"Since June 8, 2025, the day after arrests began outside Portland's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building, Ritto has been on the ground, starting nightly fires. Firing up the grill, that is. It's one of the roles he plays in the ongoing demonstration opposing the ICE facility in Portland's South Waterfront. These daily demonstrations are the main reason the Trump administration is determined to deploy the National Guard to downtown Portland and why Trump called the city "war-ravaged" with "fires all over the place.""
"Days outside the facility are filled with care, laughter, and inflatable frog costumes. Rich Coffman, a regular protestor, likes to call it "giggling at tyrants" and adds that it "deflates fragile egos like a punctured tire." Pleasure and comfort disrupt and subvert. And like many movements before, food has become a central part of the joy of resistance. Food not only provides sustenance for the long days and nights spent outside, but builds community."
Since June 8, 2025, protesters have gathered nightly outside Portland's ICE building, where volunteers like Ritto run grills and start nightly fires to feed and warm participants. The demonstrations center on communal care, laughter, and costumes, creating a convivial atmosphere that organizers describe as both joyful and resistive. The Trump administration characterized the city as "war-ravaged" and sought National Guard deployment, but observers and judges have disputed that assessment. Temporary restraining orders have repeatedly blocked federal troop deployment through early November. Food, drink, and shared comfort function as solidarity-building practices that sustain long hours and cultivate community among protesters.
Read at Eater Portland
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