Naked Bikers and Federal Escalation
Around 4 p.m. on Sunday, I arrived at the ICE field office in Portland to find half a dozen protesters in inflatable animal costumes dancing to the upbeat sounds of the Unpresidented Brass Band, whose members were dressed in banana costumes.
By 4:15 p.m., I was filming the band when cheers erupted around me. I turned to see a wave of participants from the World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) began to arrive.
World Naked Bike Ride arrives to the Portland ICE facility
The WNBR is a global, unsanctioned protest movement against oil dependency and calling attention to the vulnerability of bodies, especially those of cyclists. “It started 21 years ago,” said Nickelback, one of the organizers. “Portland’s had its own ride for about 20 years, with different people taking the lead each time.”
In 2023, a new collective took over organizing Portland’s WNBR, working alongside original and past organizers. “The group we started in 2023 was an effort to realign the Portland ride with its protesting roots and original intent... to be more than just a naked bike party,” said Nickelback.
This year, organizers felt the need for an emergency ride.
“We went to the ICE facility to send a message that our city is not okay, to show support for people who’ve been kidnapped, are scared of being kidnapped, and to stand (or ride) in solidarity with the protesters who’ve been there for 120 days,” said Nickleback.
As the Unpresidented Brass Band played, Portland Police Bureau bike officers held a line on either side of the sidewalk. They eventually moved away, replaced by federal agents who briefly emerged through the front gates, only to retreat moments later as the wave of bikers continued flooding in.
Meanwhile, over a thousand bikers– many wearing inflatable dinosaur suits, whimsical outfits, or nothing at all– poured onto S. Macadam Avenue, in what Speaker Mike Johnson called “the most threatening thing I’ve seen yet.” Protesters in animal costumes high-fived riders, cheers erupted, and for a moment, the site that had been marked by fear and trauma became a place of unexpected joy and whimsy.
But this is the US Gestapo we’re talking about. And that moment of levity didn’t last.
Shortly after most of the WNBR had arrived, federal agents, some from DHS, US Customs and Border Protection, and other agencies – moved past the driveway and into the street. Without warning, they began violently shoving people to the ground and indiscriminately firing pepper balls. For months now, protests at the ICE facility have been happening daily without incident (something that even local law enforcement has acknowledged) until federal agents escalate, and Sunday was no different.
They held a line in front of the facility and across the street in what’s often referred to as the unofficial “free speech zone” – an area where protesters are routinely told, or forced, to relocate to, and where members of the press often set up and report from.
Less than 10 minutes later, federal forces escalated again. I saw a person being suddenly dragged through the front gates by several agents. As I tried to cross the sidewalk to get a better view of what was happening, agents on the roof began firing pepper balls into the crowd
Nearby, a group of photographers was shoved by federal agents. Two were hit in the head with pepper balls, another in the arm, and one DHS agent even took a hit to the head from friendly fire. To my left, a group of protesters fell as feds pushed them over. I saw a protester’s helmet kicked across the ground and torn signs scattered across the ground.
The person who’d been dragged in was now lying behind the gates. Three federal agents surrounded them. As more agents arrived, they piled onto the detainee, eventually six in total, with one acting as a camera operator, filming as the others carried what appeared to be an injured individual inside.
Back across the street, I saw someone with their hands restrained behind their back being walked into the building by a DHS officer. Moments later, another DHS agent pointed to someone on the sidewalk, and within seconds, they were tackled, pinned face down in the mud, and surrounded.
That person turned out to be the clarinet player from the Unpresidented Brass Band.
The Unpresidented Brass Band was formed in 2017 in response to the rise of fascism, and more specifically, Donald Trump. The band has since shown up to protests playing music to provide levity to otherwise tense and scary situations.
Kitty, a band member with Unpresidented Brass Band, said that the band remained on the “free speech side” and on the sidewalk after the march arrived to the ICE facility. As the Unpresidented Brass Band was in the middle of a performance of “Ghostbusters,” federal agents bull rushed the band, tackled the clarinet player, damaging her instrument and arresting her. During this aggression by federal agents,they also knocked over one of the bands drummers, knocking them back and busting their lip open. The bands drummer had to go to the hospital and get stiches immediately after. Another band member got a cansiter of mace sprayed straight into their face, and another got trapped against the fence by agents and was unable to leave.
The clarinet player, Oriana, was later transported from the ICE facility and booked on a Clark County Jail hold. That’s in Washington state, across the river. Oriana is still being detained there as of writing this.
This wasn’t the first time protesters detained at Portland’s ICE facility were taken far away. Just a week earlier, on October 4th, multiple detainees were transported to Columbia County Jail in St. Helens, nearly an hour away from Portland.
Context: A Legal Violation, and Federal Retaliation?
Recently, the City of Portland issued a land use violation against the ICE facility. Federal records show ICE agents held detainees there in violation of their land use agreement, which limits detentions to a 12-hour maximum.
According to a city news release, ICE exceeded that limit 25 times between October 1, 2024, and July 27, 2025, with the longest case lasting 47 days.
Now, instead of complying, ICE appears to be escalating its response, detaining protesters outside of the city, and even outside the state.
Is this a workaround to the land use violation? A propaganda campaign against local agencies and officials? A broader political maneuver and a result of political allignment with specific institutions? It's unclear.
What is clear is this: Federal agents are transporting political opponents across state lines and using far-flung jails as holding cells.
Whether it’s part of a broader federal strategy, a retaliatory act, or just ICE doing what ICE does – it’s happening. And it deserves our full attention.
As Nickelback from the WNBR put it:
“We hope people find a way to resist in a way that works for them. We ride bikes and do naked rides, so that’s what we did. All forms of protest are legitimate, but doing nothing isn’t an option anymore.
We don’t know what our home is going to look like in 10 years, but if we do nothing, we can anticipate it’ll be even worse than it is now for our Indigenous, Hispanic, Latino, and migrant worker communities.”
The federal government is escalating. The violence is increasing. And doing nothing is not an option.
Recommended Reading-
Donovan Scribes (fka Donovan Smith)
