Alternative media journalist Nick Sortor said the Department of Homeland Security is preparing an “unprecedented” response in Portland, Oregon, following his arrest by city police late Thursday as he covered ongoing antifa riots.
Sortor, a conservative influencer with 1.2 million followers on X, made the announcement Friday morning on the social media platform.
“I have been in direct contact with top officials at DHS,” Sortor wrote. “What’s coming in Portland is unprecedented. All thanks to @PortlandPolice exposing themselves by arresting journalists. Great work, Portland!”
Sortor was taken into custody while reporting on violent protests that have raged in Portland for weeks outside the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. The riots, which began June 2, have led to dozens of injuries, repeated property damage, and violent clashes between police, federal agents, and far-left demonstrators.
In an interview with Fox News, Sortor described being attacked by antifa rioters.
“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.”
Sortor did not disclose details of the DHS action, but shortly before his post, he shared a letter from Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, addressed to the Portland City Attorney’s Office and Police Bureau. The letter requested documentation and video footage of Sortor’s arrest.
In a separate post, Dhillon wrote, “About damn time Portland took the law seriously.”
Dhillon also raised questions about 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 appeared in interviews later with a visible black eye. She said she identified the attacker to nearby police but that no arrest was made.
“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.
Police confirmed the incident in a statement Wednesday, saying a “Dialogue Liaison Officer,” who is not permitted to make arrests, had attempted 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 statement said.
As of Friday, the suspect has not been apprehended.
On Sept. 22, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating antifa as a terrorist organization.
Days later, he announced a federal response. “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,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sept. 27.
“I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he added.