After a night of protesting, tear gas and flash bangs, people living near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland’s South Waterfront neighborhood woke up with some cleaning to do Sunday morning.

“We walk down here almost every day and there’s just a handful of people usually,” said local retiree Louise Dunn, who was walking near the ICE building picking up trash.

Protests outside the ICE building started in earnest after President Donald Trump took office in January. Dunn says while they continued for months, the number of people involved was gradually dwindling.

“It’s been a little bit disturbing since they announced the National Guard was going to come in and there have been more demonstrators because they feel very strongly that this shouldn’t be happening,” Dunn said.

Across the street, thousands of runners jogged by as part of the Portland Marathon. Social worker and runner Anna Carlton chose to cheer them on from close to the ICE building because she wanted to show the area is not dangerous.

“I think that there is a special heaviness right now to being here more than normal,” she said.

Carlton said she runs through the area almost everyday and was happy to see the 12,000 runners of the marathon continue through without a problem.

Tim Burks lives in the building next to ICE. He says most nights he’s so tired after working his job as a barber, he doesn’t have a problem getting to sleep when protesters are around. But if things get violent, then there are issues.

“When the tear gas comes, it goes into the AC unit and comes into the apartment,” Burks said. “But otherwise, I don’t get affected.”

Burks came out of his apartment to find a bat on the pavement struggling to breathe after a recent tear gassing. He’s not optimistic about the future.

“I think it’s going to get worse because you’re going to get people trying to test the waters just to test it,” Burks said.

Other residents complain about the helicopters that continually fly in circles overhead.

Some Oregonians took the weekend to drive into the area and see for themselves why the nation’s attention is focused on Portland. James Moon works the ramps at the Portland International Airport. He’s not a U.S. citizen, but coming from the Micronesian Island of Yap, he can work and live in the US without a visa.

Moon welcomes any help the National Guard can give ICE in their effort to uphold immigration laws.

“I came here legally. So I think by breaking the law, I think it’s a crime,” Moon said.

He said Americans can’t go and work in other countries illegally.

“They’ll be put in jail,” Moon argued. “So it’s the same thing for people coming here. You have to come to the country legally. I think that’s the right way to do it.”

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut blocked Trump’s call-up for 200 National Guard troops to go to Portland, ruling on Saturday that his claims were “untethered to facts.”

Sunday morning, the governors of both Oregon and California said they ahd learned President Trump had ordered 300 California National Guard troops to be deployed to Portland instead. Officials in both states said they are fighting in court to block the deployment of those troops, though Gov. Tina Kotek said that more than 100 members of the California guard were already in Portland.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/05/ice-building-neighbors-clean-up-reflect-following-latest-portland-protests/