Portland, Oregon — Ongoing protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Portland, Oregon, have largely been contained to a single block in the downtown South Waterfront neighborhood, but the perception of Portland as unsafe has created ripple effects across this 135-square-mile city.
On one particular October day, Mother’s Bistro and Bar in downtown Portland was seeing more customers than usual, which is rare, according to longtime owner Lisa Schroeder.
“You know, we have our days where we’re busy, but it’s not like it used to be,” Schroeder told CBS News.
Schroeder says that since the 2020 pandemic and ensuing social justice protests emptied out downtown, business has gone from bad to worse.
Portland has recently been a focal point in President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to quell opposition to ICE activity in blue cities.
On Sept. 28, Mr. Trump announced he would be deploying federal troops to Portland in response to the protests at the South Waterfront ICE facility, describing the city in a social media post as “war-ravaged.” The Trump administration later confirmed it would be placing 200 Oregon National Guard troops under federal control for a period of 60 days.
Speaking to hundreds of generals and admirals on Sept. 30 at the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia, Mr. Trump called Portland a “war zone.”
And on Oct. 5, he told reporters that “Portland is burning to the ground.”
“My business is half of what it was, but it’s certainly not going to get better by somebody telling the world that our city is war-ravaged,” Schroeder said.
On Saturday, in response to a lawsuit from the state of Oregon, a Trump-appointed federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the federalization and deployment of Oregon National Guard troops, and a day later, the same judge blocked the deployment of any National Guard troops to Oregon from other states as the Pentagon said that it planned to send another 200 California National Guard troops to Portland.
On Wednesday, an appeals court temporarily granted a White House request that the 200 Oregon National Guard troops remain under federal control. However, the appellate court noted that National Guard troops are still prohibited from deploying to Portland while the case plays out.
Federal law enforcement officers form a line outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility as both protesters against and in support of ICE gather, in Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 6, 2025. / Credit: Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Business owners have submitted legal declarations of support for the state’s lawsuit, saying the president’s rhetoric has been damaging.
Diners here feel it too.
“No, it’s not Portlanders,” one diner at Mothers Bistro and Bar said of the Rose City when asked if the city is a warzone. “It’s not who Portland is, and it’s not the 99.9% of who’s out there.”
Schroeder says that Portland has an “image problem.”
“I feel like Goliath is coming after David,” Schroeder said. “We’re a little city here, just trying to get by, trying to sort out our problems. And we don’t need the big cheese to come here…We are definitely in a state of recovery. We are not there.”
According to data from the Portland Police Bureau, total crime was down 19% in 2024 compared to 2022. But as the protests play out on the national stage, Schroeder says she is losing money.
“This does not help,” Schroeder said. “It does not help at all. We don’t need this. And certainly to spend our money on troops to come here for this…This is what our government is spending money on? It’s a shame, a crying shame. And I’m crying.”
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