President Donald Trump’s border czar made a quiet visit to Portland on Wednesday morning in a brief appearance that flew under the radar.
Tom Homan’s stopover came more than a month after he said with bluster that he would come to Portland during an early July interview with Fox Business. Portland’s mention came after the host teed up Homan by alleging mayors in sanctuary cities were helping “foment the violence” and referenced a small but ongoing protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in South Portland.
“I’m going to Portland,” Homan said during July’s Fox interview. “I’m going out there. They are not going to bully us … we’re going to do the job. We’re doing it in Portland too. But for the mayor of New York City and Chicago, President Trump made it clear two weeks ago, we’re going to double down and triple down in sanctuary cities.”
A White House spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to requests seeking comment late Wednesday and early Thursday. But Cody Bowman, a spokesperson for the city of Portland, confirmed the visit.
“Immigrations & Customs Enforcement director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Tom Homan arrived in Portland on the morning of Wednesday, August 20th,” Bowman said in an email. “He met with sworn and nonsworn personnel at the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility on 4310 S. Macadam and departed shortly thereafter.”
Homan on Thursday afternoon announced that he visited Portland, Seattle, Tacoma and San Diego this week to speak with immigration and border officials working in local offices. In a message posted to social media platform X, he said he wanted to let agents there “know that President Trump and I have their six” – a military reference to having someone’s back.
“Sanctuary cities are only sanctuaries for criminals, PERIOD,” Homan wrote. “Efforts to impede immigration enforcement operations and protect public safety threats are beyond shameful.”
During the earlier Fox interview, Homan said immigration authorities were going to be “doubling down, tripling down” on enforcement in sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
While immigration arrests have been ramping up in Oregon, it doesn’t appear that large enforcement activity was seen in the state to coincide with Homan’s stop.
Flight records show a U.S. Customs and Border Protection plane landed in Portland at 6:41 a.m. Wednesday and departed around 10:30 a.m. for Seattle.
Bowman, the city spokesperson, said neither the city nor the Portland Police Bureau had a role in coordinating the visit. Local officials do not enforce federal immigration law and generally are prohibited from cooperating with federal immigration agents under a state law approved in 1987.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement Thursday that the city is “firm in protecting” its sanctuary status but acknowledged the federal government can lawfully operate in the city and police will not interfere with immigration enforcement.
“We cannot, however, confuse legality with morality. Our city is horrified and disturbed by images of masked men pulling our community members off the streets and out of their cars and homes at gunpoint,” he said in a statement. “ … The masked and armed federal officers roaming the streets in unmarked vans touted by ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan are chilling symbols of fear and oppression, not the freedom, liberty, or opportunity we cherish."
A few days after Homan named Portland during the Fox interview, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden in a letter invited him to a town hall in Multnomah County that the Oregon Democrat was working to schedule this month.
“I hope that you intend to visit Oregon to learn about how your policies and tactics are impacting American communities,” Wyden wrote in his letter. “The best way to do this is the ‘Oregon Way’ of having open-to-all town hall meetings to hear from, and answer to, ordinary Oregonians.”
Hank Stern, a spokesperson for Wyden, on Wednesday said Homan turned down the invitation.
“Our office was told by Homan’s office that a town hall in Multnomah County would not work out for Homan,” Stern said in an email.
Meanwhile, the small protest outside the ICE office in Portland has been ongoing since early June and has led to several arrests. Last week, a Multnomah County judge ruled that Portland police are not required to enforce noise rules at the ongoing protest. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by a nearby resident.
Mark Friesen, a data analyst, contributed to this report.
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