Protesters, as they have often done in the past seven weeks, rallied around federal court and the county justice center in downtown Portland on Friday night and early Saturday.
The protest began with about 200 people blocking traffic outside the county justice center. But some took metal fences from nearby parks and used them to barricade the outer gates of the justice center and a federal court, Portland police said.
At around 1:30 am, city police declared an illegal assembly and told protesters to leave, police said.
Police said they moved to disperse the crowd and arrested several people who did not leave. Officers faced “projectiles such as glass bottles, rocks and broken pieces of metal from the fence,” police said.
At 2:10 am, several hundred people returned to the area, and Portland police again dispersed them, arresting several more, authorities said.
Police said they confiscated weapons and shields from some protesters. Police released a photo showing some of the items, which looked like swords and chest armor.
Portland police said they did not use tear gas.
The Oregon Governor and Portland Mayor have demanded the withdrawal of federal officials.
The United States Office of Customs and Border Protection said it was one of the agencies involved in the arrest of protesters.
“Violent anarchists have organized events in Portland over the past few weeks with the deliberate intention of damaging and destroying federal property, as well as injuring federal agents and agents,” the agency said in a statement to CNN. “These criminal actions will not be tolerated.”
CNN’s Josh Campbell, Amir Vera and Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.
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