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The South Dakota governor, currently serving as the DHS secretary, conducted a tour the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in the city of Portland on a recent weekday. While there, she observed a modest gathering outside, which contrasts sharply to the dramatic "encirclement" claimed by Donald Trump.

Escorted by Right-Wing Media Figures

Noem was joined by a set of conservative influencers who were transported from the local airport to the site in her official convoy. DHS has recently produced increasingly belligerent social media content showing federal officers performing enforcement operations and firing chemical irritants at demonstrators.

Protest Scene

Local law enforcement secured the area outside the ICE office in the southern Portland area before the governor's visit. A small group demonstrators, featuring one dressed as a bird and another as a sea creature, were held back.

Audio blared from a demonstration site nearby, with words mentioning Donald Trump and controversial documents. Someone called out to a federal recorder filming from the roof, challenging whether the DHS had been dubbed the "information ministry".

Press Coverage

Journalists from nonpartisan media organizations were also kept at the police line outside, while the MAGA-aligned figures in Noem’s entourage—three right-wing influencers—posted online posts of the secretary participating in federal officers in prayer inside, giving a pep talk, and telling a member of the militia to "Be ready".

Legal and Political Context

Noem has supported the former president's claims that the small band of individuals—who have assembled in their dozens outside the site since June, including one in an amphibian suit—are "radicals" who have placed the facility "in a state of siege", making the use of government forces critical.

But, on last weekend, a U.S. judge in Portland prevented his effort to nationalize Oregon’s National Guard, ruling that the president’s allegations that the mostly calm city was "in flames" were "untethered to the facts".

Following that, the same judge, Judge Immergut—who was selected to the judiciary by the former president—extended the decision to prevent guard members from elsewhere from being deployed in Portland. The judge ruled after he responded to her initial ruling by seeking to use members of the another state's militia to Oregon.

Escalating Tensions

After Donald Trump drew attention the modest but continuous demonstration outside the site and made unsubstantiated allegations that Portland is "in a state of war", a rising count of his adherents, including right-wing figures, have appeared to challenge the demonstrators.

A number of these confrontations have led to scuffles and fistfights, leading to apprehensions by the Portland police. One influencer was one of those detained after he tried to force his way a gathering on a pavement near the office and was part of an altercation over an national banner. The influencer had before taken the flag from a protester who was destroying it.

The charges against Sortor were subsequently withdrawn after an protest in right-wing outlets led the chief of the civil rights division of the DOJ, a department official, to warn of a probe of the local police over claimed partisan treatment.

Two individuals the influencer was detained over a conflict with still face charges.

Government Statements

Recently, Oregon’s governor, she, claimed federal officers in the office of trying to antagonize the demonstrators by using unnecessary levels of crowd control agents in a populated area and inviting partisan figures to document the protesters from the upper level of the site. "Their actions are meant to provoke," Kotek said.

A trio of those conservative influencers were referred to in a law enforcement document last month as "anti-protest individuals" who "constantly return and harass the protesters until they are confronted or pepper sprayed" and decline "frequent warnings from police to keep clear of" the demonstrators.

Influencer Activities

One influencer, a previous media worker who changed careers as a Christian nationalist influencer after being dismissed from a media outlet for content theft, shared footage of Governor Noem looking down from the roof of the office at the small group of individuals below, including a protest organizer who sports a chicken costume to taunt Donald Trump. Johnson captioned the video of Noem inspecting the calm environment below: "Governor Noem faces off against radicals and a chicken-clad individual".

In spite of the contrast between the claims from Trump and Noem that this site is "under siege" from "domestic terrorists" and visible proof of a limited group of individuals in non-threatening attire, the figures with her continued to refer to the demonstrators as harmful activists.

Official Engagement

On site, Noem also engaged with the law enforcement head, the chief, who has been portrayed as "liberal" in partisan press for allowing his law enforcement to arrest the influencer. In a social media update on the engagement, the influencer stated that the chief had "supported violent ANTIFA militants assaulting journalists and officers outside ICE facility".

Noem’s motorcade then left the site past a handful of demonstrators on the street outside, including one in the costume of a animal wearing a hat.