Portland city council member tells Antifa agitators to use burner phones, hide identities to escape prosecution during militant protests

Portland City Council member Angelita Morillo, a socialist, is facing backlash after posting a video online that appears to provide instructions for protesters on how to avoid identification while committing crimes during protests.

In the video, Morillo advises individuals to evade detection by purchasing burner phones with cash and using encrypted messaging services to coordinate activities. She also instructs individuals to fully cover their faces to escape facial recognition technology, a tactic she suggests could help avoid law enforcement scrutiny. This is a tactic commonly used by Antifa, a US domestic terrorist organization with prominence in the Pacific Northwest.

This comes after President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to deploy to the city to quash the unlawful 24-hour anti-ICE Antifa occupation outside the ICE facility in South Portland, which has been ongoing since June 7.

"A lot of things can change if we are not careful and deliberate with our actions in the next few days," council member Morillo said, later adding, "I am going to give you my legal analysis as a city councilor of the risks and benefits of different actions at federal buildings. But I trust your judgement, and you need to decide what risks you're willing to take for yourself and for your community as a whole."

"We know that there are more ICE agents on the ground now, and that federal surveillance is at an all-time high. So here are some ways that you can protect yourself while organizing for your community....

"There are facial recognition technology devices that are used at most federal buildings, and most people think that they can beat that by covering their faces, but if you just cover the lower half, guess what? You have left your eyes and eyebrows, which are the most identifiable parts of you," said Morillo.

"Even if you do cover your face successfully, some technology can also track your gait and the way that you walk in order to create a pattern that's just identifiable to you, just like a fingerprint."

"And guess what?" she continued. "Your phone. You should consider this a tracker and a listening device at all times...If you happen to organize with a bunch of different people and you all took the bus to the same secure location....They have a pattern of who you organize with, who you talk to, and how long and why.

"So you should get a Faraday cage, which blocks the signal from your phone. You should disable fingerprint and facial recognition technology to unlock your phone. And you should have a pin that's longer than four numbers."

"I also highly recommend going to your local grocery store and buying a burner phone in cash, and using encrypted apps like Signal to communicate with people, and having disappearing messages on," Morillo concluded.

Morillo's controversial remarks come on the heels of her recent public defense of Robert Hoopes, an Antifa-affiliated protester accused of violently assaulting an ICE agent during an anti-ICE protest in June. Hoopes allegedly threw a rock at a federal agent's face after attempting to break into the ICE facility in South Portland. Her vocal support for Hoopes, who is currently facing serious federal charges, has further fueled accusations that she sympathizes with anti-government extremists and condones violent protest tactics.

Morillo has been a vocal critic of ICE, actively participating in efforts to revoke the ICE permit at the agency's facility in South Portland, which has been the site of near-nightly clashes between agitators and federal officers.

The Post Millennial reached out to Councilor Morillo's Office for comment.