ICE operates out of a building south of downtown and there have been a handful of protestors camping out and protesting in front of the building 24/7 since June. The protestors have been for the most part peaceful, the ICE agents however have been violent, beating protestors, aiming guns at them, shooting them with pepper balls and gas cannisters, and deploying a variety of unknown chemical gasses.

The grade school next door to the ICE building had to move because of concerns over exposing the kids to those chemicals. The residents of the apartment buildings across the street aren’t so lucky. Portland’s own police department recently testified under oath that ICE has been instigating violence over the protestors.

There’s a movement to evict ICE from the building. Just the other day, ICE was found to have committed over 20 violations of the agreement they had struck with the city in order to operate from that location this year alone. I wouldn’t be surprised if the escalation from Trump is in response to that.

Source: I live in Portland and have been following the situation closely.