Federal agents deploy gas in crowd, arrest protesters at Portland ICE facility
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Federal agents took several protesters into custody and deployed gas and pepper balls at least three times against a crowd of hundreds who gathered for a demonstration in front of the Portland ICE facility Saturday afternoon.
There was a noticeable contingent of counter-protesters among those gathered at the ICE facility throughout the day.
The events initially began as a march from Elizabeth Caruthers Park to the ICE facility organized primarily by Portland Contra Las Deportaciones (PDXCD).
One of the protesters into taken into custody was Holly Brown, one of the organizers of the march.
Brown, who was released around 5:30 p.m., said it was "really horrible inside."
"There's different holding cells with, like, really harsh fluorescent lights. There's no bedding. It's just like concrete. And the phones didn't work. They didn't have phones working in the entire facility," Brown told KOIN 6 News. "There's, all these different, like, posters on the wall encouraging people to self-deport. It's a really horrible, horrible place."
She said she was charged with trespassing on federal property.
KOIN 6 News saw at least one other person released from ICE custody. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security have not responded to a KOIN 6 News request for details on how many people were arrested on Saturday.
The mood temporarily cooled down after the initial use of tear gas and protesters were seen dancing in the street. Then at round 3 p.m., after some vehicles were let through the streets near the facility, federal agents deployed more gas against protesters.
Dozens of pepper balls were also deployed by federal agents around 7 p.m. Then, shortly before 9 p.m., KOIN 6 News saw federal agents tear gas groups of people who were blocks away from the ICE facility.
"What we did not expect in the targeted arrests was the full-on pushing that they did," protester Rainbow told KOIN 6 News. "In the pushing, I ended up getting clocked in the eye by one of the federal agents, then they started tear gassing really bad."
Rainbow said she saw an elderly couple in the group of protesters. The woman got hit in the head with a tear gas canister and began bleeding, eventually receiving help from medics. Rainbow claimed federal agents "tear-gassed the heck out of" the man who was using a walker to move around.
Rainbow added that since there were elderly people in the group who marched, they were not expecting this level of force.
"Pepper bullets? Yeah. Tear gas? no," she said.
A large presence of Portland police were also observed in full gear and staged a few blocks away from the ICE facility.
Coming on the heels of President Trump announcing his intent to send federal troops to Portland, there have been peaceful demonstrations, as well as a steady presence of protesters outside the facility and multiple arrests made, including that of a prominent right-wing influencer.