My Shocking Undercover Experience at Portland's Antifa-Besieged ICE Building

On a lovely Sunday afternoon, I traveled to see for myself what was going on in the streets of Portland at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building that has been under siege by Antifa and its comrades-in-arms for five months now. I actually had an unprecedented experience there. Shocking, really.

The entire phalanx of elected officials in Portland announced mere days ago that there was "only" one block of protester activity. They were downplaying the violence that had taken place there. Like robots, they announced to their citizens that visuals from the ICE facility were years old or unrepresentative of the current situation. What was the truth? 

I had questions, such as:

• How many blocks under siege is acceptable for a local terrorist group to take over before it's considered a public safety threat?
• If it's "only" a block, then why haven't they cleared it out? 
• How many blocks are really taken up with this activity, anyway?
• Is it appropriate to encourage this security danger around a federal facility by doing nothing about it?
• Why didn't they arrest people who had been identified in assaults?
• Why are the journalists who are attacked while reporting on this story treated as if they're asking for it because they're covering a story?
• If the site is under control and secure, as city and state leaders allege, then why isn't it under control and secure?
• Why didn't local elected officials hold their press conferences in the riot zone instead of a mile away? 

Antifa has security. They note cars coming into the zone and those leaving. They have official observers marking foes. They have their own hackers and social media operators, filled with disinformers and hangers-on.

There is an Antifa operator whom I've observed in many ICE videos and still photos, and whom I've seen for years at other leftist gatherings in Portland. He's violent. He's at ICE all the time, and I've told my friend who covers this story nearly every day to stay away from this guy. 

Related: Federal Judge Commands President Trump Not to Use ANY National Guard to Back Up ICE in Portland

Since I've received death threats from this group in the past — which, at the time, the Portland Police Bureau refused to do anything about — I naturally observed, to the best of my ability, operational security. 

Though it was daylight when I went, I bloc'd up. That means I was in black from the top of my head to my toes. I carried no ID — no "pocket litter" — in case I was attacked and they took my belongings. I got a ride near the zone from an experienced reporter. When I finished my observations, I met my ride out blocks and blocks away, changing my appearance along the way. Then I left town. 

I'll be back. 

Once I was in the zone, it took less than five minutes for me to ruffle the feathers of the willowy Antifa Karen at the organized and filthy "mutual aid" station that feeds and waters the protesters and violence-prone crazies. Since this debris-filled encampment of several pop-up tents is positioned on a public sidewalk, I felt free to wander through with my camera. Soon, however, Karen was whining about my camera and ordering me to stop filming. Naturally, I ignored her, but I noted that she gave one of her flying monkeys a look. He grabbed an umbrella and began to harass me so I could not get photos of him. By the way, I wanted no photos of him. The fact is, he didn't want me to take photos of anything, which is why he followed me across the street — block number two of Antifa activity — and continued calling me some very interesting names. 

And that's when the shocking experience happened. At the end of the video, you'll see a Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officer — that's shock number one. There was a presence of about six cops and other bike cops out there on Sunday. That's shock number two. And shock number three came at the end of this video when a cop intervened with the Antifa jerk and told him it was perfectly legal for me to take pictures. 

A man with a "Press" sign on his back began yelling at the cop that it was OK for this umbrella holder to hide my images, screaming ensued, other reporters came to observe what all the yelling was about, and I continued on my journey.  But it's not legal for them to do that. It's not legal for someone to take a weapon, an umbrella, and menace me, get in my personal space, and prevent me from going where I want. That's not protected speech, folks, contrary to what their "press" observer screamed.

Besides the filth of the "mutual aid" station, which is illegally blocking the sidewalk (resupplied from their nearby storage unit) and then laughably being told I couldn't film there, here's my biggest shock at the #Portland #ICE facility. When confronted by some umbrella… pic.twitter.com/JDT08NaydW

— Victoria Taft, The Adult in the Room, FITF Squad (@VictoriaTaft) October 7, 2025

Daytime was filled with Antifa-curious drivers seeing for themselves what was going on. There was a new batch of conservatives watching the daytime antics. I overheard one neighbor lady describing the scene to a friend on the phone, saying the scene "terrified" her. 

