As anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests were heating up in June, the mayor of Portland, Oregon, aligned himself with the radical agitators, while delivering an unveiled threat to federal agents.
“I want to be very clear I do not want the @PortlandPolice to be engaged or sucked into a conflict, particularly from a federal agency that I believe is on the wrong track,” boasted Mayor Ted Wheeler in a long Twitter stream defending radical activists for creating chaos inside and outside the Portland ICE office.
“If [ICE agents] are looking for a bailout from this mayor, they’re looking in the wrong place,” he ominously added.
Wheeler, who also serves as Portland Police Bureau commissioner, took his pledge to prevent local police from being drawn into any conflict too far, according to a cease and desist letter sent Monday by Sean Riddell, an attorney for the union representing ICE agents.
“Your current policy forbidding Portland law enforcement agencies from assisting employees of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency who request law enforcement assistance while at or away from work is a violation of the United States Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause,” the letter says.
Riddell said further legal action could be warranted if Wheeler did not apologize to ICE officers. Instead of an apology, the proud member of the “Resist” movement issued a written response insisting that “no such policy exists” and claiming instructions were given to Portland officers to respond to calls when there was an “immediate life safety concern.”
But in an email obtained by The Willamette Week, Portland Police Deputy Chief Bob Day did deny requests for assistance from the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service.
“At this time I am denying your request for additional resources from PPB,” said Day, who added that Portland officers would respond “if your officers are assaulted and need us to facilitate a safe exit from the conflict.”
The Portland police also did not respond when ICE protesters yelled racial slurs at agents or when ICE employees were followed home by protesters.
Nor when the leftist thugs forced a food truck to close down after their repeated harassment of the owners’ daughter. Scott Hakes, a co-owner of The Happy Camper Food and Coffee Bar, said the threats to his daughter worsened after she sold food to a DHS officer.
“When the mayor gave the order that police would not support ICE employees trapped in [a building leased by ICE], he turned the lives of our employees over to an angry mob,” Chris Crane, president of the National ICE Council, the organization that sent the cease-and-desist letter, told The Washington Times.
In his inaugural address, Wheeler assured voters that “the City of Portland will remain a welcoming, safe place for all people regardless of immigration status.”
Portland might be welcoming and safe for violent radicals. But it is clearly not safe for anybody who gets in the way of their open border goals. Voters should ask themselves if that is the kind of city in which they want to live.