arrive. She called ICE a callous and cruel machine.
"In the face of that, there has to be people who will stand up and make it
known that that's not gonna fly, that that's not something the people agree
with," Watts said.
The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The nighttime protests peaked in June after the nationwide "No Kings"
marches, when Portland police declared one demonstration a riot. Since then, at
least 26 protesters have been charged with federal offenses tied to the ICE
building, including assaulting federal officers, according to the U.S.
Attorney's Office in Oregon.
"Like other mayors across the country, I have not asked for -- and do not
need -- federal intervention," Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement
following Trump's threat. The city has protected freedom of expression while
"addressing occasional violence and property destruction," he said.
There have been smaller clashes since June. On Labor Day, some demonstrators
brought a prop guillotine -- a display the Department of Homeland Security
blasted as "unhinged behavior."
Wilson expects protests to stay focused on the area by the building, he said.
Some residents of the adjacent apartments are upset about that. One sued to
try to make the city enforce noise ordinances. She said she believed noise from
bullhorns, speakers and "piercing whistle-type sounds" akin to air-raid sirens
had caused her eardrum to burst, and gas that entered her apartment made her
ill. The judge who heard the case sided with the city.
Rick Stype, who has lived there for 10 years, said he accompanies some
neighbors outside because they fear being harassed by protesters.
"I just want them to leave us alone," he said. "I want them to be gone."
A charter school next to the ICE building, the Cottonwood School of Civics
and Science, relocated over the summer, saying that chemical agents and
crowd-control projectiles put student safety at risk.
Many parents and students were regular customers at Chris Johnson's nearby
coffee shop, he said. He lamented the school's move and the national narrative
that the protests were a bigger deal than they are.
"I think people are very, very opinionated on either side of it," he said.
"It just creates a divide, which is unfortunate."
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