President Trump rips Portland mayor’s response to ICE protests

President Trump criticized Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler on Monday for his response to the Occupy ICE protest earlier this summer in Portland.

KGW-TV reports Trump was speaking at a White House ceremony honoring employees of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

During his speech, the president assailed Democratic lawmakers for seeking to abolish ICE ahead of the November midterm elections. He called critics of ICE a “small group that gets a lot of publicity.”

“They have no courage, they have no guts, they just have big loud mouths,” Trump said.

He included Portland’s mayor in that criticism.

“Last month, the mayor of Portland, Oregon shamefully ordered local police to stand down, leaving federal law enforcement officers to face an angry mob of violent people,” Trump said. “Any politician who puts criminal aliens before American citizens should find a new line of work, because it’s not going to work. It’s not going to work.”

The Occupy ICE PDX protest began at an ICE holding facility in Southwest Portland on June 19. Demonstrators camped outside the facility to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

On July 23, after a month of declining to get involved in the situation, Wheeler said the city was encouraging protesters to leave the camp and on July 25, Portland police swept the camp.

KGW said it had reached out to Mayor Wheeler’s office for comment but had not heard back.