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In a fervent call for change, the mayor of Portland, Oregon, has urged U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to withdraw from the city. This demand follows a controversial incident where federal agents unleashed tear gas on a crowd of demonstrators, including young children, during what many described as a peaceful protest outside an ICE facility over the weekend.
The confrontation occurred on Saturday when thousands of protesters marched to the South Waterfront ICE facility. Witnesses recount that federal agents responded with tear gas, pepper balls, and rubber bullets. Erin Hoover Barnett, a former reporter for OregonLive and participant in the protest, described the chaotic scene. “I was about 100 yards from the building when two individuals with what seemed like rocket launchers began to gas the crowd,” Barnett explained.
The atmosphere turned frightening as parents scrambled to protect their children in strollers, and individuals using motorized carts struggled to find safety amidst the gas and commotion. “It was terrifying to be among those trying to retreat, uncertain of the path to safety,” Barnett shared in an email to OregonLive.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson emphasized that the protest was a peaceful assembly. “The vast majority of those present broke no laws, posed no threats, and offered no danger to federal agents,” Wilson stated. He expressed outrage at the federal response and issued a pointed message to ICE personnel and facility controllers.
“To those employed by ICE: Resign. To those in control of this facility: Depart,” Wilson declared in a statement on Saturday night. “Your actions of violence and disregard for the Constitution have stripped you of legitimacy, leaving only a mantle of shame.”
The Portland Fire Bureau sent paramedics to treat people at the scene, police said. Police officers monitored the crowd but made no arrests on Saturday.
The Portland protest was one of many similar demonstrations nationwide against President Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in cities like Minneapolis, where in recent weeks federal agents killed two residents, Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Federal agents in Eugene, Oregon, deployed tear gas on Friday when protesters tried to get inside the Federal Building near downtown. City police declared a riot and ordered the crowd to disperse.
Trump posted Saturday on social media that it was up to local law enforcement agencies to police protests in their cities. However, Trump said he has instructed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to have federal agents be vigilant in guarding U.S. government facilities.
“Please be aware that I have instructed ICE and/or Border Patrol to be very forceful in this protection of Federal Government Property. There will be no spitting in the faces of our Officers, there will be no punching or kicking the headlights of our cars, and there will be no rock or brick throwing at our vehicles, or at our Patriot Warriors,” Trump wrote. “If there is, those people will suffer an equal, or more, consequence.”
Wilson said Portland would be imposing a fee on detention facilities that use chemical agents.
The federal government “must, and will, be held accountable,” the mayor said. “To those who continue to make these sickening decisions, go home, look in a mirror, and ask yourselves why you have gassed children.”