Portland Mayor Keith Wilson on Wednesday ordered police tape and barricades to come down around South Portland’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, despite demands from the federal government that the city erect a permanent perimeter around the facility.

Wilson said he made the decision after some members of the Portland City Council raised concerns that keeping the area cordoned off could inflame protesters and city residents, intensifying the nightly demonstrations that have taken place for months outside the building. Those protests had involved no more than several dozen people in the weeks before President Donald Trump announced plans to deploy troops to Portland.

“We want to listen to the council, we want to listen to community members,” Wilson told The Oregonian/Or

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