Politics
NEW: Portland Police Clear Antifa Camp After DHS Ultimatum
In a surprising turn of events, Portland Police officers cleared out far-left encampments outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility that has been under violent siege for months. The shocking turnaround comes after the federal government threatened to pull significant amounts of funding and massively increase federal deployments to contain the unrest.
According to a report from Oregon Live, a large contingent of officers arrived around 8:30 p.m. local time and ordered protesters to clear a path along the sidewalk. Officers told protesters that they would begin the process of issuing citations for “low-level” violations such was blocking sidewalks, consuming alcohol or drugs in public, jaywalking and similar public disorder offenses in the coming days.
On-the-ground reporters who have been covering the unrest reported that the crackdown appears to have worked, as the crowd outside the facility had largely dissipated. “After 140 days of controlling and camping on this street in Portland, ANTIFA has officially been cleared out as the police FINALLY stepped in and cleared the encampment,” investigative journalist Nick Shirley posted on X.
“Inside the encampment they had loads full of medicine, medical gear, party supplies, a fridge, bbq, etc… ANTIFAs 140 days of control has officially come to an end,” he added.
Portland Police had faced criticism from local residents and federal officials for months over the refusal to clear the encampment and quell the unrest. The Justice Department opened an investigation into their practices earlier this month after a prominent conservative journalist was arrested while violent rioters had been allowed to roam free for months.
Despite the sudden shift, Portland Police Bureau Sgt. Kevin Allen claimed that Saturday’s enforcement operation did not represent any shift in policy.
“At the direction of the Crowd Management Incident Commander, officers requested the group ensure access to the sidewalk and advised them of the legal consequences if they did not,” he wrote in an email. “The City of Portland has abated this encampment several times over the past few months. This was simply an effort to maintain compliance.”
🚨ANTIFA HAS BEEN DISMANTLED IN PORTLAND
After 140 days of controlling and camping on this street in Portland, ANTIFA has officially been cleared out as the police FINALLY stepped in and cleared the encampment.Inside the encampment they had loads full of medicine, medical… pic.twitter.com/NMEnOd1wSV
— Nick shirley (@nickshirleyy) October 26, 2025
Officers told protesters that they were issuing warnings for Saturday, but stressed that enforcement would be in effect going forward.
“What we haven’t been enforcing is, like, the drinking in public, standing in the middle of the street, the blocking vehicles, just kind of stuff like that,” one officer told a protester across from the ICE building. “If you can stand on this sidewalk and peacefully protest, that’s great. If you want to be over here with an open can, blocking traffic, doing all this stuff, then we’re going to start enforcing those things.”
The crackdown comes just weeks after Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem met with city officials and warned that a massive federal surge to the city would begin if the rioters were not reigned in. Noem stated that she gave both Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, as well as Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, an ultimatum.
“I met with him and also the superintendent of the state police. I told them what we wanted; we wanted more security here at the building a bigger buffer zone to keep our officers safe. We wanted to have their streets opened up again and not let the anarchists run this city anymore,” the secretary said of her meeting with the mayor. Ultimately, Noem left the meeting feeling as though the mayor would continue to “play politics” and allow violence to continue.
“He did not commit to any of those promises and said that he’d give me an answer by tomorrow. And I’m hopeful that he will. What I told him is that if he did not follow through on some of these security measures for our officers, we were going to cover him up with more federal resources. And that we were going to send four times the amount of federal officers here so that the people of Portland could have some safety.”
