Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made a high-profile visit to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland on Tuesday amid a legal battle over sending federal troops to the Oregon city.
Noem made a brief appearance on the roof of the facility, which has been the site of nightly demonstrations over the government’s immigration crackdown for several months.
During his visit to the facility, he met with local law enforcement officials, including Portland Police Chief Bob Day, Oregon State Police Superintendent Casey Codding and Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell, according to the Portland Police Bureau.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem surveys the scene of ongoing protests at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility on October 7, 2025 in Portland, Oregon. Secretary Noem arrived in Portland on Tuesday to meet with officials amid a dispute between the Trump administration and Oregon officials over the deployment of the National Guard to the state.
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Day thanked Noem for the time and said during a press conference Tuesday night, “I think communication is the first step in resolving our differences.”
He said Noem is “obviously and understandably” concerned about the safety of her staff, the building and “the ability to function.”
“We’re really trying to look at ways and solutions that will allow us to reduce some of the conflict and the dissidents there in a way that is primarily for everyone’s safety,” he said.
Day said he would like to potentially see more police presence at the scene.
“We’ve been trying to coordinate that with the federal response, because we have different policies and different expectations around procedures, so we have to work more closely with them,” he said.
Last month, President Donald Trump ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide “all necessary troops” to Portland amid protests at the facility, claiming the city is a “war zone.”
Over the weekend, a U.S. district judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Portland, determining that conditions in the city were “not significantly violent or disruptive” to justify a federal takeover of the National Guard, and that the president’s claims about the city were “simply not tied to the facts.”
A protester shouts with a megaphone toward a Portland police officer near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in downtown Portland, Oregon, on October 6, 2025.
Mathieu Lewis-rolland/AFP via Getty Images
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said she contacted Noem upon learning of a possible visit and met with the secretary at the airport upon her arrival Tuesday.
“I made it clear that I have confidence in local authorities to meet the moment,” Kotek said in a statement.
“I requested that Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents obey Oregon laws when participating in federal operations. I reiterated that I remain focused on doing everything I can to protect Oregonians from military intervention or harmful federal law enforcement tactics. Oregon is united against military police in our communities,” Kotek said.
ABC News reached out to the governor’s office for comment and did not immediately receive a response.
Day said he and Noem did not discuss the deployment of National Guard troops.
“That, you know, is part of ongoing litigation. So that’s not something that’s been discussed,” he said during Tuesday’s briefing.
Day has opposed the deployment of the National Guard in Portland and said in an interview with ABC News on Monday that his department can control crime, including assault and vandalism.
Demonstrations centered on ICE facilities occupy a single block of the 145-square-mile city, Day said. Officers have made 37 arrests since protests began in early June, the Portland Police Bureau said Tuesday.
Day said during Tuesday’s briefing that there has been a “significant decrease in that violent activity” in recent months, but that in the last 10 days, the “energy level has increased.”
“We talked holistically about the need for a change in the environment and in behavior down there, and I agree with that,” Day said of his conversation with Noem.
Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell said in a statement to ABC News after Tuesday’s meeting that the department welcomes partnerships with federal agencies “when those efforts complement our local public safety priorities, respect Oregon law, and are based on accountability and transparency.”
Meanwhile, Noem said during an appearance on Fox News that she met with Portland Mayor Keith Wilson on Tuesday and warned him that she could send more federal agents to the city if certain safety measures are not met.
“What I told him is that if he didn’t comply with some of these security measures for our officers, we were going to cover him with more federal resources, and that we were going to send four times as many federal officers here so that the people of Portland could have some security,” he said.
