For months, Portland's mayor has been hounded by residents about an issue over which he has no power: immigration.

Dozens of people protested against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the federal agency's local field office, and Mayor Ted Wheeler drew criticism for supporting protesters' rights to assemble yet not backing their calls for ICE to be abolished. Critics have stormed City Hall to demand Wheeler kick ICE out of the city – drawing a police response for their antics – while dozens more wrote letters to the mayor. Wheeler's order that Portland police take a hands-off approach to the protesters encamped at the ICE office even earned a personal rebuke from President Trump.

Asked if he finds it misguided that so many complaints about immigration, a federal responsibility, are brought to City Hall, Wheeler balanced on a political tightrope.

"I think it's important that Americans speak out about what's going on," Wheeler told reporters during a wide-ranging hourlong press conference Thursday.

The mayor said he does not support abolishing the federal immigration enforcement agency – "I'm not sure throwing the baby out with the bathwater is the right solution here" – yet he applauds people who make their voices heard on the matter.

Wheeler said he never begrudges residents who bring to the city council grievances that would be properly addressed by a state representative or U.S. senator. That is true, the mayor said, even when the complainant is "yelling and spittling and insulting and threatening" – referencing a council observer who this week shut down a meeting and was escorted out by security officers amid his shouting about a U.S. Supreme Court nominee.

Wheeler said some residents are naturally confused about where and how to complain to the government, given the many layers of overlapping jurisdictions. People may not know about their congressman, Metro councilor or water district, Wheeler said, but they generally know how to find the mayor.

"You know what, I'm totally OK with that. It's part of the job," Wheeler said.

He went on: "Welcome to democracy in America. It's messy."

As for immigration and the Trump Administration policies that have drawn so much criticism, Wheeler said residents should listen to each other and work toward a "rational" policy.

"This is not a time for people to be indifferent or lethargic," Wheeler said. "No matter where people are on the political spectrum or what they believe it's really important that Americans take control of their government at all levels."

And it's not the case that the city can't take a stand on federal immigration policies or is necessarily powerless to affect them. Portland Commissioner Chloe Eudaly has explored – so far without success – whether the city could void its permit with ICE and have it vacate the privately-owned building it uses as its local headquarters. And politicians have long used the bully pulpit to sway public opinion.

Yet Wheeler's message encouraging Portlanders to focus on developing a better immigration policy may fall on deaf ears.

Across from City Hall, a small band of protesters have for weeks gathered in Chapman Square to demand that immigration officials be removed from Portland. To the protesters' backs, at the other side of the square, stands the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building, where on the fifth floor judges of the Portland Immigration Court hold deportation hearings.

-- Gordon R. Friedman