Portland Mayor Keith Wilson responds to ICE protests, ongoing threats of National Guard deployment

Over the weekend, protesters gathered in the buff to speak out against the Trump administration’s attempts to mobilize the National Guard.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and met with high-profile leaders, including the city’s Mayor Keith Wilson.

Wilson urged the defense secretary to stop the use of chemical munitions and force against protesters. At the same time, his one-year promise to end unsheltered homelessness in the city is fast approaching.

Wilson joins us to share more about his response to the continued protests, the ongoing threat from the National Guard, and where things stand now with the city and homelessness.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We start today with Portland Mayor Keith Wilson. It’s been more than two weeks since the Trump administration said it would federalize 200 members of the Oregon National Guard and deploy those troops at the ICE building in South Portland. That deployment was temporarily blocked by a federal judge. But any day now, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals could allow it to go forward.

Meanwhile, the administration’s renewed focus on Portland has amped up what had been, for more than a month, relatively quiet protests at the building. Mayor Wilson joins us now to talk about all of this and more. Welcome back to the show.

Mayor Keith Wilson: Good afternoon, Dave. Thank you.

Miller: I want to start with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noems’ visit to Portland last week. She met with you and Governor Kotek and other state and local officials. After that, a day later back in D.C., she said this, ‘They are all lying and disingenuous and dishonest people because as soon as you leave the room, they make the exact opposite response.’ What went through your mind when you heard that?

Wilson: They made a series of demands, Dave, that were unrealistic and not something we can comply with. I think she walked away hopeful, but we gave her no indication that we were gonna meet or exceed what her outlandish requests were.

Miller: What were those requests and how did you respond in the moment?

Wilson: She wanted us to set up a permanent perimeter. We told her we would review it on a case by case, hour by hour, day by day basis, but that it wasn’t something that we were willing to do. She asked us to set up a free speech zone, of which we responded, I responded, ‘the entire City of Portland is a free speech zone, from a First Amendment right.’ They wanted us to protect the ingress and egress of their officers, which we certainly explained their safety, the officers’ safety, is as important as all of our community members. In turn, we wanted them to provide that same sort of safety focus for our community members. And so we went back and forth trying to prove our arguments, but we didn’t really give what they were wanting, because it wasn’t realistic.

Miller: At that point during that meeting, Portland police had cordoned off at least a one-block radius in a couple different directions from the ICE building in advance of the Secretary’s Portland trip. And then a day later, despite the feds asking for that perimeter to stay up, police took it down. Why? What was the thinking on the part of your office and PPB?

Wilson: So, we were really looking at crowd science. The Portland Police Bureau have done an incredible job in this last five years looking at after action from 2020. They have really reformed their process. And so we were going back and forth on what the immediate need was. And one of the things we said is we’re not gonna set up one rule, one goal, and then just stick by it. We needed a flexible system. And then we reviewed, discussed with the Governor and her team. We talked about it internally and then we brought our counselors and community-based organizations, a whole host of people, had a really robust conversation and we thought the crowd was essentially committed to keeping it safe and so we listened to those individuals. We took the perimeter down.

And I’m happy to say that was the right decision because the crowd size really diminished at that time. We didn’t want to pit police against people who were bringing their First Amendment right to protest. And it has been calm. Now there are some circumstances where, certainly Sunday, was very alarming with 1,000 people there and the FPS [Federal Protective Services] officers are in some cases antagonizing. That was a very scary moment on Sunday just for sheer size.

But everything went well. Nobody got hurt. And don’t get me wrong, well means no one got hurt, but well is a misnomer because anytime you have a federal police force setting off pepper balls and munitions,that is not something we want or tolerate in our community.

Miller: Kristi Noem also said about your conversations, ‘I told them if they didn’t meet our demands for safety and security on the streets and work with us, we were going to bring in more federal law enforcement.’ She also talked about basically buying more buildings in Portland and beefing up the physical presence, not just the personnel, but a bigger federal building footprint. Do you know if that’s now actually in the works?

Wilson: You know, I think the hubris that we were listening to in that meeting, Chief Day, my deputy chief, Taylor Zajonc and I. We’re listening to was just something that put us on our heels. It was all threats, bluster. Talking about bringing four times the federal force and bringing the full force of the government on community members that we share the same nation with. It was quite surprising, Dave.

But we see it mostly as threats, and we have to really control what we can control in the moment. I didn’t know what their goals were at that time, but it wasn’t certainly wasn’t anything that they were bringing to help Portland out with a host of challenges that we’re experiencing.

Miller: What do you feel like you can control in the moment? I mean, we’ve already talked about some very specific examples of what the Portland police can do, the particular block where they set up, say. But in the bigger picture, what power do you feel like you have right now as Portland Mayor?

Wilson: Our power is to continue to talk with them and ask them to take a thoughtful, long-term approach to safety around the facility. And we continue to explain some of the outcomes and their behaviors are not meeting the law. And we continue to say they should raise their operational and legal standards in terms of use of force. So we continue to explain to them that they’ve got to raise their standards to meet and exceed what our standards are.

But as far as some of the actions that I’m taking, we are in daily contact with community-based organizations, talking to them to help provide the information they need for their community members. There’s a lot of fear in our community right now, Dave. So our job is to just try and provide the information they need so they can keep their community members safe as well.

Miller: I want to turn to land use questions. Can you explain just the basics of what the federal government agreed to back in 2011, when the City granted its conditional land use approval for what then became this ICE building or ICE facility?

Wilson: To just be clear and succinct, the federal government agreed to not detain anybody in that facility more than 12 hours. And so through a Freedom of Information Act that we were privy to, and some of the complaints that were forwarded to the city of Portland, we found that they had violated that on more than two dozen occasions. So we have forwarded to them a complaint to come into compliance.

