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The South Dakota governor, who holds the position of the head of the Department of Homeland Security, inspected the ICE facility in Portland on a recent weekday. While there, she saw firsthand a modest demonstration outside, which contrasts sharply to the dramatic "encirclement" alleged by former President Donald Trump.

Joined by Right-Wing Media Figures

Noem was joined by a trio of conservative influencers who were transported from the airport to the site in her official convoy. DHS has shared more aggressive online posts depicting federal personnel carrying out enforcement operations and deploying tear gas at demonstrators.

Protest Scene

Local law enforcement established a perimeter outside the facility in the city’s south waterfront neighborhood before the governor's appearance. A small group demonstrators, among them one wearing a costume of a bird and another as a shark, were maintained behind barriers.

Music blared from a demonstration site close by, with lyrics about Trump and controversial documents. One protester yelled to a government videographer filming from the roof, asking whether the DHS had been referred to as the "ministry of propaganda".

Reporting Details

Reporters from nonpartisan news outlets were also restricted to the security perimeter outside, while the MAGA-aligned figures in her party—three right-wing influencers—shared social media updates of the governor conducting federal officers in a prayer session inside, delivering a pep talk, and instructing a member of the state guard to "Be ready".

Recent Rulings

The secretary has supported the president’s assertions that the group of demonstrators—who have rallied in their limited groups outside the site since June, including one in an inflatable frog costume—are "extremists" who have placed the building "besieged", making the use of DHS agents necessary.

But, on a recent weekend, a U.S. judge in Portland blocked Trump’s effort to nationalize Oregon’s National Guard, stating that the president’s allegations that the largely peaceful city was "burning to the ground" were "without evidence".

A day later, the court official, Judge Immergut—who was selected to the court by Donald Trump—broadened the ruling to block guard members from other states from being used in the city. She acted after he reacted to her first order by attempting to use members of the California National Guard to Oregon.

Increased Confrontations

Since Trump drew attention the limited yet ongoing gathering outside the ICE facility and made inaccurate statements that the city is "war ravaged", a growing number of his supporters, including MAGA influencers, have arrived to face the protesters.

Some of these confrontations have led to fights and fistfights, resulting in arrests by the officers. One influencer was taken into custody after he tried to force his way a gathering on a walkway near the site and was engaged in a fight over an U.S. flag. He had earlier removed the flag from a protester who was setting it on fire.

Criminal counts against the influencer were later dropped after an outcry in right-wing outlets prompted the head of the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, a department official, to suggest a review of the law enforcement agency over alleged anti-conservative bias.

Female protesters the influencer was involved in an altercation with still have pending accusations.

Government Statements

Over the weekend, Governor Tina Kotek, the governor, alleged government personnel in the ICE facility of trying to provoke the crowds by using disproportionate amounts of chemical irritants in a residential neighborhood and bringing in conservative social media influencers to record the crowd from the upper level of the building. "They are deliberately inciting," she commented.

Several of those conservative influencers were described in a police report last month as "counter-protesters" who "frequently reappear and provoke the individuals until they are attacked or subjected to spray" and resist "ongoing instructions from law enforcement to stay away from" the demonstrators.

Online Content

One influencer, a previous media worker who reinvented himself as a right-wing commentator after being fired from BuzzFeed for plagiarism, posted video of the secretary viewing from the roof of the office at the handful of protesters below, including Jack Dickinson who sports a fowl suit to mock Trump. Johnson labeled the video of Noem observing the calm environment below: "Secretary Noem confronts Antifa militants and a costumed protester".

In spite of the disconnect between the allegations from Trump and Noem that this facility is "under siege" from "radicals" and clear visual evidence of a handful of protesters in harmless costumes, the figures with her continued to refer to the protesters as threatening extremists.

Meeting with Police Chief

During her visit, Noem also held a discussion with the city's top cop, Bob Day, who has been caricatured as "woke" in partisan press for authorizing his law enforcement to detain Nick Sortor. In a digital announcement on the engagement, Johnson asserted that the official had "sided with violent ANTIFA militants confronting journalists and officers outside ICE facility".

The secretary's convoy then exited the facility past a handful of demonstrators on the nearby road, including one dressed as a animal wearing a hat.