🔗 Share this article South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem Tours Oregon Immigration and Customs Enforcement Facility Amid Right-Wing Figures The South Dakota governor, currently serving as the head of the Department of Homeland Security, inspected the federal immigration enforcement facility in the city of Portland on a recent weekday. On site, she saw firsthand a small protest outside, which differs significantly to the dramatic "encirclement" alleged by the former president. Joined by MAGA Personalities Noem was escorted by a group of right-wing figures who were transported from the local airport to the site in her motorcade. The Department of Homeland Security has shared escalating online posts showing federal officers conducting raids and using crowd control measures at protesters. Gathering Outside Portland police established a perimeter outside the facility in the city’s south waterfront neighborhood before the Noem's appearance. Several protesters, including one wearing a costume of a bird and another as a sea creature, were held back. A song was audible from a gathering spot down the street, with a refrain about Donald Trump and allegations. A demonstrator shouted to a official camera operator filming from the facility's roof, challenging whether the homeland security had been renamed the "ministry of propaganda". Press Coverage Journalists from mainstream publications were also kept at the police line outside, while the MAGA-aligned figures in the secretary's group—three right-wing influencers—posted social media updates of the governor conducting federal personnel in prayer inside, delivering a motivational speech, and advising a individual of the state guard to "Get ready". Recent Rulings The secretary has previously echoed the president’s assertions that the handful of individuals—who have assembled in their small numbers outside the site since June, including one in an inflatable frog costume—are "radicals" who have placed the office "besieged", making the use of DHS agents essential. However, on Saturday, a U.S. judge in Oregon prevented the former president's effort to nationalize local militia, determining that the president’s allegations that the mostly calm city was "being destroyed" were "without evidence". The next day, the court official, Karin Immergut—who was nominated to the bench by Donald Trump—expanded her order to block guard members from any jurisdiction from being deployed in Oregon. The judge ruled after he reacted to her first order by trying to use members of the another state's militia to Portland. Escalating Tensions Since the former president focused on the small but persistent gathering outside the site and made inaccurate statements that Oregon is "battle-scarred", a increasing amount of his followers, including conservative personalities, have appeared to challenge the demonstrators. Several of these clashes have caused altercations and fistfights, prompting detentions by the Portland police. One influencer was one of those detained after he tried to force his way a demonstration site on a walkway near the ICE facility and was engaged in a fight over an national banner. The influencer had previously seized the banner from a demonstrator who was burning it. Criminal counts against him were eventually dismissed after an outcry in conservative media prompted the head of the civil rights division of the Justice Department, the division head, to threaten an investigation of the local police over alleged partisan treatment. The two women he was arrested for fighting with still have pending accusations. Official Responses Recently, Governor Tina Kotek, Tina Kotek, alleged federal officers in the ICE facility of trying to antagonize the crowds by using disproportionate amounts of crowd control agents in a local community and including conservative social media influencers to film the gathering from the top of the site. "Their actions are meant to provoke," she commented. A trio of those conservative influencers were referred to in a police report last month as "opposing demonstrators" who "constantly return and antagonize the protesters until they are attacked or subjected to spray" and refuse "frequent warnings from officers to stay away from" the demonstrators. Online Content One influencer, a former journalist who reinvented himself as a Christian nationalist influencer after being fired from BuzzFeed for content theft, published video of the secretary looking down from the top of the site at the small group of protesters below, including an individual who dons a bird outfit to taunt Donald Trump. The influencer labeled the video of her inspecting the placid scene below: "Governor Noem faces off against radicals and a chicken-clad individual". Regardless of the contrast between the assertions from both officials that this facility is "under siege" from "domestic terrorists" and clear visual evidence of a handful of demonstrators in harmless costumes, the influencers with the secretary continued to refer to the protesters as harmful activists. Official Engagement While in Portland, Noem also met with the Portland police chief, Chief Day, who has been portrayed as "liberal" in right-wing outlets for authorizing his law enforcement to arrest Nick Sortor. In a social media update on the discussion, the influencer asserted that the police head had "aligned with violent ANTIFA militants attacking journalists and officers outside ICE facility". Her security detail then drove out the site past a few of demonstrators on the street outside, including one wearing a animal wearing a headgear.