John Sexton covered the simmering “protest” powderkeg at the ICE offices in Portland, Oregon last week. The protesters have been an ugly bunch, causing trouble for weeks now. They were caught on video hurling the n-word at black police officers patrolling the area. As for the ICE agents, they screamed epithets at them, calling them rapists, Nazis and all manner of other pleasantries. After authorities moved in to clear out portions of their filthy camp and head off what looked like potential violence, the problems worsened.

Protesters became so aggressive, blocking access to the offices and threatening agents, that ICE had to call for backup from the cops. That’s when the situation took a darker turn. According to the ICE agents on the scene, the cops didn’t respond. (KATU News)

A “cease and desist” letter penned to Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler claims that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers called Portland Police for help, and that the officers didn’t respond. From the start of the Occupy ICE protest outside the facility in Southwest Portland, Mayor Wheeler said that city officers would not interfere with the protesters’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly. On Monday, members of the National ICE Council sent Wheeler a “cease and desist” letter … that demands the city officers help federal agents.

Originally the descriptions of events made it sound as if the cops had refused to render aid and Portland’s Mayor, Ted Wheeler, was just backing them up. But now it appears that the opposite is true. It was the Mayor who ordered the cops to stand down and deny help while ICE agents were faced with violent demonstrators occupying their offices. And now the union representing the immigration agents is demanding a meeting with the Mayor so he can answer the charges and get back to enforcing the rule of law. (Daily Mail)

A union representing agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement is accusing Portland, Oregon’s mayor of ordering his police force to deny help while they were faced with violent demonstrators occupying their offices. Portland police have been accused of refusing to respond to at least two 911 calls from employees in the ICE offices in the city. The accusation was reported by The Daily Caller.

This short video from the local news coverage provides some of the sights and sounds (you can only imagine the smells) of this protest.

As mentioned, the Daily Caller has additional coverage here.

What we’re seeing playing out in Portland clearly appears to be the end game of the sanctuary city movement. It remains understandable (at least in theory) that some leftist politicians who prefer open borders don’t want their police departments cooperating with ICE on deportation sweeps. But this is something else entirely. Holding back the police from responding to 911 calls from a federal agency office puts the lives of the agents at risk. And since they tend to be armed and have access to their own version of riot gear, it’s not hard to imagine a situation where the ICE agents will arm up and go take matters into their own hands if their safety is threatened.

This situation has long since passed the point of being out of control. Portland has a duty to keep every lawful person in the city safe, including the ICE agents. If they don’t want this confrontation to turn into a tragedy, the Mayor needs to stop this foolish politicking and do his job.