At dawn Thursday, federal forces took the first steps to secure and reopen the ICE HQ in Portland, Oregon. The facility had been shut down for 9 days as hundreds of radical “occupiers” set up a tent city camp and blocked access to the building, preventing its employees from conducting normal business. Initial reports made it appear that the government agents from the Federal Protective Service, dressed in riot gear, meant business.

After the dust settled, a mere eight people had been arrested, charged with minor misdemeanors, and immediately released to rejoin the hundreds of their comrades who remained in the tent city adjacent the building. The Feds promised not to disturb the occupiers’ encampment, only to ensure that the front entrance to the building would be made accessible so normal business could resume next week. After accessing the local media coverage, studying Occupy ICE PDX’s Twitter feed and Web site, and reading the government’s statements, I scored Thursday’s opening round: Occupy ICE PDX 1, Feds Zero.

The events on Thursday in Portland are a case history in how law enforcement in many areas of this country has come to a complete standstill as radical activists not only run wild in the streets but exert a commanding influence on local and state government policy. Portland has declared itself a sanctuary city. This now appears to mean that the city will not cooperate with the Federal government on any law enforcement. The Feds seem absolutely cowed in the face of the well-organized street mobs and their legions of supporters at all levels of Portland’s city government and among its über left population.

The ragtag collection of mostly unemployed counterculture kooks on the streets and sidewalks adjacent to the ICE facility advocate things that once seemed unthinkable. The demands include no borders, no prisons, shutting down ICE, total amnesty and immediate rights of full citizenship for any illegal alien who wants to come here. The radical occupiers issue these demands amidst a hail of obscenities and verbal attacks (“Nazi,” “fascist,” “racist,” and numerous four-letter words). These invectives are  communicated via social media, the use of which the radicals have mastered, and screamed directly in the faces of government employees when they are finally confronted.

Scene outside of Portland ICE HQ June 28, 2018 Source: Twitter

Occupy ICE PDX’s caption: “Federal cops firmly in control of the building. But dozens and dozens of tents remain on adjacent property. Bulk of camp.”

A press release from “OccupyICEpdx camp” at 10 A.M. P.T. on June 28 included:

Folx [sic] on the grounds have been engaging in nonviolent protest, peacefully holding the space despite DHS and PPB [Portland Police Bureau] presence. We know that the world is watching, and we are holding strong. . .

We stand in solidarity with undocumented immigrants, who face violence from ICE and DHS every single day. We know that these white supremacist organizations would not hesitate to extend their violence. . .

Our demands still stand:

1. The Portland Police Bureau must withdraw from the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF)

2. The City of Portland must end all cooperation, monetary and otherwise, with the Department of Homeland Security

3. Portland must fund an Office of Immigrant Rights, and provide universal immigration legal defense

To the movement that is igniting across the country: be alert but be unafraid. We send our solidarity to camps and prisons everywhere. . .

And, remember what we are fighting for: the complete and final abolition of ICE.

¡Chinga la Migra! [Translation: F-ck U.S. Border Patrol] Abolish ICE! Abolish borders!

Graphic from a tweet by Occupy ICE PDX on June 28 as the group claimed victory

The mayor of Portland, a far left wing Democrat named Ted Wheeler, has totally taken the side of the anti-government radical street mobs. He has ordered Portland’s police to leave the tent city housing radicals and hangers on alone. Still, the Occupy ICE PDX group was angry that Portland police were observed redirecting vehicle traffic as part of a detour to prevent accidents after the Feds temporarily closed the street in front of the ICE building Thursday morning. The mayor’s office quickly tried for a mea culpa with this statement in the name of the vacationing mayor:

This morning, Federal Protective Service officers initiated an action to remove demonstrators from their property. Consistent with my direction, no Portland Police officers provided aid to federal police during this action.

Once on the site, Federal police blocked the roadway. Because motorists were suddenly unable to access the roadway, Portland Police officers arrived to assist motorists in identifying alternative routes around road closures.

I join those outraged by ICE actions separating parents from their children, and support peaceful protest to give voice to our collective moral conscience. The City of Portland does not enforce federal immigration law, and I have been clear that Portland Police will not be used to break up a nonviolent occupation on federal property of a federal agency that has its own police force.

An hour-by-hour account of what went down outside the ICE HQ at 4310 SW Macadam Avenue in Portland on Thursday is too depressing to detail here. Interested readers with their blood pressure under control can access some primary sources from June 28 including the Occupy ICE PDX Twitter account, local coverage by TV stations KOIN6 and KATU2, and published reporting by Williamette Week and The Oregonian.

As noted in my previous article on the subject published early on June 28, Occupy ICE direct actions have now spread nationwide. Newly created Twitter accounts in different cities follow the same format, for example OccupyIceNYC represents the New York cell, while OccupyICEchi points to the direct actions in Chicago. These burgeoning social media platforms gain new followers by the hour as they spew the details to far flung comrades and potential new recruits. The online presentations are aided by a plethora of cell phone videos, manifestos, lists of demands, and clips of local respectful MSM TV news coverage that makes it all sound like a reboot of the 1960s Civil Rights movement.

Occupy ICE NYC spreads its message in Manhattan: At least they didn’t use spray paint Source: Twitter

What the current situation in these cities and nationally actually represents is the most dangerous potential threat to law and order since the Civil War. It’s an insurrection in slow motion that is quickly gaining momentum and followers. While some observers may look back fondly to the 1960s for comparisons, the left wing counter cultural “revolution” then was more limited and constrained, with the Silent Majority still representing most Americans who wanted nothing to do with it. Governments – Federal, state, and local in the ‘60s – had not yet succumbed to the invasive seditious influences that now pervade much of American society including its popular culture and its most prominent institutions. It was a time when the concept of law and order was popular and won elections, as in Richard Nixon’s defeat of Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968 following a year of chaos in the streets.

Hold onto your hats for the next round, scheduled to come to a city and town near you tomorrow, June 30. On the Saturday before the Fourth of July, as described in a fawning article titled “Everything to Know About the Nationwide Immigration Separation Protest” at The Cut at New York Magazine:

Organizers throughout the country will host “Families Belong Together” protests in response to the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy. . .

There are more than 628 protests planned in every state, as well as in international locations, on June 30. Altogether, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to demonstrate across the country.

Map of the USA where pro-illegal alien demonstrations are planned for June 30 Source: Families Belong Together

Over 400 organizations are co-sponsoring the June 30^th event. Here are a few of them:

ACLU, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc., Council on American-Islamic Relations, In Our Own Voice: National Black Women's Reproductive Justice Agenda, Latino Victory Foundation, LGBTQ Task Force, MoveOn.org, Muslim Advocates, Organizing for Action (a nonprofit 501(c)4 organization and community organizing project that advocates for the agenda of former U.S. President Barack Obama), Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Southern Poverty Law Center, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Voto Latino, Women's March (the organization that sponsored the worldwide protests against President Trump on January 21, 2017 that featured the plethora of pink Pussyhats), and YWCA USA.

Dial 2 for English, Source: Families Belong Together

Counter protests, anyone?

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran reporter and analyst of news on national politics, media, and popular culture.  He is a frequent contributor to American Thinker.  Follow Peter on Twitter at @pchowka.