EXCLUSIVE: Portland 'No Kings' Devolves into Riot, Federal Agents Doused with Lighter Fluid
Eyewitness account as protest turns violent; Portland leaders tacitly condone assault on ICE facility.
Editor's note: On March 28, as the nationwide 'No Kings' rallies once again unfolded across the nation, rioters in deep blue Portland, Oregon deployed a familiar playbook. A violent faction of antifa rioters redirected the protest energy and refocused it on the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. By the end of the night, rioters threw rocks, bottles, bricks, and cinder blocks, smashed through the ICE facility security gate, and doused several federal agents with lighter fluid. This is an eyewitness account of how it unfolded. And Portland's antifa-supporting, DSA-member leaders sat by and watched—refusing to let local law enforcement intervene.
The crowd was overwhelming. And it was angry in a way that went beyond chanting and sign-waving—a raw, directed fury aimed at the federal officers standing on the other side of that gate.
Then the rioters smashed open the gate.
At 6:49 p.m., protesters damaged the front gate of the Portland ICE facility. Portland
Police pushed them back. At 7:58 p.m., they hit it again. I watched them breach it a thirdtime. What unfolded over those hours wasn’t a protest, this was a siege.
The day had begun with the “No Kings” march—a massive, tens-of-thousands-strong rally organized by the 50501 movement and Portland Indivisible, routed through downtown and along the waterfront. The optics were polished. The energy was festive.
But anyone paying attention to how this playbook has worked all year long knows what comes next: the big march ends, the cameras pan away, and the hard-left faction peels off toward the ICE facility to do what they actually came to do.
That’s exactly what happened.
ICE Agents Under Siege
Katie and I are vindicated in our reporting. This is what we were talking about happening last year. The violence and rioting and nothing has been done. https://t.co/mX9VsDGvb4
— C.K. Bouferrache aka Honeybadgermom (@Honeybadgermom) March 29, 2026
They are peeling the plywood back that is protecting the field building now. It’s a full on attack of a federal building. https://t.co/eeJJ2heKsE
— C.K. Bouferrache aka Honeybadgermom (@Honeybadgermom) March 29, 2026
Walking through the No Kings march downtown, I photographed flyers posted along the route designed to recruit from the crowd. “Want to Fight These Bastards for Real?” one read. “Bring Your Rage. Riots Get Results.” Complete with an anarchist symbol and directions: 5 PM rally at Elizabeth Caruthers Park, 6 PM march to the ICE facility. This is the pipeline. The mainstream march provides the numbers, the cover, and the energy.
The hard left harvests it.
Daryn Herzberg—a member of the 50501 operations team (NO Kings) and a prominent figure in Portland’s anti-ICE movement—had been visible on an old fire truck during the daytime No Kings march. Later, over a loudspeaker, he announced the burning of two flags: An American flag and a Nazi flag. Herzberg claimed the American flag had flown over the U.S. Capitol on inauguration day, January 20, 2025. I didn’t see the flames myself—I saw the video later. But when I rounded the back of the building halfway through the night the smell of lighter fluid permeated the entire area.
What I witnessed was not civil disobedience. It was a coordinated physical assault on a federal building.
PORTLAND, OR. ICE Building. It looks like they breached the gates again. I can’t tell from here if the officers opened it. pic.twitter.com/mtTtdrX7Fh
— C.K. Bouferrache aka Honeybadgermom (@Honeybadgermom) March 29, 2026
Rioters doused officers from the Federal Protective Service (FPS) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) with a liquid which smelled strongly of lighter fluid. Rocks and bottles rained down on them. Large rocks were also thrown at Portland Police officers and Oregon State Police troopers as they worked to push the crowd back. Someone in black bloc riot gear scaled the building and destroyed all of the security cameras. Someone spray-painted “Death to ICE Scum” on the exterior walls.
These are federal law enforcement officers doing a lawful job. They stood their ground while a mob tried to burn, breach, and destroy the building around them. And this was not the first time.
Portland Leaders Tacitly Condone Riots
The political class in Portland has spent months telling these officers they are not welcome, that they should resign, that the city will not protect them. What we saw Saturday night is the inevitable result of that message from the antifa-supporting Portland city councilors who are proud members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
The numbers are staggering. According to Homeland Security (DHS), ICE law enforcement is now facing an 8,000% increase in death threats—including bounties placed on officers’ heads, threats to their families, stalking, and doxxing. In Texas, an ICE officer’s spouse received a call: “Did you hear what happened to the Nazis after World War II? Because it’s what’s going to happen to your family.” Nationally, officers have experienced a 1,300% increase in assaults and a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks.
These aren’t statistics. These are human beings with spouses and children, going to work every day under conditions that would make most people quit on the spot.
Shortly before 8pm, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) declared a riot and ordered everyone to leave, warning of arrests. Then PPB leadership did what Portland leadership does: they pulled their officers back and out of the area. In the end, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) made three arrests out of a crowd that had breached a federal gate multiple times, thrown rocks and flammable liquids at law enforcement, vandalized the building, and threatened officers with death.
Three.
Radical Activists Are Escalating
This is the dirty secret of Portland’s ongoing crisis. The officers on the ground aren’t the problem—it’s the leadership above them, answering to a mayor serving as police commissioner, who keeps tying their hands. When PPB issues a riot declaration and then immediately abandons it, it isn’t a failure of policing. It’s a policy decision. And the rioters know it. They’ve known it for years.
Which brings us to the question Portland’s political class refuses to answer honestly: Radical leftist agitators have assaulted, doxxed, issued death threats, and targeted the families of federal officers—and Portland’s leadership has made clear they don’t care. They’ve told these officers to resign. They’ve tied the hands of local law enforcement. At some point, deliberate inaction becomes complicity. The administration faces its own decision: how many escalations will it absorb before a federal officer is killed? Because Portland’s leadership has already answered their version of that question. They’re fine with it. The Insurrection Act exists for exactly this scenario.
The men and women of the Federal Protective Service are not an abstraction. They are not a political symbol. They are officers who showed up to work and were put under siege by a movement that has made their deaths a stated aspiration — spray-painted in red on the building they are sworn to protect.
This has to stop. And the politicians cheering from the sidelines need to be held accountable for every rock thrown.
The Trump administration now faces its own decision point: How many escalations will it absorb before a federal officer is killed on this street? Portland’s leadership has already answered their version of that question. The Insurrection Act exists for exactly this scenario.
All photos produced by CK Bouferrache.
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