President Donald Trump has demanded that federal troops be deployed to Portland, Oregon, to protect immigration facilities from protesters — even though the number of arrests outside the facility has been dropping now for months.
Trump on Saturday ordered Pete Hegseth to deploy troops to “protect war-ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
It was not immediately clear how many troops would be sent or when their deployment would begin. In response to the news, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek insisted the state didn’t need backup, saying during a press conference, “We don’t need help. We got this.”
Data published Saturday by The Oregonian appeared to confirm Kotek’s claims that the situation is under control.
While large-scale protests were held outside Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in June, resulting in 18 arrests, the number of arrests at the facility ever since has dwindled, according to the report.
After peaking in June, four people were charged on July 4 following another large anti-ICE protest. In recent weeks, no more than several dozen demonstrators have gathered each day in protest outside the facility, according to the report.
The people arrested have faced numerous accusations in federal court, including vandalizing the ICE field office, disrupting the electronic key card reader at the building’s entrance, blocking federal vehicles from leaving the property, throwing rocks or sticks at officers, shining lasers into officers’ eyes and barricading the entry gate.
They face federal charges ranging from felony aggravated assault of a federal officer to destruction of government property and misdemeanor failure to follow lawful orders, according to the report.
Officers from Federal Protective Services, which handles security at federal buildings, as well as Homeland Security, Border Patrol and ICE have all made arrests. Portland police also arrested about two dozen people related to protests in June.
Most of those charged in federal court have been released while awaiting trial. At least three people have been sentenced to six months of probation after pleading guilty to failing to follow a lawful order, a misdemeanor. Five more people are scheduled to enter guilty pleas in the next month.
Even though the protests have decreased in size and force in recent months, Trump on Saturday demanded troops be deployed and authorized “Full Force, if necessary.”
“We have the situation under control with the ICE facility in Portland. … There’s not a problem at the federal facility, and when there is a situation that requires police enforcement, it is happening and we are holding people accountable,” Kotek said.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson responded to Trump’s demand in a statement, writing, “President Trump has directed ‘all necessary Troops’ to Portland, Oregon. The number of necessary troops is zero, in Portland and any other American city. Our nation has a long memory for acts of oppression, and the president will not find lawlessness or violence here unless he plans to perpetrate it. Imagine if the federal government sent hundreds of engineers, or teachers, or outreach workers to Portland, instead of a short, expensive, and fruitless show of force.”
Kotek and other city leaders also noted that the demonstrations outside the ICE building are much smaller than the nightly protests downtown after George Floyd’s killing in 2020.
Leading up to Trump’s announcement, the president claimed that “crazy people” in Portland were attempting to set buildings on fire, including federal facilities.
The announcement also came days after a shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas, which left one person dead.
If federal forces are sent to Portland, it would represent the latest in a series of contentious military deployments to U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and possibly Memphis. All of the cities facing Trump’s wrath are Democratic-run.
