Portland Police chief speaks on ICE facility activity after 2 protest arrests

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Portland's police chief spoke on Monday afternoon about how the local law enforcement agency made two arrests during otherwise mostly peaceful protests on Sunday night outside of the city's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after President Donald Trump announced federal troops would be arriving in the city.

Police said they witnessed some physical altercations between opposing protesters, and around 9:30 p.m., they arrested a 17-year-old and then a 38-year-old man. Both were booked on assault charges.

Police Chief Bob Day spoke on the recent activity around the ICE facility building on Monday afternoon.

"I really am proud of the work we are doing," Day said. "But I want to emphasize that political violence is not acceptable. Violence in the city is not acceptable. I am super proud of where we have come in the last couple years around public order events as well as the reduction of crime. But we will not accept or tolerate people coming down to the south waterfront for the purpose of engaging in violence."

The full press conference can be watched in the video player below.

The ICE facility has been the target of protests since early June, which has seen regular, smaller gatherings and few arrests compared to the social justice protests of 2020. Recently, the City of Portland announced it would be issuing a land use violation notice for the facility, located in the city's South Portland neighborhood.

“Federal government records from a 10-month period show more than two dozen detention policy violations of the facility’s land use conditions of approval with the city, which does not allow detainees to be kept overnight or held for more than 12 hours. The notice also references a second violation related to boarded windows, which is not associated with the land use approval,” Cody Bowman, a City of Portland spokesperson, said in a statement on Sept. 17.

However, tensions grew over the weekend after Trump announced he would be sending federal troops to "war ravaged" Portland and was authorizing the use of "full force, if necessary" to quell "domestic terrorists." Last week, Trump signed an executive order targeting the anti-fascist movement, commonly referred to as antifa, which experts say is a diverse ideology with no clear central leadership.