Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon used a Tuesday night protest event against the State of the Union to glorify anti-ICE demonstrators in Portland, casting them as heroes for swarming a federal immigration facility after President Donald Trump ordered troops to protect it.
According to The Post Millennial, Wyden lauded the activists as symbols of resistance rather than acknowledging the chaos and intimidation that had plagued the city for months. He recounted their response to the Presidents deployment order, declaring, "The day we heard Trump was deploying troops to Portland, we rushed over to the ICE facility because, based on Trumps Truth Social, we expected to just see a violent mob. But apparently, one guy in a chicken costume is what Trump considers a war zone."
Wyden went on to romanticize the spectacle that unfolded around the federal site, focusing on theatrics instead of the serious public-safety concerns that prompted the federal response. "For weeks, social media was flooded with these wonderful patriots. Videos of unicyclers, naked bike riders, the guy in the chicken suit, and a whole lot of frogs," he added, as individuals in inflatable frog costumes stood beside him on stage.
The senator framed the confrontation with federal authorities as a whimsical triumph over supposed tyranny, trivializing the violence and destruction that had become routine in the area. "No war zone to be found. Friends, when Donald Trump sent his agents to the streets of Portland, we took on authoritarianism 'cause we had the frogs and we won," he said.
President Trump had announced in September that he was surging National Guard troops to Portland to defend the city and its ICE facilities, emphasizing the need to confront left-wing extremism. He wrote, "At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary."
That deployment followed months of near-nightly unrest at the ICE facility, where property was vandalized, federal agents and journalists were attacked, and nearby residents saw their neighborhoods turned into staging grounds for radical activism. The troops were ultimately withdrawn in December, after the federal government had absorbed the political cost of restoring order that local leaders appeared unwilling to enforce.
Accountability for the agitators has been slow but not absent, underscoring the seriousness of the conduct that Wyden chose to celebrate. Earlier in February, anti-ICE activist David Pearl became the first to be convicted for actions outside the facility, including participation in a human blockade, defying repeated dispersal orders, and attempting to interfere with the arrest of an Antifa militant.
Prosecutors have brought charges against dozens of others tied to the unrest, reflecting a pattern of organized lawlessness rather than harmless street theater. Two defendants have already pleaded guilty to offenses including arson as part of plea agreements, a stark reminder that behind the costumes and stunts were real crimes, real victims, and a federal government forced to step in where local governance failed.
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