U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem plans to visit Portland on Tuesday, according to city officials.
Conservative commentator Benny Johnson first announced Noem’s visit in a social media post, as first reported by KATU.
“Portland is a city overrun by leftist terrorists,” Johnson wrote in the post. “@sec_noem will be making a strong statement that terrorists will NOT run our streets in America.”
Portland city officials said they did not have details on Noem’s agenda while in the city. Homeland Security and Oregon State Police officials did not immediately return a request for comment on the secretary’s plans. The Portland Police Bureau will be among the agencies assisting with security details.
“In the interest of public safety, Portland Police will provide the same routine support they would for any visiting dignitary,” a statement from the city of Portland said Tuesday.
DHS has been focused on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland for months due to protests there that often draw just a few dozen people, but at times have seen hundreds show up to demonstrate against President Donald Trump’s push for more aggressive deportations and immigration law enforcement. In reaction to some of those protests, federal officers have used crowd control weapons like tear gas and pepper balls on demonstrators, inflaming tensions.
Since the president’s focus on Portland, counter-protesters aligned with ICE and the president have had a more frequent presence as well.
Portland city officials, business interests and residents have pushed back on the White House’s claims that the city is “war ravaged” due to protests largely contained to the sidewalk in front of the ICE facility.
Oregon’s senior Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, was quick to criticize Noem’s visit.
“Kristi Noem is cosplaying as a public official,” Wyden said. “In reality, she’s been sent by Trump to incite violence.”
Wyden encouraged Oregonians ignore the secretary’s planned stop in the city.
Portland was thrust into the national spotlight over the weekend when the Trump administration attempted to deploy the Oregon National Guard into the fray. That effort was stopped by a Trump-appointed federal judge who said there were no conditions in Portland that warranted the involvement of Oregon military personnel. The president then attempted to deploy California and Texas National Guard members to Portland — an effort that drew further ire from U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut and another court order halting the measures. The Trump administration appealed those orders and the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to weigh in soon.
“Recent court decisions have affirmed that Portland does not need federal military intervention, and that our local public-safety approach stands on firm legal ground‚” the city said in its statement Tuesday.
In explaining her decision to block the president’s National Guard deployments, Immergut said the federal government failed to prove its assertions that demonstrations outside the ICE facility have disrupted functions at the building or posed a significant risk to federal employees that would require military personnel.
“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” Immergut concluded in her initial court ruling on the Oregon National Guard deployment. “Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power — to the detriment of this nation."
Despite those rulings, conservative activists and media have streamed nightly from the protests, asserting that federal intervention is required to quell the demonstrations.
Late Monday night, protesters gathered again, some wearing inflatable unicorn and frog costumes. Portland police said they made one arrest around 5:15 p.m. of a man who threw an “unknown liquid” at another person during a Sunday night demonstration. No other arrests were reported.
This story may be updated.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