Miller: My understanding is, because of those 25 violations identified by the city between October 2024 and July of 2025, that now a landowner or an operator, according to a city release, has 30 days upon receiving that notice of violation to correct the issue. Where does that stand right now?

Wilson: We received a notice from the owner that they wanted to clarify why the complaint was made, and they’re asking for us to provide additional information. So that’s where we’re at right now. We just received that response just a couple days ago.

Miller: According to the city, if there is substantial evidence of a violation, a fine can be issued. Also, Portland Permitting and Development can initiate a reconsideration of a land use approval. I know this is something that you and members of the city council could very well have in front of you, as judges, in the near future. So I don’t know how free you are to talk about all this, but it’s worth asking anyway. Just right now, do you consider these particular violations to be serious enough to warrant reconsideration of the federal government’s use of this building?

Wilson: Yeah, you’re right, I can’t comment as far as an opinion, Dave. But I’ve always spoken with sort of a north star. What’s the law? What are the guardrails? Let’s make sure everybody in the city, no matter what business you are or what code we have, let’s bring everybody in between those guardrails. The federal government in this facility is really no different. So let me stay away from providing you an opinion, but I can really talk to the bigger picture. We just need to really operate within the scope of the law, and that includes our federal partners.

Miller: I want to take a bigger step back again. Portland is not war-ravaged. It’s not on fire. It’s not under siege by antifa or anyone. What options do you have though, do any of us have, when the administration is premising its actions on statements that are demonstrably untrue, that are, in the words of the federal Judge Karen Immergut, simply ‘untethered to the facts?’

Wilson: The nation is having that conversation right now. I was talking with my team earlier just about our approach, you know, what do we do? Do we, do we get angry and just start spewing rhetoric to the nation and crying on every mountaintop that this is disingenuine? We chose not to take a more forceful approach. We’re just basically saying to community members, to the nation, come and see.

And so we’ve had so many people come and visit and just go, ‘holy cow. This is absolutely a false narrative made- for-TV-event, trying to give the federal government the perception to give them the ability to then act.’ And it’s all a false narrative. It’s all created for a particular outcome that they’re trying to create, to just bring additional forces to Portland and Dave, it’s really untethered from reality. And so let’s just go with what we know.

You know that, Dave. We, as far as Portlanders, know that. We’ve seen the videos come out, the Instagram, the articles all point that, ‘oh my goodness, this federal administration is just trying to make it up as they go, with no positive outcome to our community and to the nation at all.’ So it’s just, it’s unhinged. It’s absurd.

Miller: Although it did seem based on the questions asked by two of the three judges in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel last week and the statements they made in that hearing that it seems very likely that they are going to end the temporary restraining order at some point and allow federalized troops to be deployed in Portland. If that happens, what will you be paying the most attention to?

Wilson: Well, let’s talk about that, Dave. There’s just never a moment that we’re going to throw in the towel, raise our hands and say there’s nothing we can do. We are scenario planning. We’re meeting with other cities across the nation on what they’re doing. We’re collaborating with our city staff, making sure that they’re safe, that they’re not living with fear. We’re working with community, culturally specific communities to make sure they’re prepared. We’re coalition building with all the regional mayors. I’m in constant contact with them, letting them know about the TRO [temporary restraining order].

It may fall. If so, what are we going to do? And we’re constantly hour to hour, day to day, working and preparing to make sure we keep our city safe. But I’m going to go back to the way I began. We’re not throwing in the towel. We have constantly been able to prove that the efforts and the actions from our federal government have been unconstitutional. And we’ve told them we will fight in a court of law and we will win and we constantly win, Dave. So let’s just keep going down that lane until we’re forced to take a right or left. We’ll pivot and we’ll change with whatever is necessary at the time.

Miller: In the time we have left, I want to turn to another huge issue. The last I looked, you’re less than halfway towards your goal, the central promise of your campaign and and your time as mayor, of opening 1,500 new shelter beds by December 1st. What do you think has worked toward that big goal and what have the big challenges been?

Wilson: I’m glad you brought it up. So I keep telling everybody that we can’t get knocked off our game, regardless of what the Trump administration is throwing at us. I was elected to address unsheltered homelessness in Portland. And we’re on track to keep that promise. We just announced yesterday 180 family shelter beds. In the next two weeks, we’re going to be announcing 400 more shelter beds taking us to over 1,200 units with about 45 days left before December 1st.

It’s going to get cold out. People run the risk of dying on the street if we leave them outside this winter. And we’re not going to. We’re going to have a safe bed for every person every night. So yes, we have challenges, but that’s what an elected official, that’s what our city is faced with. But the crisis is real. We see our neighbors suffering and we’re not going to walk past them this winter. So we’re on target, Dave.

Miller: In terms of funding, you had been counting on about $11 million in state money for these new shelters, but that didn’t come through. What’s that going to mean for your plan?

Wilson: The plan is set. The objective was clear. Now we’re experiencing obstacles and funding is one of them. So we’ve had to pivot and make certain changes. For instance, we had budgeted four day centers, one in each one of our districts. We had to pivot. And now we ended up doing what’s called an oasis, and it’s an outdoor day center and you can see it in Northwest Portland. It has tents and showers and outreach workers, but it is about 80% less cost.

But the beauty is just last week we had a barbecue and we served 600 people. I actually think we’re able to service more people with this pivot than if we had just stayed on one path forward and said, ‘well, we can’t achieve it. Our objective is not met because of funding.’ Funding is always going to be a challenge. But we’re creative, we’re mission driven, and the people in our Portland Solutions Department are incredibly gifted at seeing the objective and meeting the objective.

Miller: Mayor Wilson, thanks very much.

Wilson: My pleasure, Dave. Thanks for the time.

Miller: Keith Wilson is the Mayor of Portland.

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