Related: West Coast, Messed Coast™ — The AG Steps in After Portland 'Justice' Strikes Again

My friend HunnyBadgerMom (her X handle), C.K. Bouferrache, tells me that Antifa works in shifts. They go back to their safe house nearby, which is well known, and get a little R&R before they start their next shift at night, where the violence takes place. I caught the shift change in a photo. 

So that makes block number three overtaken by this group. 

Shift change in Antifastan
Heading back to the safe house to recharge for tonight’s violence#ICE #DHS #Portland #pdx pic.twitter.com/OpXzoWlvI4

— Victoria Taft, The Adult in the Room, FITF Squad (@VictoriaTaft) October 6, 2025

I talked to a neighbor, who was probably in her 80s, watching the Antifa shift change, and she told me she was with the protesters. Since I was in black bloc, I can understand why she looked terrified as she whispered her answer. Here's a sign near her apartment. Translation: Please don't hurt us, Antifa.

Translation: Please don't hurt us, #Antifa. The #PPB won't help us. There is no control over the #Portland #Terrorist group, so we ask criminals for "good" will. pic.twitter.com/9XpdpYUUXR

— Victoria Taft, The Adult in the Room, FITF Squad (@VictoriaTaft) October 7, 2025

Since Antifa marches to their daily activities from their assembly spot at a nearby park, that makes at least four blocks they have taken over. And then there's the ICE facility itself. It is a fortress, but easily surrounded. Antifa has taken positions in front of it, across the street from it, and down the block. This makes the zone at least a five-block takeover at times. 

It reminds me of the Mark O. Hatfield federal building in downtown, where Antifa spent from May till November firebombing, menacing, vandalizing, and hurting people, assassinating one, in 2020. I remember a liberal friend admonishing me when I expressed horror at what was going on there: "It's only in downtown Portland. It's not everywhere."  Stockholm syndrome.

How many blocks can a terrorist group take over before the city begins to send the police to keep the peace? Trick question. The answer is: When President Donald Trump orders the National Guard to protect ICE agents, forcing the local cops to show up. 

The crazies out on the streets in the middle of the day provide one of the multi-pronged Antifa distractions. The people in this bunch looked like they were mentally ill, on drugs, or under the influence of some other mind-altering belief system. Nighttime is when this place gets more dangerous. 

For years, the Portland Police ignored the Antifa threats and assaults, and complaints by Portland independent media. Antifa chooses reporters to target because they want to rule the streets without being unmasked. 

They targeted Dan Sandini in 2010; Mike Strickland in 2016; the innocents that a knife-wielding crazy man on board the Max light rail train injured or killed, triggered by an Antifa "de-escalator" in 2017; Black Rebel Andrew Duncomb in 2019; Andy Ngo, whom they assaulted in 2019 and again in 2021; HunnyBadgerMom in 2025; Katie Daviscourt, also in 2025; Nick Sortor this year, too; and on it will go. 

Related: A School Moved Out Because of Violence at ICE HQ Portland and You'll Never Guess Who Moved In

Police have always said, whether overtly or tacitly, that reporters who dare tell the story are asking for it. 

Until Sunday. On Sunday, I became the very first and only reporter for whom the Portland Police Bureau intervened, at least that I'm aware of.

Then again, maybe they thought that, since I was in black bloc, I was Antifa-friendly.

And now, the answers to my own questions in no particular order: 

• The Portland leadership didn't hold its recent press conference in the riot zone because it's a riot zone; it's a bad look for them, and it's dangerous. 
• They won't clean up the riot zone and Antifa's area of operation because Antifa is their base.
• There are probably the equivalent of five blocks under Antifa control. 
• There is no limit to the number of blocks Antifa can control. There is no pushback from local police. PPB is not there to protect ICE agents, and it won't do it.
• Police showed up again only after President Trump indicated he'd send the National Guard to protect ICE.
• The area is not under control and secure because the city likes chaos more than order, because it redounds to their political benefit.