Portland’s mayor has called for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to leave the city after federal agents fired teargas and other crowd-control munitions at demonstrators – including children – during a protest outside an ICE facility over the weekend.
Witnesses said thousands of people gathered Saturday near the South Waterfront ICE facility for what local officials described as a peaceful daytime demonstration. According to attendees, federal agents deployed teargas, pepper balls and rubber bullets shortly after marchers arrived.
Erin Hoover Barnett, a former OregonLive reporter who attended the protest, said she was about 100 yards from the building when agents began dispersing gas into the crowd.
“To be among parents frantically trying to tend to little children in strollers, people using motorized carts trying to navigate as the rest of us staggered in retreat, unsure of how to get to safety, was terrifying,” Barnett wrote in an email to OregonLive.
Mayor Keith Wilson said the protest posed no threat to federal officers. “The vast majority of those present violated no laws, made no threat and posed no danger,” he said in a statement issued Saturday night.
“To those who continue to work for ICE: resign. To those who control this facility: leave,” Wilson wrote. “Through your use of violence and the trampling of the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame.”
The Portland Fire Bureau sent paramedics to treat people affected by the chemical agents, police said. Portland police monitored the protest but reported no arrests.
The demonstration was one of several nationwide protests against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign. Similar demonstrations have occurred in cities including Minneapolis, where federal agents recently killed two residents, Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
In Eugene, Oregon, federal agents also deployed teargas on Friday after protesters attempted to enter a federal building. City police declared a riot and ordered the crowd to disperse.
President Donald Trump wrote on social media Saturday that local law enforcement was responsible for policing protests but said he had instructed homeland security secretary Kristi Noem to ensure federal agents aggressively protect government facilities.
“I have instructed ICE and/or Border Patrol to be very forceful in this protection of Federal Government Property,” Trump wrote, warning of “equal, or more” consequences for protesters who assault officers or damage vehicles.
Wilson said Portland would impose fees on detention facilities that deploy chemical agents.
“The federal government must, and will, be held accountable,” he said. “To those who continue to make these sickening decisions, go home, look in a mirror, and ask yourselves why you have gassed children.”
