Portland mayor demands ICE leave city after federal agents teargas protesters | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
The mayor of Portland, Oregon, demanded that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leave his city after federal agents fired tear gas into a crowd of demonstrators, including young children, outside an ICE facility during a weekend protest that he and others described as peaceful.
Witnesses said agents used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets as thousands of marchers descended on the South Waterfront complex on Saturday. Erin Hoover Barnett, a former OregonLive reporter who attended the protest, said she was about 100 yards (91 meters) from the building when “what appeared to be two men with rocket launchers” began spraying tear gas into the crowd.
“It was terrifying to be among parents frantically trying to care for their young children in strollers, among people trying to navigate using motorized buggies without knowing how to get to safety while the rest of us staggered back,” Barnett wrote in an email to OregonLive.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said the daytime demonstration was peaceful and that “the vast majority of those present did not violate any laws, did not pose any threat, and did not pose a danger to federal agents.”
“Those who continue to work for ICE: resign. Those who control this facility: quit,” Wilson wrote in a statement Saturday night. “With your use of violence and trampling on the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame.”
The Portland Fire Marshal’s Office 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 across the country against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in cities like Minneapolis, where federal agents killed two residents, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, in recent weeks.
Federal agents in Eugene, Oregon, used tear gas on Friday as protesters tried to break into the federal building near downtown. City police declared a riot and ordered the crowd to disperse.
Donald Trump shared on social media on Saturday that it is up to local law enforcement to police protests in their cities. But the president said he had instructed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be vigilant in protecting U.S. government facilities by federal agents.
“Please note that I have directed 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, no punching or kicking our car headlights, and no throwing of rocks or bricks at our vehicles or our Patriot Warriors,” Trump said. wrote. “If so, these people will face the same or greater punishment.”
Wilson said Portland will impose fees on detention facilities that use chemicals.
The mayor said the federal government “must and will be held accountable.” “To those who continue to make these sickening decisions, go home, look in the mirror and ask yourself why you are gaslighting children.”
