Saturday’s protest at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in South Portland saw an escalation in force on display from federal officers, as well as the protesters they attempted to repel from the building.
But Portland Mayor Keith Wilson had a message Sunday for the Trump administration: Don’t think about sending in the military.
“Portland has not requested and does not require the intervention of the National Guard,” Wilson said in the statement. He noted that National Guard members and U.S. Marines deployed to Los Angeles under the order of helping ICE and protest management have only inflamed tensions in that city.
Wilson said any decision to send military members into Portland should be seen as “unwarranted, unprecedented, and unconstitutional.”
“If we witness federal abuse following this incident or any other pretext, we will bring it to light, take legal action, and take the fight to federal courts, where we will prevail,” Wilson wrote.
It was not immediately clear if the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or any other federal agency has intentions to deploy additional federal officers to Portland.
DHS did make a social media post about Saturday’s protest, which stated that four officers had been injured and that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem threatened prosecution for anyone who would “lay a hand” on federal law enforcement.
“The violent targeting of law enforcement in Portland, OR by lawless rioters is despicable and its leaders must call for it to end,” DHS wrote in a separate social media post.
The tense demonstration at the Portland ICE facility followed roughly 50,000 people protesting the Trump administration in the city, according to the mayor’s office.
The “No Kings” protests in Oregon and across the country had been organized by the 50501 Movement, Indivisible and other progressive groups opposed to what they described as authoritarian actions by the Trump administration.
Saturday’s protests were also intended as counterprogramming to a military parade in Washington, D.C., scheduled for the president’s 79th birthday and meant to commemorate the founding of the U.S. Army.
Los Angeles, where the president deployed the California National Guard and U.S. Marines over the past week, saw some of the most chaotic protests Saturday. Law enforcement there used crowd control weapons against protesters gathered outside a federal building.
Immigration raids and scattered protests continued in the city Sunday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Federal officers unloading an arsenal of the so-called “less lethal” weapons on crowds of protesters is an event familiar to Portlanders, who saw that scenario play out for dozens of nights in 2020 during racial justice protests outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in the city’s downtown.
While Saturday’s demonstration at the ICE building did lead to a few arrests by both the Portland Police Bureau and federal officers at the scene, it was far short of the scale seen in 2020.
Wilson’s statement Sunday implied he did not want to see a repeat of the escalation in force and protest response seen five years ago.
“Our officers will not be used as agents of ICE, but will intervene when criminal acts occur,” Wilson wrote, repeating messaging sent out by the Portland Police Bureau nearly daily since the demonstrations at the ICE building began.
Still, protests at the building continued Sunday night, and Portland police made four more arrests after 11 p.m.
Just hours before that, Trump posted on social media that he wants to see more deportations by ICE in cities run by Democrats, such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
The president did not name Portland in the post.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
