President Donald Trump has made good on his promise to send federal troops to Portland.
In an online post on Truth Social, which Trump founded, the president said he would provide “all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland.”
The Saturday morning announcement was preceded Friday by unusual mass movements of federal agents at the U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility south of downtown Portland.
The nightly protests held by left-wing groups began early this summer. They were sometimes sleepy affairs, but saw periodic flare-ups.
In recent weeks, Trump has become more fixated on Portland. And the announcement of federal troops in Portland may draw larger crowds of protesters in the days and nights ahead.
Here’s how the situation has developed so far:
A timeline of protest outside ICE in SW Portland
June 2: Federal authorities arrest an asylum-seeker at Portland’s Immigration Court. Observers believe it to be the first such arrest in Portland in Trump’s immigration dragnet.
June 4: Federal officers detain three protesters at the ICE Office who had been blocking a van they believed was headed to Tacoma, where ICE has a much larger detention facility. Federal authorities make another arrest of an asylum-seeker in Portland Immigration Court.
June 6: Protests erupt in Los Angeles as federal agents conduct immigration sweeps in the city. Trump soon vows to send 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, sparking wider protests, including in Portland.
June 8 — June 13: Portland police clear a barricade protesters had set up in front of the ICE building. The next day, Police Chief Bob Day says officers will no longer help clear barricades and “will not be engaging with any kind of perceived or actual support of vans or transports or anything of that nature.”
Due to Oregon’s “sanctuary” law, no state or local law enforcement agencies are allowed to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
Protests continue, with federal agents deploying tear gas. Portland police arrest 13 people in this period for crimes such as arson, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, with 10 alone the night of June 12.
June 14: Hundreds of people protest outside the facility following a “No Kings” march earlier that day attended by tens of thousands of demonstrators. Several people use a stop sign as a makeshift battering ram and shatter the glass front door of the ICE building. Portland police declare a riot and federal officers deploy smoke, tear gas, flash grenades and other projectiles. Police make three arrests.
June 15: Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, reacting to troop deployment in Los Angeles, says Portland does not need the help or presence of National Guard troops.
June 19: The last time Portland police make an arrest in the protests, bringing the total to 25.
June 24: Portland police chief tells members of the Portland City Council that his agency is looking at ways to scale back its policing of ICE protests. The same night, a Portland police team observing a protest says in a debrief, “if it were not ICE, we could assist directly,” according to a police activity log.
July 4: A large protest outside the ICE facility leads to four more arrests on federal charges, bringing the number of people federal authorities have arrested to 22. Portland police monitor the protest from an airplane and bike officers remind protesters they can’t set off fireworks but don’t make any arrests as federal officers and protesters clash.
July 8: Trump’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan name-checks Portland, pledging that immigration agents would be “doubling down, tripling down” on enforcement. “I’m going to Portland,” Homan said. “I’m going out there. They are not going to bully us.”
July 11: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says anarchists and antifa-affiliated groups in Portland were publishing names, photos and personal addresses of ICE officers.
July 19: Around 60 people gathered at the ICE building and several called 911 dispatchers about an altercation with a counterprotester armed with a pepperball gun, according to 911 call records. The crowd dwindled to about 30 by around midnight. “The groups were low energy and seated quietly,” a police sergeant wrote in an email to his superiors, records show.
July 25: The first hearing begins in Multnomah County Circuit Court for a lawsuit seeking to force the city to enforce noise ordinances around the ICE building. Assistant Chief Craig Dobson testifies that federal officers are “actually instigating and causing some of the ruckus that’s occurring down there.”
Aug. 14: Multnomah County Senior Judge Ellen Rosenblum, a former Oregon attorney general, rules police aren’t required to enforce noise rules at protests outside the ICE facility.
Aug. 20: Homan visits Portland’s ICE facility. In a message posted to social media platform X, Homan says he visited to let agents “know that President Trump and I have their six” — a reference to having someone’s back.
Aug 21: A protester who was shoved from behind and tackled by federal authorities notifies the Department of Homeland Security he plans to sue, according to a copy of his tort claim notice. The protester, Daryn Herzberg, claimed that federal officers pinned him down during a protest Aug. 13 and “held him in teargas” for several minutes. Officers tackled him again three days later, he claimed, with one of them repeatedly hitting Herzberg’s face into the ground.
Aug. 26: Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer tells Trump, “I hope you will come to Portland, Oregon and crack down.”
Sept. 1: Following a large protest downtown, over 100 people march from a nearby park to the ICE building. Some protesters bring a makeshift guillotine. Federal officers deploy chemical gas and pepperballs at the crowd.
Sept. 4: Fox News airs a report about the Labor Day protest with footage of 2025 protests outside ICE. Mixed in misleadingly are clips from 2020 protests. One shows a federal officer pepper spraying a person in downtown Portland. Another shows protesters burning the base of the Thompson Elk Fountain.
Sept. 5: Citing television news reports, Trump says he is weighing federal intervention in Portland due to the protests. ”They’ve ruined that city,” Trump says. “It’s like living in hell.” Gov. Tina Kotek decries the “threats to deploy National Guard troops in Portland” as “absurd, unlawful and un-American.”
Sept. 8: The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 26 people have been charged with federal offenses at the ICE building since June 13.
Sept. 17: In a surprise move, city officials announce that ICE has violated its land use agreement. The immigration facility is not allowed to hold detainees in custody for longer than 12 hours but did so on 25 occasions since October 2024, according to the city’s data analysis. The move opens a door for the city to force ICE to move, if the facility does not address violations.
Sept. 19: The Oregonian/OregonLive publishes video evidence of federal agents striking and unleashing chemical spray on nonviolent protesters. In response to the newspaper’s reporting, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson calls the federal use of force against protesters “deeply troubling” and calls for a full investigation. Trump again lashes out against Portland, and repeats an ominous vow: “Just people out of control and crazy. We’re going to stop that pretty soon.”
Sept. 22: The president signs an executive order designating antifa a “major terrorist organization,” repeating a tactic from his first term. Experts say the president lacks legal authority to designate a terrorist organization, and the move is unlikely to trigger any changes to existing law.
Sept. 25: Trump makes a third threat to send additional federal law enforcement to Portland, calling the black-clad demonstrators seen in Portland “professional agitators and anarchists.” U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, and others quietly inspect the ICE office as part of their congressional oversight duties.
Sept. 26: Citing evidence of a “sudden influx” of federal officers, Mayor Keith Wilson warns of a coming confrontation. Merkley urges Portlanders not “to take the bait,” and notes that most of the officers seen at ICE have been deployed from the Federal Protective Service.
Sept. 27: Trump announces on social media that he will send “all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland,” citing the need to protect the ICE facility from “Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”
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