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The South Dakota governor, who holds the position of the homeland security secretary, conducted a tour the ICE facility in Portland on a recent weekday. During her visit, she witnessed a small gathering outside, which stands in stark contrast to the dramatic "siege" described by the former president.

Accompanied by MAGA Personalities

Governor Noem was escorted by a trio of MAGA-aligned personalities who were transported from the airport to the site in her official convoy. Her department has shared more aggressive social media content showing federal personnel carrying out enforcement operations and using chemical irritants at demonstrators.

Protest Scene

Portland police established a perimeter outside the ICE office in the Portland's waterfront district before the governor's arrival. A small group protesters, featuring one dressed as a fowl and another as a shark, were kept at a distance.

Music played loudly from a demonstration site close by, with a refrain referencing Donald Trump and allegations. One protester shouted to a federal recorder filming from the facility's roof, asking whether the Department of Homeland Security had been dubbed the "information ministry".

Reporting Details

Members of the press from nonpartisan media organizations were also kept at the barrier outside, while the conservative personalities in her party—Benny Johnson, Nick Sortor, and David Media—posted online posts of the Noem leading federal personnel in prayer inside, offering a encouraging words, and advising a soldier of the state guard to "Get ready".

Recent Rulings

Governor Noem has previously echoed the president’s claims that the group of individuals—who have assembled in their dozens outside the site since the summer, including one in an inflatable frog costume—are "terrorists" who have placed the facility "besieged", making the use of government forces critical.

But, on last weekend, a U.S. judge in Oregon blocked his effort to federalize Oregon’s National Guard, determining that the his claims that the generally nonviolent city was "burning to the ground" were "untethered to the facts".

A day later, the same judge, Judge Immergut—who was nominated to the court by Donald Trump—broadened the ruling to prohibit National Guard troops from any jurisdiction from being deployed in Portland. The judge ruled after Trump reacted to her first order by trying to deploy members of the another state's militia to Portland.

Increased Confrontations

Since Trump highlighted the small but persistent gathering outside the office and made unsubstantiated allegations that Portland is "battle-scarred", a rising count of his supporters, including conservative personalities, have turned up to challenge the demonstrators.

Several of these encounters have led to scuffles and brawls, prompting arrests by the officers. A conservative personality was among those arrested after he tried to force his way a demonstration site on a sidewalk near the ICE facility and was engaged in a fight over an national banner. He had previously removed the flag from a demonstrator who was destroying it.

Legal accusations against him were subsequently withdrawn after an backlash in right-wing outlets induced the chief of the rights office of the DOJ, a department official, to suggest a review of the Portland Police Bureau over supposed political bias.

The two women the influencer was arrested for fighting with still have pending accusations.

Government Statements

On Sunday, Oregon’s governor, she, alleged federal officers in the ICE facility of trying to provoke the crowds by using disproportionate amounts of chemical irritants in a populated area and including right-wing personalities to record the gathering from the roof of the building. "Their actions are meant to provoke," Kotek said.

A trio of those MAGA-aligned figures were referred to in a police report last month as "opposing demonstrators" who "repeatedly come back and antagonize the demonstrators until they are attacked or exposed to irritants" and resist "repeated advice from officers to keep clear of" the group.

Influencer Activities

Benny Johnson, a ex-reporter who reinvented himself as a partisan figure after being fired from a media outlet for ethical violations, published a clip of the secretary looking down from the top of the site at the small group of protesters below, including Jack Dickinson who wears a chicken costume to ridicule Donald Trump. The influencer captioned the clip of the secretary inspecting the peaceful setting below: "Governor Noem faces off against radicals and a chicken-clad individual".

In spite of the difference between the allegations from Trump and Noem that this site is "encircled" from "homegrown extremists" and clear visual evidence of a limited group of demonstrators in non-threatening attire, the personalities with Noem continued to label the group as dangerous radicals.

Meeting with Police Chief

On site, the secretary also engaged with the city's top cop, Chief Day, who has been caricatured as "politically correct" in partisan press for authorizing his officers to detain Sortor. In a digital announcement on the meeting, the influencer stated that the chief had "sided with violent ANTIFA militants confronting journalists and officers outside ICE facility".

The secretary's convoy then left the office past a handful of individuals on the exterior, including one wearing a animal wearing a sombrero.