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The South Dakota governor, currently serving as the homeland security secretary, visited the ICE facility in Portland, Oregon on this week. While there, she witnessed a limited gathering outside, which contrasts sharply to the dramatic "siege" claimed by the former president.

Escorted by Right-Wing Media Figures

Noem was joined by a set of conservative influencers who were driven from the airport to the facility in her official convoy. DHS has recently produced escalating online posts showing federal agents carrying out raids and deploying crowd control measures at protesters.

Gathering Outside

Portland police cleared the street outside the ICE office in the southern Portland area before the secretary’s arrival. A handful individuals, including one wearing a costume of a chicken and another as a baby shark, were maintained behind barriers.

A song blared from a demonstration site close by, with a refrain mentioning Donald Trump and allegations. One protester shouted to a official camera operator documenting from the facility's roof, asking whether the homeland security had been dubbed the "information ministry".

Media Access

Journalists from nonpartisan media organizations were also kept at the security perimeter outside, while the conservative personalities in the secretary's group—three right-wing influencers—shared digital content of the secretary leading federal agents in prayer inside, offering a pep talk, and telling a member of the militia to "Prepare".

Recent Rulings

Governor Noem has previously echoed the former president's claims that the group of demonstrators—who have rallied in their small numbers outside the office since recent months, including one in an inflatable frog costume—are "extremists" who have placed the building "in a state of siege", making the deployment of federal troops essential.

Yet, on Saturday, a U.S. judge in Portland blocked the former president's effort to nationalize the state's guard, determining that the president’s claims that the mostly calm city was "burning to the ground" were "untethered to the facts".

The next day, the judge, Judge Immergut—who was nominated to the bench by Trump—extended the decision to block guard members from any jurisdiction from being used in Portland. The judge ruled after Trump reacted to her previous decision by attempting to send members of the California's guard to Portland.

Escalating Tensions

Following the former president drew attention the small but persistent protest outside the office and made inaccurate statements that Portland is "battle-scarred", a rising count of his adherents, including conservative personalities, have turned up to face the individuals.

Several of these clashes have led to fights and brawls, prompting apprehensions by the local law enforcement. Nick Sortor was taken into custody after he sought to enter a protest encampment on a pavement near the office and was involved in a scuffle over an U.S. flag. The influencer had before seized the banner from a demonstrator who was setting it on fire.

Criminal counts against Sortor were later dropped after an backlash in right-wing outlets prompted the head of the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, a department official, to warn of a probe of the local police over supposed political bias.

The two women Sortor was detained over a conflict with still face charges.

Official Responses

Over the weekend, Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, accused government personnel in the site of trying to antagonize the protesters by using excessive quantities of crowd control agents in a local community and inviting conservative social media influencers to film the gathering from the top of the building. "Their actions are meant to provoke," the governor stated.

Several of those MAGA-aligned figures were described in a police report last month as "opposing demonstrators" who "frequently reappear and antagonize the protesters until they are confronted or exposed to irritants" and refuse "repeated advice from police to stay away from" the protesters.

Influencer Activities

One influencer, a ex-reporter who changed careers as a partisan figure after being let go from BuzzFeed for ethical violations, shared footage of the secretary observing from the upper level of the office at the limited number of individuals below, including Jack Dickinson who wears a fowl suit to ridicule Trump. Johnson captioned the clip of her inspecting the placid scene below: "Secretary Noem confronts Antifa militants and a costumed protester".

Despite the disconnect between the claims from Trump and Noem that this ICE field office is "under siege" from "domestic terrorists" and visible proof of a small number of demonstrators in harmless costumes, the influencers with Noem continued to describe the group as harmful activists.

Official Engagement

While in Portland, Noem also engaged with the city's top cop, Bob Day, who has been caricatured as "politically correct" in partisan press for authorizing his officers to detain Nick Sortor. In a digital announcement on the discussion, the influencer asserted that the official had "aligned with violent ANTIFA militants attacking journalists and officers outside ICE facility".

The secretary's convoy then exited the site past a few of individuals on the street outside, including one wearing a bear wearing a hat.