National Security Sec. Kristi Noem visit ICE facilities in the center of Portland’s protests

Photo: Judicial battles continue while Trump tries to deploy the National Guard in Portland, Oregon

The Secretary of the National Security Department, Kristi Noem, made a high profile visit to an installation of the Customs Immigration and Control Service (ICE) in Portland on Tuesday in the middle of a legal battle on the sending of federal troops to the city of Oregon.

Noem made a brief appearance on the ceiling of the installation, which has been the scene of night manifestations due to the government’s immigration repression for several months.

During his visit to the facilities, he met with officials responsible for enforcing the local law, including the Portland Police Chief, Bob Day, the Oregon State Police Superintendent, Casey Codding, and the Sheriff of the Multnomah County, Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell, according to the Portland Police Office.

Photo: Judicial battles continue while Trump tries to deploy the National Guard in Portland, Oregon

The United States National Security Secretary Kristi Noem observes the scenario of ongoing protests at the facilities of the Customs Immigration and Control Service (ICE) on October 7, 2025 in Portland, Oregon. The secretary Noem arrived in Portland on Tuesday to meet with the authorities in the middle of a dispute between the Trump administration and Oregon officials about the deployment of the National Guard in the State.

Mathieu Lewis Rolland/Getty Images

Day thanked Noem for time and said during a press conference on Tuesday night: “I think communication is the first step to solve our differences.”

He said Noem is “obvious and understandably” concerned about the safety of his staff, the building and “the ability to function.”

“We really try to find forms and solutions that allow us to reduce part of the conflict and the dissidents there in a way that is mainly for everyone’s safety,” he said.

Day said he would like to see potentially more police presence in the place.

“We have been trying to coordinate that with the federal response, because we have different policies and different expectations around procedures, so we have to work more closely with them,” he said.

Last month, President Donald Trump ordered the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to provide “all the necessary troops” to Portland in the midst of protests in the facilities, claiming that the city is a “war zone.”

During the weekend, a US district judge. UU. Temporarily prevented the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard in Portland, by determining that the conditions in the city “were not significantly violent or disturbing” to justify a federal shot of the National Guard, and that the president’s statements about the city “were simply not linked to the facts.”

Photo: United States-Political-Imigration-Protest

A protester shouts with a megaphone towards a Portland police officer near an installation of the customs immigration and control service (ICE) in the center of Portland, Oregon, on October 6, 2025.

Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/AFP via getty images

The governor of Oregon, Tina Kotek, said she communicated with Noem when she learned of a possible visit and met with the secretary at the airport upon her arrival on Tuesday.

“I made it clear that I have confidence in local authorities to face the moment,” Kotek said in a statement.

“I requested that the agents of the Department of National Security and the Customs Immigration and Control Service obey Oregon’s laws when they participate in federal operations. I reiterated that I continue to concentrate on doing everything I can to protect the inhabitants of Oregon from military intervention or harmful tactics of application of the Federal Law. Oregon is united against the military police in our communities,” Kotek said.

ABC News communicated with the governor’s office to make a comment and did not receive an immediate response.

Day said he and Noem did not talk about the deployment of National Guard troops.

“That, you know, it is part of a ongoing litigation. So that is not something that has been discussed,” he said during Tuesday’s informative session.

Day has opposed the deployment of the National Guard in Portland and said in an interview with ABC News on Monday that his department can control the crime, including assault and vandalism.

The manifestations centered on the ICE facilities occupy a single block of the city of 145 square miles, said Day. The agents have made 37 arrests since the protests began in early June, the Portland Police office said Tuesday.

Day said during the informative session on Tuesday that there has been a “significant decrease in that violent activity” in recent months, but that in the last 10 days, the “energy level has increased.”

“We speak in an integral way about the need for a change in the environment and in the behavior below, and I agree with that,” Day said about his conversation with Noem.

Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell told ABC News after Tuesday’s meeting that the department welcomes associations with federal agencies “when those efforts complement our local public security priorities, respect Oregon’s law and are based on responsibility and transparency.”

Meanwhile, Noem said during an appearance in Fox News that he met with the mayor of Portland, Keith Wilson, on Tuesday and warned him that he could send more federal agents to the city if certain security measures are not met.

“What I said is that if I did not comply with some of these security measures for our officers, we would cover it with more federal resources, and that we were going to send four more federal officials here so that the people of Portland could have some security,” he said.

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