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Conservative journalist Nick Sortor was captured on video being taken into custody in Portland, Oregon, during another night of chaotic protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.
The arrest came after the Portland Police Bureau said it was “monitoring the protest during the evening and observed some protest participants engaging in fights.” Sortor was charged with disorderly conduct in the second degree.
“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,” Sortor told Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin following his release. “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.”
“And when they put me into handcuffs, the first thing that went to my mind wasn’t, ‘Oh, you’re being arrested.’ It’s, ‘Oh, they’re trying to help you and get you out of here and make it look like they’re doing something.’ Because they weren’t telling me what they were doing. They weren’t telling me I was under arrest. They weren’t telling me what I was being charged with. And it took over an hour for me to find out what I was charged with,” Sortor claimed.
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A Portland Police Bureau spokesperson told Fox News Digital that among those arrested Thursday “was an individual known to have a significant social media presence, as well as others representing a range of political viewpoints.”
“As with all such situations, arrests are based on observed behavior and probable cause — not political affiliation or public profile. Formal charges will be determined by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office,” the spokesperson added. “PPB remains committed to protecting public safety, upholding the rights of all individuals to lawfully assemble, and enforcing the law impartially.”
Sortor also told Fox News that, “the Antifa people out here don’t exactly love the First Amendment.”
“They act like they do until it’s reciprocated on them. I have every right to stand out here and film them. We saw them get in the way of federal agents trying to come out of the ICE facility here, and they end up pushing up against ICE agents. And what happens? They get maced. Okay, so I go in, and I film that aftermath,” Sortor said.
“The Post Millennial” investigative reporter Katie Daviscourt said on X that police “announced they were making targeted arrests following several scuffles,” and that, “Sortor was being targeted by Antifa shortly before.”
“So they threw multiple punches at me. They broke my camera by hitting that. So I was on the ground at that point. I tried to swing. I missed. I think I have every right to swing on somebody that has got me on the ground after punching me and after breaking my equipment,” Sortor told Fox News.
The Portland Police Bureau said, “At about 8:09 p.m., PPB Dialogue Officers (DLOs) observed two men fighting near the ICE building driveway.
“The DLOs called in additional resources and officers were responding when the fight ended following one participant being knocked to the ground. He did not lose consciousness and never requested medical help,” it added in a statement. “Both involved were detained by federal law enforcement and were later released. Neither party indicated they wanted to make a police report.”
“PPB continued to monitor the situation and responded after seeing additional fights break out,” the bureau said.
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At about 11:16 p.m., Portland police said its Rapid Response Team moved in and arrested three people, who were all booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC) on charges of disorderly conduct in the second degree.
Police identified those arrested on the disorderly conduct charge as Nicholas Sortor, 27, of Washington, D.C., Son Mi Yi, 43, of Portland, and Angela Davis, 49, of Vernonia, Oregon.
Melugin also said in a post on X that he had spoken to Sortor on the phone after he was released from custody. Melugin said Sortor told him that “he was getting video of protesters getting maced by federal agents, which was embarrassing video for them as they were ‘crying’ etc.”
“He says they then swarmed/surrounded him, pushed him down into a flower bed, and someone threw a punch,” Melugin wrote. “Nick says he swung back and missed, then disengaged and walked over to a group of Portland PD. He says he was then shocked to be arrested by them, and he sat in the back of a police cruiser while officers figured out what to charge him with.”
“I asked him about the female protester who was also arrested with him,” Melugin added. “He said he talked to her in the jail, and she didn’t seem like she was the one who assaulted him.”
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Sortor appeared to be covering the unrest at the Portland ICE facility prior to being taken into custody.
In one video posted to his X account, Sortor said an individual “just jumped onto federal property at the Portland ICE facility and CHALLENGED agents to ‘do something about it.’”
“And they DID — QUICKLY,” he added. “Dude ended up on the pavement, arrested, and dragged into the facility.”
The clip showed law enforcement officers rushing at a man who approached them outside the facility.
In other footage of the unrest, two men were seen engaging in a fistfight outside the ICE facility before they were detained.
In an exclusive interview with Melugin, Cammila Wamsley, director of Portland’s ICE office, previously said the facility has faced violence for more than 100 consecutive nights, with Portland police largely absent under guidance from the mayor and city council.
“It’s frustrating for us to watch people be attacked on the street and know that we don’t have the authority to be able to really step in unless there’s some nexus to federal law,” Wamsley said.
She said nightly protests have escalated beyond chants and signs, with bottle rockets striking the ICE building, rocks shattering windows, lasers targeting officers’ eyes and barricades blocking vehicles.
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Wamsley said protesters had followed ICE staff members home and doxxed at least six employees.
Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
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