Opposing Groups Plan to Disrupt Portland City Council Meeting With Demands About Police Response to the ICE Occupation

Portland socialists’ demands include ceasing cooperation with ICE, while Patriot Prayer wants to “take a stand against police inaction in Portland Oregon.”

Occupy ICE. (Daniel Stindt)

Opposing groups—the Portland chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and the far-right group Patriot Prayer—are planning to disrupt Wednesday's City Council meeting with demands about how the city should approach the occupation at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building.

The Portland ICE occupation, which began June 17 in protest of Trump administration policy that has separated over 2,000 children from their parents at the border, has quickly grown and effectively shut down the facility. Despite being issued an eviction notice on June 25, the group shows no signs of packing up camp any time soon.

Related: After Six Days, Portland's ICE Blockade Is a City of More Than 80 Tents

Among the list of demands Portland DSA plans to present city council is that "Portland Police allocate zero resources for the eviction of Occupy ICE PDX."

The group also says that in order to be an authentic sanctuary city, Portland should also establish an Office of Immigrant Rights, withdraw from the Joint Terrorism Task Force and "cease all cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security in surveilling and arresting activists protesting ICE's presence in Portland."

Related: Portland protesters blockading ICE face greater legal risks than most people realize.

DSA co-chair Olivia Katbi Smith says that the group has requested time on the meeting's agenda to "discuss the crisis of ICE in our community." But, she adds, DSA members will make their demands known "regardless of whether or not [commissioners] acknowledge our request and make space on the agenda."

Portland DSA will be met at the meeting by Patriot Prayer—a far-right group notorious for bringing bloody political brawls to Portland. Earlier this month, Patriot Prayer and antifascists exchanged violent blows at the waterfront Rose Festival.

Related: Dueling Radicals Maul Each Other in Downtown Portland as a Political Rivalry Is Bloodily Renewed

According to the group's Facebook event, "Stand Up Against Standing Down," members are planning to protest on the steps of city hall to "take a stand against police inaction in Portland."

"For more than a year now, Patriots have been coming into Portland to celebrate their first amendment right of free speech," the post reads. "Far too often these events have been attended by violence from the left-wing terrorist organization antifa […] It is time to say, 'No More!'"

A little over 80 people have responded to the Facebook event. It is unclear if the group's leader, Joey Gibson, who is running for U.S. Senate in Washington, will also be in attendance.

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