Some protesters outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement buildings in Portland, Oregon, and suburban Chicago claim they’re trying to reduce tension by wearing inflatable costumes.
Recently, people in Portland have witnessed the unusual scene of federal officers in riot gear facing off against characters like Pikachu, SpongeBob SquarePants, bipedal frogs, extraterrestrials, and other whimsical figures. Some of these scenes have gained attention online.
“Operation Inflation” organizer Brooks Brown states that the goal is to use humor to illustrate that Portland hasn’t become chaotic and violent, as some critics assert.
“It deflates. It switches the situation, and it changes the conversation to be what it should be, which is: What are people here protesting about? They’re protesting what ICE is doing, how ICE is doing it, and how they’re handling it what’s now happening to actual citizens,” he explained over the weekend. “Instead of worrying about antifa and other pointless issues, let’s actually discuss this and have that conversation.”
Brown pointed to a few protesters he described as “blowing bubbles and having pizza.” However, by Sunday night, hundreds gathered at the ICE facility under rainy conditions (with an added element of naked bicyclists), prompting authorities to use crowd-control munitions and make several arrests.
In Broadview, Illinois, near Chicago, similar confrontations have occurred between protesters and federal agents, though state and local police have recently imposed new measures on demonstrators, keeping them back from the ICE detention center there. President Trump has attempted to federalize and deploy National Guard troops in Chicago and Portland but has faced temporary legal barriers in federal courts.
On Sunday, inflatable costumes began materializing in Broadview. Characters loping into the protest zone included Cookie Monster, Winnie the Pooh, and a bumble bee holding a sign that said, “Bee benevolent, bee beautiful, bee better.”
correspondent Mills Hayes and producer Travis Harrison contributed to this report.
