🔗 Share this article Kristi Noem Tours Oregon ICE Office Amid Right-Wing Figures The South Dakota governor, who holds the position of the DHS secretary, visited the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the city of Portland on a recent weekday. During her visit, she witnessed a small demonstration outside, which differs significantly to the intense "siege" claimed by the former president. Escorted by Right-Wing Media Figures The secretary was escorted by a set of right-wing figures who were transported from the airport to the site in her security detail. DHS has recently produced escalating digital updates featuring federal personnel carrying out enforcement operations and firing chemical irritants at protesters. Protest Scene Local law enforcement secured the area outside the ICE office in the city’s south waterfront neighborhood before the Noem's visit. A small group individuals, featuring one in the outfit of a chicken and another as a shark, were held back. A song blared from a gathering spot close by, with lyrics referencing Trump and controversial documents. Someone called out to a official camera operator documenting from the facility's roof, questioning whether the homeland security had been renamed the "propaganda department". Press Coverage Journalists from independent publications were also held behind the security perimeter outside, while the partisan influencers in the secretary's group—the conservative trio—shared social media updates of the secretary conducting federal agents in prayer inside, delivering a motivational speech, and telling a member of the state guard to "Be ready". Recent Rulings The secretary has previously echoed the Trump's claims that the handful of demonstrators—who have gathered in their limited groups outside the ICE facility since the summer, including one in an frog outfit—are "radicals" who have placed the office "besieged", making the sending of DHS agents essential. Yet, on Saturday, a court official in Portland halted his effort to federalize local militia, ruling that the president’s claims that the mostly calm city was "burning to the ground" were "not based on reality". A day later, the judge, Judge Immergut—who was appointed to the bench by Donald Trump—broadened the ruling to block state militia from elsewhere from being used in Oregon. She acted after the former president answered to her previous decision by attempting to send members of the another state's militia to Oregon. Increased Confrontations Following Donald Trump highlighted the modest but continuous demonstration outside the site and made unsubstantiated allegations that Portland is "war ravaged", a growing number of his adherents, including MAGA influencers, have appeared to confront the demonstrators. A number of these encounters have led to fights and fistfights, resulting in apprehensions by the officers. One influencer was among those arrested after he tried to force his way a gathering on a sidewalk near the office and was part of an altercation over an U.S. flag. Sortor had previously removed the flag from a protester who was burning it. Legal accusations against Sortor were eventually dismissed after an backlash in conservative media induced the leader of the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, Harmeet Dhillon, to threaten an investigation of the law enforcement agency over alleged anti-conservative bias. Female protesters Sortor was arrested for fighting with still face charges. Government Statements On Sunday, the state's governor, Tina Kotek, alleged DHS agents in the site of trying to antagonize the crowds by using unnecessary levels of crowd control agents in a local community and bringing in conservative social media influencers to document the crowd from the top of the building. "They are clearly trying to antagonize the crowds," the governor stated. Several of those MAGA-aligned figures were referred to in a law enforcement document last month as "opposing demonstrators" who "repeatedly come back and antagonize the individuals until they are confronted or exposed to irritants" and decline "repeated advice from law enforcement to stay away from" the group. Influencer Activities One influencer, a former journalist who reinvented himself as a right-wing commentator after being dismissed from his previous employer for plagiarism, shared video of the secretary observing from the top of the site at the small group of demonstrators below, including an individual who wears a fowl suit to ridicule the former president. The influencer captioned the clip of Noem viewing the placid scene below: "DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stares down army of Antifa and a guy in a chicken suit". In spite of the difference between the assertions from the former president and the secretary that this facility is "under siege" from "domestic terrorists" and clear visual evidence of a limited group of individuals in non-threatening attire, the influencers with the secretary continued to refer to the group as threatening extremists. Official Engagement While in Portland, the secretary also held a discussion with the Portland police chief, Chief Day, who has been portrayed as "liberal" in partisan press for allowing his officers to arrest Sortor. In a online post on the discussion, Johnson asserted that the official had "supported violent ANTIFA militants assaulting journalists and officers outside ICE facility". Her security detail then drove out the office past a small group of protesters on the nearby road, including one in the costume of a bear wearing a hat.