On October 18, dozens of protests popped up around Portland and its suburbs, among those were calls to action at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. The facility has seen daily protests for over 100 days, with fluctuating numbers of attendees.
The demonstrations came as a result of a nationwide call to action by a coalition organizations like 50501, Indivisible and Progressive Change Campaign Committee. On their website, “No Kings” has claimed that 7 million people attended protests this past Saturday, roughly 2% of the American population.
Additionally, backlash from national groups like Code Pink and United Front Liberation inspired autonomous organizations to call for actions of their own. There were two calls for action at the ICE facility on South Macadam Avenue in Portland. One was a “people’s art project” while the other was a call for mobilization after the “No Kings” march that took place at the Waterfront Park Battleship Memorial.
Though the “No Kings” protests called for peaceful assemblies, regular protestors at the ICE facility did not change their approach of taunting officers and playing loud music. Megan Lucero is one of many who agreed with both approaches.
“There’s a lot of ways in which we have been pushed into ideas, and polarized thinking, like ‘there’s a certain way to do something,’ ‘there’s a right way to do something.’” Lucero said. “And that’s really white nationalist thinking.”
An estimated 40,000 people attended the march, although numbers at the facility were closer to 200 protesters. Among the crowd was Mackenna Roberts, a caregiver to a woman with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Roberts explained she and her client had been planning on attending the “No Kings” protest weeks in advance. However on the day of, her client’s wheelchair accessible van wouldn’t turn on. Undeterred by the change in plans, Roberts continued to make the most out of the situation.
“I told her, ‘I like to think of these moments as the universe keeping you from somewhere you’re not meant to be. For one reason or another,’” Roberts said.
At the request of her client, Roberts and another protestor, Darnell Elwood, dressed in costume and joined others in front of the ICE facility in Portland to show support for the “No Kings” movement. At around 4:30 p.m. panic quickly overtook the scene when she and Elwood had their faces peppersprayed by DHS officers, Roberts said.
“Don’t worry usually it takes until the sun goes down before they really start to pop off,” Roberts had told Elwood moments before ICE agents fired canisters of tear gas into the streets. “And then they bum-rush out and tackle a guy next to us for zero reason, and I said, ‘Get off of him. Start filming,’ and as soon as I said ‘start filming’ they turned around and at point blank, within less than a foot, [and] sprayed us in the face with mace.”
With previous protest experience both Roberts and Elwood said they were aware that use of force was possible; although because of the large turnout at the facility, they did not expect it to happen so early on in the demonstration.
“I was like, ‘it’ll be fine.’ No! It’s never fine because it doesn’t matter how nonviolent it is, they don’t care,” Roberts said. “They will always initiate the violence and make excuses later. Every time.”
Lucero witnessed the incident, and compared it to the 2024 university encampments in response to Israel’s presence in Gaza. She explained that the response back then is similar to ICE’s approach to silencing protestors.
“I saw the gas in the air, and I mean my mouth is tingling,” she said. “Every day, people are trying to express their American right to dissent, their American right to protest, their American right to free speech. And that is trying to be silenced and that’s what’s scary.”
Around 8:30 p.m., DHS officers pushed the crowd of protesters back. Without warning, pepper balls and gas canisters began flying at the attendees. Rubber bullets were also allegedly used to aim at those who stayed behind despite the gas cloud.
Some people in attendance did not have gas masks on and were seen falling over, having to be carried by street medics on the scene. At one point, as medics helped a man with burns from the tear gas canister, DHS officers standing on the roof of the facility aimed another gas canister at the group.
Despite the use of less than lethals by officers, the crowd quickly gathered around again. People in costumes continued dancing and music continued to be played. A few rounds of pepper balls were shot around 9:40 p.m. but the scene remained relatively quiet as the crowd slowly dispersed.
No arrests have been reported by Portland Police Bureau or DHS.
