The Heating Up of ICE in Portland

I spent three hours at the main ICE facility yesterday in Portland, as there were about 300 protesters outside the ICE building. There were snipers on top of the building with visible rifles with scopes. The energy was very high with most of the “American Citizens” who were there, that Trump conveniently calls “Domestic Terrorists.”

There was a lot of Press there, to include local TV stations, but mostly Independent Press and bloggers. There have been small demonstrations here the past few weeks, but today’s protest was large. The ICE facility is located near large apartment facilities and condominium communities, so there is a very large population of people who live very close. That is one reason why this ICE facility gets so much attention.

Any large amounts of tear gas or others forms of weapons used by the local police, ICE Agents, or the National Guard, will directly affect thousands of Portlanders. It would be very easy and fast for any demonstration to grow in a matter of minutes.

That is the potential of this sprawling area, if Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (George Armstrong Custer) decide to invade Portland, Oregon. As I write these words, I just saw a live video on my cell phone of a Large number of express travel buses lined up in Tualatin, Oregon, just outside of Portland. These buses are filled up with National Guard Troops waiting to be deployed to that ICE facility. That is where we are now.

As for the demonstration yesterday, you could obviously feel the pervasive tension and anger among protesters over the brutal tactics and often violence of ICE Operatives in communities all across the U.S. When I first got there, most people were yelling and chanting at the ICE Agents in the building. After about 30 minutes, a large group of ICE officers came out of the building, heavily armed, and marched directly into the crowd. They did their version of crowd control by separating groups of people.

Protesters were yelling and screaming at them, as those officers were on a mission to provoke and intimidate people with their power. There was pushing and shoving going on, but no arrests were made. Then, all of a sudden, the officers regrouped, got into formation, and started walking backwards back into the ICE facility. The protesters, as always, found it amusing that the officers retreated back into their hiding place. Then, less than an hour later, the ICE officers came back into the crowd and did the same thing all over again for another 30 minutes.

I think the key issue here is Trump’s ability to provoke. He wants to teach Portland a lesson. As someone who has lived in Portland for the past 49 years, I would hate to see this city, ( who knows what their government does behind closed doors ), turned into a battleground. I could just see so many more Portland citizens getting involved in this fight. Things are on edge… will it be another situation like what happened after George Floyd was murdered in 2020? Will there be another 100 days of protests in Portland?

Trump and his Haunted House may be headed in that direction.

Mike Hastie

Army Medic Viet Nam

(All photos by M.H.)

James Baldwin

---