Federal agents relocate to reopen Portland ICE building closed during protests

Federal officers in riot gear reopened Thursday morning a headquarters of Immigration and Customs in Oregon, following a blockade and occupation by demonstrators

. According to Federal Protection Service spokesman Rob Sperling, police were arrested around 5:30 am (8:30 am ET), according to the Federal Protection Service. 19659004] "We have a number of officers with SPFs, also law enforcement officers, who pushed protesters away from the main gate," Sperling said. Reuters. "So we cleaned up the main entrance point of the building and now we are cleaning up the debris."

Occupy Ice PDX protesters, rallied to President Donald Trump's immigration policies, had installed more than one camp at the ICE. a week ago with the message "Abolir ICE".

The ICE Center has been closed since June 20 after growing protests against Trump's policy of prosecuting all adults crossing the border illegally, leading to the continued separation of over 2,000 children. A barricade crosses a railroad track in a protest camp on a property in front of the US Immigration and Customs Office in Portland, Oregon on June 25. Don Ryan / AP

Federal agents stood side by side in riot gear and batons. The protesters would occasionally come up to the police with signs and talk or shout at them, some would shout blasphemies, but the scene did not seem to be violent. Other demonstrators on the scene played loud Latin music

"How would you feel if someone had taken your children?" One protester asked the officers: "You should all be ashamed of yourself," said another protester. ]

The agents cleaned the entrance to the building, but did not appear to intervene in nearby areas that did not prevent people from entering or exiting the facility, reported KGW, affiliated with NBC. Sperling told KGW, an affiliate of NBC, that while law enforcement officials would intervene to prevent protesters from blocking federal properties, they would not remove protesters from a nearby, public camp. or private.

"We do not want to impede their freedom of speech," he said.

He said that federal officials had been providing protestors with written warnings in recent days that they should stop blocking the building.

"Today, when we arrived, we said that it was time to leave," he said. "We gave them some warnings on loudspeakers giving them the opportunity to go back."

Sperling said the withdrawal was "mostly peaceful" and civil and that they were hoping to have the CIE facility open next week. Tuesday night, a federal judge ordered that all separated families be reunited within 30 days and for the end of family separations. Trump signed an executive order last week to stop family separations, but to date, more than 2,000 remain away from their parents.

Family separations have led to a wave of protests across the country in recent weeks.