🔗 Share this article

Kristi Noem, currently serving as the DHS secretary, inspected the ICE facility in the city of Portland on Tuesday. While there, she saw firsthand a limited protest outside, which differs significantly to the fiery "blockade" claimed by former President Donald Trump.

Joined by MAGA Personalities

Governor Noem was joined by a group of right-wing figures who were transported from the local airport to the facility in her official convoy. The Department of Homeland Security has recently produced increasingly belligerent digital updates featuring federal personnel carrying out raids and using tear gas at crowds.

Protest Scene

Portland police established a perimeter outside the building in the southern Portland area before the secretary’s appearance. A handful demonstrators, including one wearing a costume of a fowl and another as a sea creature, were maintained behind barriers.

Music played loudly from a gathering spot close by, with a refrain about the former president and controversial documents. One protester called out to a government videographer documenting from the facility's roof, asking whether the DHS had been referred to as the "propaganda department".

Media Access

Reporters from mainstream news outlets were also kept at the security perimeter outside, while the MAGA-aligned figures in her party—three right-wing influencers—shared social media updates of the governor participating in federal officers in a prayer session inside, delivering a motivational speech, and telling a member of the Oregon National Guard to "Prepare".

Legal and Political Context

Governor Noem has previously echoed the president’s assertions that the group of individuals—who have rallied in their limited groups outside the ICE facility since the summer, including one in an amphibian suit—are "terrorists" who have placed the office "besieged", making the deployment of federal troops critical.

But, on a recent weekend, a federal judge in Oregon prevented the former president's effort to nationalize Oregon’s National Guard, ruling that the president’s allegations that the mostly calm city was "being destroyed" were "without evidence".

Following that, the same judge, Karin Immergut—who was nominated to the bench by Trump—expanded her order to block National Guard troops from elsewhere from being sent in Oregon. This occurred after he responded to her previous decision by attempting to use members of the California National Guard to Oregon.

Escalating Tensions

Since Trump drew attention the limited yet ongoing protest outside the office and made inaccurate statements that Oregon is "war ravaged", a rising count of his adherents, including conservative personalities, have appeared to challenge the protesters.

Several of these confrontations have led to scuffles and physical fights, leading to apprehensions by the officers. A conservative personality was taken into custody after he attempted to push through a gathering on a walkway near the site and was engaged in a fight over an national banner. Sortor had before taken the flag from a protester who was setting it on fire.

Legal accusations against him were later dropped after an protest in conservative media prompted the head of the legal unit of the Justice Department, the division head, to warn of a probe of the Portland Police Bureau over alleged partisan treatment.

Female protesters the influencer was arrested for fighting with still have pending accusations.

Government Statements

Over the weekend, the state's governor, she, accused government personnel in the office of trying to antagonize the protesters by using unnecessary levels of tear gas in a residential neighborhood and inviting conservative social media influencers to document the protesters from the top of the building. "They are deliberately inciting," she commented.

A trio of those MAGA-aligned figures were referred to in a official record last month as "counter-protesters" who "repeatedly come back and harass the demonstrators until they are assaulted or exposed to irritants" and decline "repeated advice from law enforcement to avoid" the demonstrators.

Online Content

Benny Johnson, a ex-reporter who changed careers as a partisan figure after being let go from his previous employer for plagiarism, published footage of Noem viewing from the top of the ICE facility at the limited number of demonstrators below, including Jack Dickinson who wears a chicken costume to taunt Donald Trump. The influencer captioned the video of her viewing the peaceful setting below: "DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stares down army of Antifa and a guy in a chicken suit".

In spite of the disconnect between the claims from the former president and the secretary that this ICE field office is "encircled" from "domestic terrorists" and obvious footage of a handful of demonstrators in non-threatening attire, the personalities with the secretary continued to describe the demonstrators as harmful activists.

Discussion with Law Enforcement

On site, Governor Noem also engaged with the city's top cop, the chief, who has been portrayed as "woke" in partisan press for allowing his officers to arrest the influencer. In a social media update on the engagement, Benny Johnson asserted that the official had "aligned with violent ANTIFA militants attacking journalists and officers outside ICE facility".

Noem’s motorcade then drove out the site past a handful of protesters on the exterior, including one in the costume of a bear wearing a hat.