🔗 Share this article South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem Visits Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement Center Amid MAGA Influencers Kristi Noem, currently serving as the DHS secretary, conducted a tour the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the city of Portland on Tuesday. While there, she saw firsthand a limited protest outside, which differs significantly to the fiery "encirclement" alleged by Donald Trump. Joined by Conservative Influencers The secretary was escorted by a set of right-wing figures who were whisked from the airport to the facility in her motorcade. The Department of Homeland Security has recently produced escalating social media content featuring federal personnel carrying out immigration raids and deploying chemical irritants at crowds. Gathering Outside Local law enforcement secured the area outside the ICE office in the city’s south waterfront neighborhood before the secretary’s arrival. A handful protesters, featuring one in the outfit of a bird and another as a shark, were held back. Audio blared from a protest encampment down the street, with a refrain about the former president and Epstein files. Someone yelled to a government videographer recording from the top of the building, questioning whether the Department of Homeland Security had been renamed the "propaganda department". Press Coverage Journalists from nonpartisan media organizations were also restricted to the barrier outside, while the conservative personalities in Noem’s entourage—the conservative trio—broadcast social media updates of the secretary leading federal officers in religious observance inside, delivering a pep talk, and advising a member of the militia to "Prepare". Recent Rulings The secretary has repeated the former president's assertions that the group of demonstrators—who have assembled in their dozens outside the ICE facility since the summer, including one in an frog outfit—are "terrorists" who have placed the office "in a state of siege", making the sending of federal troops necessary. Yet, on a recent weekend, a U.S. judge in Portland blocked his effort to bring under federal control local militia, ruling that the his claims that the generally nonviolent city was "being destroyed" were "not based on reality". Following that, the judge, Karin Immergut—who was appointed to the judiciary by Trump—extended the decision to block guard members from any jurisdiction from being sent in the city. The judge ruled after the former president responded to her previous decision by seeking to deploy members of the another state's militia to the state. Rising Conflicts After Trump focused on the modest but continuous protest outside the ICE facility and made unsubstantiated allegations that the city is "battle-scarred", a growing number of his followers, including right-wing figures, have arrived to confront the individuals. Several of these encounters have led to scuffles and physical fights, prompting detentions by the local law enforcement. Nick Sortor was among those arrested after he attempted to push through a demonstration site on a sidewalk near the office and was part of an altercation over an U.S. flag. Sortor had previously seized the banner from a individual who was destroying it. Criminal counts against him were later dropped after an protest in right-wing outlets led the leader of the rights office of the Justice Department, the division head, to threaten an investigation of the Portland Police Bureau over claimed anti-conservative bias. Female protesters he was involved in an altercation with still are under legal scrutiny. Official Responses Over the weekend, Governor Tina Kotek, she, accused government personnel in the office of trying to antagonize the crowds by using excessive quantities of chemical irritants in a populated area and bringing in partisan figures to document the crowd from the roof of the facility. "Their actions are meant to provoke," she commented. Several of those right-wing personalities were described in a law enforcement document last month as "opposing demonstrators" who "constantly return and provoke the individuals until they are attacked or pepper sprayed" and refuse "frequent warnings from officers to avoid" the group. Online Content A conservative personality, a previous media worker who changed careers as a partisan figure after being fired from a media outlet for plagiarism, shared video of Governor Noem viewing from the top of the site at the limited number of protesters below, including an individual who sports a chicken costume to mock Trump. Johnson labeled the footage of the secretary observing the peaceful setting below: "Secretary Noem confronts Antifa militants and a costumed protester". Despite the disconnect between the allegations from Trump and Noem that this site is "besieged" from "homegrown extremists" and obvious footage of a limited group of protesters in harmless costumes, the influencers with her continued to refer to the group as threatening extremists. Meeting with Police Chief During her visit, the secretary also met with the city's top cop, Bob Day, who has been depicted as "politically correct" in conservative media for permitting his law enforcement to arrest the influencer. In a social media update on the engagement, Johnson claimed that the police head had "supported violent ANTIFA militants attacking journalists and officers outside ICE facility". Noem’s motorcade then exited the site past a few of protesters on the exterior, including one in the costume of a animal wearing a headgear.