🔗 Share this article South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem Tours Portland ICE Facility With Conservative Personalities The South Dakota governor, who holds the position of the DHS secretary, visited the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Portland on Tuesday. While there, she witnessed a modest gathering outside, which stands in stark contrast to the fiery "encirclement" claimed by former President Donald Trump. Accompanied by Conservative Influencers Governor Noem was escorted by a group of MAGA-aligned personalities who were driven from the local airport to the facility in her motorcade. The Department of Homeland Security has recently produced increasingly belligerent digital updates featuring federal agents performing immigration raids and deploying chemical irritants at demonstrators. Gathering Outside Local law enforcement secured the area outside the ICE office in the southern Portland area before the secretary’s appearance. A small group demonstrators, including one dressed as a fowl and another as a shark, were kept at a distance. Audio was audible from a demonstration site nearby, with words about Trump and Epstein files. Someone called out to a government videographer recording from the roof, asking whether the Department of Homeland Security had been referred to as the "ministry of propaganda". Press Coverage Members of the press from nonpartisan media organizations were also held behind the barrier outside, while the MAGA-aligned figures in Noem’s entourage—Benny Johnson, Nick Sortor, and David Media—posted online posts of the Noem participating in federal agents in prayer inside, offering a motivational speech, and advising a soldier of the Oregon National Guard to "Prepare". Background Developments Noem has supported the Trump's claims that the handful of demonstrators—who have rallied in their small numbers outside the ICE facility since recent months, including one in an amphibian suit—are "extremists" who have placed the office "in a state of siege", making the sending of federal troops necessary. Yet, on a recent weekend, a court official in Portland blocked the former president's effort to bring under federal control the state's guard, ruling that the president’s claims that the generally nonviolent city was "burning to the ground" were "not based on reality". The next day, the court official, Judge Immergut—who was nominated to the bench by Donald Trump—extended the decision to block guard members from any jurisdiction from being deployed in Portland. The judge ruled after the former president answered to her first order by seeking to deploy members of the California's guard to Oregon. Increased Confrontations Following Donald Trump highlighted the modest but continuous demonstration outside the office and made inaccurate statements that Portland is "war ravaged", a growing number of his adherents, including conservative personalities, have arrived to confront the demonstrators. Several of these confrontations have resulted in scuffles and physical fights, leading to detentions by the local law enforcement. One influencer was one of those detained after he attempted to push through a gathering on a sidewalk near the ICE facility and was engaged in a fight over an U.S. flag. The influencer had earlier removed the flag from a demonstrator who was burning it. Legal accusations against him were later dropped after an backlash in right-wing outlets led the head of the legal unit of the DOJ, a department official, to threaten an investigation of the Portland Police Bureau over supposed anti-conservative bias. Two individuals Sortor was detained over a conflict with still are under legal scrutiny. Government Statements On Sunday, Governor Tina Kotek, she, alleged DHS agents in the office of trying to antagonize the protesters by using excessive quantities of crowd control agents in a populated area and bringing in partisan figures to document the protesters from the roof of the building. "They are deliberately inciting," Kotek said. A trio of those conservative influencers were mentioned in a official record last month as "opposing demonstrators" who "repeatedly come back and harass the demonstrators until they are attacked or subjected to spray" and refuse "repeated advice from officers to stay away from" the protesters. Online Content A conservative personality, a previous media worker who changed careers as a Christian nationalist influencer after being fired from a media outlet for content theft, shared footage of the secretary viewing from the roof of the office at the small group of demonstrators below, including an individual who sports a bird outfit to taunt Donald Trump. The influencer captioned the video of Noem viewing the placid scene below: "Governor Noem faces off against radicals and a chicken-clad individual". Despite the disconnect between the assertions from the former president and the secretary that this ICE field office is "under siege" from "homegrown extremists" and clear visual evidence of a limited group of individuals in non-threatening attire, the personalities with Noem continued to refer to the protesters as dangerous radicals. Official Engagement While in Portland, the secretary also held a discussion with the Portland police chief, Chief Day, who has been portrayed as "liberal" in right-wing outlets for allowing his personnel to arrest the influencer. In a digital announcement on the engagement, Benny Johnson stated that the chief had "sided with violent ANTIFA militants confronting journalists and officers outside ICE facility". Noem’s motorcade then drove out the facility past a handful of protesters on the nearby road, including one in the costume of a animal wearing a hat.