Portland Mayor Demands ICE Exit City Following Controversial Protest Response

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson has called for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to leave the city after federal officers deployed tear gas, pepper balls, flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets against demonstrators outside an ICE facility last Saturday.

In a strongly worded statement, Wilson characterized the protest as peaceful, saying the “vast majority of those present violated no laws, made no threat, and posed no danger to federal forces.” The mayor took the unusual step of urging ICE agents to resign, condemning what he described as their “use of violence” and “trampling of the Constitution.”

“To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave,” Wilson stated. “Through your use of violence and the trampling of the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame.”

The mayor’s comments highlight growing tensions between local governments and federal immigration authorities in several major cities across the United States. Portland officials are now working to implement a recently passed ordinance that imposes fees on detention facilities that use chemical agents, which went into effect last month.

“As we prepare to put that law into action, we are also documenting today’s events and preserving evidence,” Wilson noted. “The federal government must, and will, be held accountable.”

The confrontation in Portland occurs amid heightened national scrutiny of immigration enforcement tactics following two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January.

On January 7, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. Just weeks later, on January 24, Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez fatally shot Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, while he was recording immigration enforcement operations in the same city.

According to video footage and witness accounts, Pretti appeared to be attempting to assist a woman whom agents had knocked down when he was sprayed with an irritant, pushed to the ground and beaten. Witnesses reported that an agent was later seen pulling Pretti’s legally owned firearm from his waistband before other agents fired several shots, killing him.

The incidents have sparked bipartisan criticism of federal immigration enforcement methods. The controversy reflects broader debates about the appropriate role of federal agencies in local communities and the balance between immigration enforcement and civil liberties.

In his statement, Mayor Wilson emphasized Portland’s commitment to supporting immigrant residents. “Portland will continue to stand firmly with our immigrant neighbors, who deserve safety, dignity, and the full protection of the communities they help build,” he said. “We are also proud of the Portlanders who showed up today in peaceful solidarity, demonstrating the strength and clarity of those shared values in the face of federal overreach.”

Wilson warned that the nation “will never accept a federal presence where agents wield deadly force against the very people they are sworn to serve,” adding that he shared the community’s impatience to use “every legal tool at our disposal to push back against this inexcusable, unconscionable, and unacceptable violence.”

The standoff in Portland represents the latest chapter in ongoing tensions between progressive city administrations and federal immigration authorities, with similar conflicts emerging recently in Chicago, where Mayor Brandon Johnson has also taken measures to limit ICE operations in his city.

As protests continue and legal challenges mount, the dispute underscores the complex and increasingly fractious relationship between local and federal authorities on immigration enforcement policy.