Thousands protest outside Portland ICE facility against ICE and National Guard

Portland, OR – On October 12, thousands of protesters convened in front of the Portland ICE Facility in the pouring rain to stand against the deployment of the National Guard and demanding the permit of the ICE Facility to be revoked.

A protest was called by Portland Contra Las Deportaciones (PDXCD) in collaboration with Portland for Palestine (P4P), the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), Revoke the ICE Permit (RIP) and Tesla Takedown PDX.

Organizers like Cass Cano, detained last week by ICE and DHS while protesting, spoke out against the repression faced by protesters, as well as ICE’s continued terrorization of immigrants, stating, “They detained my comrades and are hoping we would be scared and stop fighting, but we won’t stop until the facility is shut down and ICE is out of Portland.”

The protest was joyful and many in attendance were in costumes such as inflatable animal suits. Unpresidented Brass Band, a Portland protest staple, was in attendance in banana suits. The group marched to the ICE Facility and blocked the driveway, while the band played music across the street. As has been the case for several months, DHS and ICE periodically came out and pushed protesters and shot them with chemical munitions.

This protest marked a distinct change in Portland Police Bureau’s response, as the police came out and shoved protesters with their bikes, threatening arrest and essentially assisting ICE with crowd control.

At the same time, PDX World Naked Bike Ride began an emergency ride in downtown Portland. The World Naked Bike Ride puts on an annual protest ride each summer by bikers, many without clothing, “calling attention to oil dependency, cyclist vulnerability, and the beauty of body freedom.”

Organizers of World Naked Bike Ride called for an emergency ride in response to Trump’s attacks on Portland and organizers with PDXCD coordinated with them to link up their protests.

At 4:15 p.m. just as DHS and ICE were coming out of the facility to push back protesters, the World Naked Bike Ride arrived at the facility. The crowd was ecstatic as thousands of bicyclists rode through, filling the streets with people. As the band played people stopped, got off their bikes, joined in with chants and danced to the band. ICE and DHS retreated into their building as there were too many people in the streets for them to push protesters back. Bikers with no clothing got off their bikes and pushed back ICE and DHS and were shot in their stomachs with pepper balls.

As the crowd thinned out while the bikers continued along their ride, ICE and DHS came out again and attacked protesters more aggressively than before. They detained five people, chasing one protester into the band. The officers subsequently maced the band, tackled a band member and dragged them into the detention facility. All of those detained were held overnight and transferred across state lines to Clark County Jail in Washington.

Organizers from the coalition of groups that organized the event vowed to keep coming out, demanding the charges be dropped and that the city revokes the permit for the ICE facility and shuts it down.

“Every time ICE and DHS attack us, they think they’re going to shut us down, but in reality they just bring more people to our side. We won’t be silent while immigrants’ rights protesters are being brutalized and immigrants are being kidnapped in Portland. We’ll be out here again and again until we shut down this facility,” said organizer Cole Dunahugh.

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