PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) – Gas masks hanging from Daedra Watts backpacks, joining dozens of others outside Portland’s US immigration and customs enforcement facility, as they have been spending many nights since July.
Protesters stopped the blue lines painted on the building’s driveway. Read the white stencil letters, “We will not block government property.” When they remained too close, what looked like a pepper ball fell from an officer posted on the roof of the building.
No one was injured Wednesday, and some of the crowd began to dissipate by around midnight.
It was confusing nearby residents, but the charter school moved this summer to escape crowd control equipment, but the nightly demonstrations scream quite a bit The fear of holding the city After the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Nevertheless, they caught the attention of President Donald Trump. Be modest to the mayor of the city at that time.
Last week, Trump described life in Portland as “like living in hell,” and said he was considering sending federal troops, as he recently threatened to fight crime in other cities. Including Chicago and Baltimore. He deployed the National Guard Los Angeles Over the summer and as part of his law enforcement agency. take over In Washington, DC
The most violent crime in the nation I actually refused In recent years, a recent report from the Chiefs Association of Major Cities, including Portland, found that murders between January and June fell 51% compared to the same period in 2024.
“There’s a propaganda campaign that will make Portland look like a hellish landscape,” said 61-year-old Casey Leger. “You can go two blocks away to the river and sit down and drink soda and see the birds.”
The building is located next to an affordable residential complex from the busy road leading from the suburbs to Portland. During the day, Leger and several other supporters will mill about copying a flyer “know your rights” with a hotline number to report ice arrests.
At night, Watts and other protesters arrive with many wearing black clothes and helmets and masks. She called Ice a merciless and cruel machine.
“There need to be people in the face of that and get up and let them know that they’re not going to fly. That’s not something people agree,” Watts said.
The agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Nighttime protests peaked in June The “king” march throughout the nationwhen Portland police declared one demonstration a riot. Since then, at least 26 protesters have been charged with federal crimes linked to ice buildings, including attacking federal officers.
“Like other mayors across the country, I have not called for federal intervention. The city protects freedom of expression while “addressing occasional violence and property destruction,” he said.
The collisions have been small since June. On Labor Day, some demonstrators brought prop guillotines. This is an exhibition that the Department of Homeland Security blasted as “unhinged action.”
Wilson hopes the protests will continue to concentrate in the area through the building, he said.
Some residents of the adjacent apartment are upset about it. He was sued for attempting to enforce noise ordinances in the city. She said the noise from the bull horn, speakers and “piercing whistle-type sounds” resemble an air-rading siren, which caused her to burst her eardrums, causing the gas entering her apartment to get sick. When the judge heard about the incident, he took his side to the city.
Rick Stipe, who lived there for 10 years, said he would accompany his outside neighbor because he was afraid of being harassed by protesters.
“I want them to leave us alone,” he said. “I want them to be gone.”
The Cottonwood School of Citizen Science, a charter school next to the ice building, has moved over the summer and said chemicals and crowd-controlled projectiles are putting student safety at risk.
Many parents and students were regular customers at a coffee shop near Chris Johnson, he said. He lamented the school’s movements and the national narrative that protests are a bigger deal than they do.
“I think people are very, very much on either side,” he said. “It just creates a gap, but that’s a shame.”
