Demonstrators taunted officers throughout the day, violently banged on the building’s windows, and shone high-powered green lasers that can cause blindness at agents stationed on the roof.
Tensions flared outside the federal building in downtown Eugene, Oregon, on Tuesday as Antifa militants and leftist agitators mobilized to attack the facility to demonstrate against the Trump administration's US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. Federal agents made multiple arrests and deployed crowd control measures to disperse the unruly mob. The building was surrounded for hours.
Agitators maintained positions around the entrances and exits. The protest escalated to the point where federal agents issued repeated warnings for the crowd to disperse. When the group remained unruly and continued disruptive actions perceived as threatening, agents deployed crowd control munitions such as pepper balls, flash bangs, and tear gas to clear the area, according to video footage.
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Video footage circulating online shows federal officers in tactical gear, including ICE's Special Response Team (SRT), confronting protesters, with some individuals being detained amid the chaos. Demonstrators, many of whom were clad in Antifa's black bloc uniform, taunted officers throughout the day, violently banged on the building's windows, and shone high-powered green lasers that can cause blindness at agents stationed on the roof.
Local reports from KVAL News documented federal agents making arrests throughout the day. The demonstration became intense around 1 pm, when agents exited the building to detain a protester, resulting in intense confrontations. It's unclear how many arrests were made, but protesters claimed to have counted at least nine individuals being taken into custody by federal agents, per OPB. The direct action concluded around 10:30 pm.
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This incident follows a pattern of protests in Oregon targeting ICE operations, including prior events in Eugene and Portland where Federal Protective Service (FPS) officers, as well as ICE tactical teams and other federal agencies, have clashed with demonstrators, resulting in neighborhood blocks resembling war zones. While anti-ICE protests have been occurring at the Eugene federal building since last year, there was a notable increase in tension at Tuesday's demonstration as protesters gathered over the death of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis man shot and killed by Border Patrol agents in Minnesota on Saturday while impeding immigration enforcement operations.
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The Post Millennial reached out to DHS for comment about the arrests.
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