DHS Planning ‘Unprecedented’ Op In Portland After Arrest of Conservative

Alternative media journalist Nick Sortor says the Department of Homeland Security is preparing a massive response in Portland, Oregon, following his arrest late Thursday while covering violent antifa riots.

Sortor, a conservative influencer with more than 1.2 million followers on X, announced the news Friday morning.

“I have been in direct contact with top officials at DHS,” Sortor posted. “What’s coming in Portland is unprecedented. All thanks to @PortlandPolice exposing themselves by arresting journalists. Great work, Portland!”

The journalist was taken into custody while reporting outside Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, where far-left rioters have staged weeks of violent demonstrations. Since June 2, the city has seen repeated arson attempts, assaults, and clashes with law enforcement — leaving dozens injured and local businesses once again reeling from destruction.

Speaking with Fox News, Sortor described being attacked by left-wing agitators.

“This was as big of a surprise to me as it was to everybody else. All of a sudden, you know, I’m being jumped by antifa thugs,” he said. “I get back up, I stumble away and go back toward cops where I think, you know, at least, all right, well, maybe that’ll be a safer place for me to go … never suspected that I was going to be the target of the arrest, that they were coming in to me.”

While Sortor has not revealed DHS’s specific plans, he did share a letter from Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon to the Portland City Attorney’s Office and Police Bureau. Dhillon requested all documentation and video footage of Sortor’s arrest.

“About damn time Portland took the law seriously,” Dhillon added in a separate post.

The civil rights attorney also highlighted the case of Post Millennial reporter Katie Daviscourt, who was assaulted earlier in the week by a masked rioter.

“This antifa-affiliated subject just started approaching me and waving a flagpole in my face, and then I kind of turn around and that’s when she swung it like a baseball bat and directly hit my eye,” Daviscourt told conservative activist and Real America’s Voice host Jack Posobiec, according to the New York Post.

Daviscourt later appeared in interviews with a visible black eye, saying that while she identified the attacker to nearby officers, police refused to intervene.

“Portland police refused to come in and make an arrest and I had three officers just standing there, watching me try to hunt down the suspect,” she told the Post.

Portland Police confirmed the incident Wednesday, admitting that a “Dialogue Liaison Officer” — who is barred from making arrests — tried and failed to detain the suspect.

“The Dialogue Officer attempted to talk to the suspect to hear her side of the story. She would not stop, so the DLO told her she was being detained. She refused the lawful police order to stop and she fled,” the department’s statement read.

As of Friday, the suspect has not been arrested.

President Donald J. Trump, who has long warned about unchecked left-wing violence in Portland, signed an executive order on Sept. 22 formally designating antifa as a terrorist organization. Days later, he directed a federal crackdown.

“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,” President Trump declared in a Sept. 27 Truth Social post.

“I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he added.