After weeks of violence against conservatives and federal law enforcement, President Donald Trump is deploying the military to protect federal agents carrying out his immigration agenda. In response to riots outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, the president announced Saturday that he is deploying soldiers to deal with what he characterized as the Antifa mob.

“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post. “I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary,” he added. Trump formally declared Antifa a domestic terrorist organization earlier this year.

Earlier this summer, left-wing activists began demonstrating outside an ICE detention center in Portland’s South Waterfront district. The demonstrations quickly became violent, escalating into open conflicts against law enforcement earlier this month, fueled by armed Antifa activists. Rioters burned American flags and even erected guillotines and threatened to kill ICE agents and police officers protecting them. On September 24, Portland officials claimed that ICE agents violated zoning codes with their operation of the detention facility; the very next day, a sniper opened fire on an ICE detention center in Dallas. On Sunday, federal agents began making arrests, carrying Antifa activists off the streets and incarcerating them in the ICE detention center.

Democrats in Oregon, however, have pledged to resist the president’s law enforcement efforts and maintain Portland’s status as a “sanctuary city.” Governor Tina Kotek, Attorney General Dan Rayfield, and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson filed a lawsuit in federal court, attempting to block the president from mobilizing an estimated 200 National Guardsmen in the city. “Oregon communities are stable, and our local officials have been clear: we have the capacity to manage public safety without federal interference,” Rayfield said in a statement, after roughly two months of rioting in his city.

The lawsuit comes just weeks after Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California determined that the president’s mobilization of California’s National Guard earlier this year in response to violent anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles was likely unconstitutional. The Trump administration has appealed Breyer’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In addition to the president’s deployment of federal troops to Portland, Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller announced Saturday that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) would also be mobilizing its Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), led by the FBI, to counter Antifa forces and protect ICE agents and operations across the country. “We are witnessing domestic terrorist sedition against the federal government,” Miller clarified. “All necessary resources will be utilized.”

“I have witnessed the continued onslaught of violence perpetrated against ICE officers across our country. The Department of Justice will not stand idly by in the face of such lawlessness,” Bondi stated in a social media announcement. “I am also instructing the Joint Terrorism Task Forces across the country to disrupt and investigate all entities and individuals engaged in acts of domestic terrorism, including the repeated acts of violence and obstruction against federal agents,” she continued. “The Department of Justice will seek the most serious available charges against all participants in these criminal mobs, including conspiracy offenses, assault offenses, civil disorder offenses, and terrorism offenses.”

“These are not peaceful protests. These are coordinated attacks by radical extremists, and they end now,” the attorney general declared in a separate video posted to social media. “Anyone who threatens or assaults our federal officers will be arrested and charged federally, not in some liberal state court. The same goes for anyone who is funding and aiding these extremists. You will be dismantled brick by brick.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, recounted, “Portland saw nightly violence in 2020 as Antifa and affinity groups attacked federal agents and property. Any arrests by law enforcement were followed by pro-crime prosecutors, and judges, supported by political leaders, quickly releasing the rioters in time for them to return the next night to commit more violence.” She observed, “Antifa has been committing more nightly violence in Portland throughout this year too, but the media has not covered it.”

“Mere words calling for an end to inciting rhetoric and violence will not work to stop Antifa riots. Rather, the violence has escalated,” Ries pointed out. “Only federal arrests, federal prosecutions, convictions, and severe sentences will stop the immediate violent rioting. But to prevent the next cohort of rioters, the Trump administration will need to identify the funders and organizers, freeze their funds, prosecute them, and pursue severe sentences. In a word, consequences.”

Rioters have also been targeting ICE agents, facilities, and operations in the Chicago suburb of Broadview. The Washington Stand previously reported that left-wing activists have barricaded entrances and exits to the Broadview ICE center, attacked federal vehicles, and called for the killing of ICE agents. Starting Saturday evening, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino led USBP agents in forcibly dispersing rioters. Bovino ordered rioters to leave the streets outside the Broadview ICE facility; those who didn’t were shot with pepper ball projectiles, and stragglers were arrested. Later in the evening, pepper spray and tear gas were used against rioters who refused to disperse. According to footage from Border Hawk News, the mob was “crushed” and “sent running for the hills” Saturday night.