Skip to main content
Protesters camped outside the Portland headquarters of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say federal agents have been broadcasting a chipper pop song from the parking garage for more than 10 hours.
As temperatures in Portland reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit this afternoon, the same song has played on repeat all day: "Easy Street," a banjo-and-horn driven ditty with maddeningly happy lyrics. (Protesters recorded a snippet for Twitter, with the complaint: "ICE has been playing children's music for 5 hours now.")
ICE has been playing children’s music for 5 hours now #OccupyIcePDX pic.twitter.com/OPxZVEF3jK
— Abolish I.C.E PDX (@OccupyICEPDX) July 15, 2018
In fact, the song's only pop-culture fame comes from being used as musical torture for a prisoner in a 2016 episode of the zombie-apocalypse TV series The Walking Dead.
"It seems to play for a couple minutes and is a continuous loop," a spokesperson for Occupy ICE tells WW via email. "It's been playing for 10+ hours now."
The occupants of Portland's ICE building have previously used music to agitate the protesters camped outside.
Last month, federal agents played the Metallica song "Enter Sandman" from atop the building's roof, shortly before sweeping out the protesters blocking the building entrance. Occupiers disparaged the song as "threatening dad rock" and said it was being used to unnerve them. A Federal Protective Services spokesman said the agents were grilling out on the deck and played music with dinner.
Since the June 28 sweep, federal agents have grown more aggressive toward the first Occupy ICE camp in the country. Last week, agents shot protesters point-blank with pepper balls as the occupiers linked arms to block a deportation van.
And a visitor to the camp tells WW that last night people inside the ICE building shined floodlights on the Occupy camp, using a generator to power the lights.
A spokesman for Federal Protective Services did not immediately respond to WW's request for comment.