Updated 9:30 a.m. ET, August 16

An unofficial coalition of far-right extremist groups are set to descend on Portland, Oregon this weekend and the city’s mayor has a clear message for them: you are not welcome.

For weeks, the city has been working to prevent violent outbreaks during Saturday’s rally, which is being organized by white supremists and anti-government militia groups. The marchers are expected to clash with the anti-fascist organizations — better known as antifa — that have promised to oppose them with force.

"If you’re coming here to perpetuate hate or racism or xenophobia or sexism, we’re not about that. We don’t want you here," Portland’s Mayor Ted Wheeler told Cheddar. "But if you do come, we’ll be ready for you."

The rally is expected to include groups such as the Proud Boys and the American Guard, which are designated as white supremists hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Anti-government extremist movements, such as the Three Percenters, are also expected to partake. The Oath Keepers, another anti-government group that claims to be stalwart defenders of the U.S. constitution, was expected to attend but said on Thursday that its members will not participate because “adequate steps” were not taken by organizers to exclude white nationalists.

Portland — a city with a long history of antifa activity — is increasingly becoming a target for disruption by extreme-right wing groups, many of which travel from states across the country.

"We're acting more like a magnet to these events as opposed to a deterrent," Danielle Outlaw, Portland’s Police Chief, said on a podcast released by her department last week. "We're seeing an increase of planned brawls, planned fights, where you have opposing sides coming together, meeting in the city of Portland in specific areas for the sole purpose of fighting over ideological differences."

In August 2018, the city’s downtown was consumed with disorder and violence after far-right groups marched through the streets. Many chanted anti-immigrant, pro-Trump slogans, such as "Build the wall." Violent skirmishes broke out when the marchers were confronted by large antifa groups.

Hundreds of police in riot gear were deployed to keep the groups separated. The police department, however, came under fire in the subsequent days from critics who felt the officers unnecessarily targeted counterprotesters, and not the hate groups.

"I received a lot of criticism. I was called a race traitor," Outlaw, an African American woman, said when recalling the events last year. "But … we focus on behaviors. It's not about choosing sides. We don't get to pick sides in law enforcement."

Saturday’s expected rally comes as the nation continues to grapple with, and mourn over, the rise of overt white supremacist violence. In El Paso, Texas, less than two weeks ago, 22 people were killed by a terrorist targeting Hispanics at a Walmart. Monday also marked two years since a white supremacist killed a young woman during the violent rally that shocked the nation in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"Portland is about unity, it is about finding common ground, it is about peace," Wheeler said. "We don't want people coming to our community if there are white supremacists or if they want to spread their hate."

Portland is home to Rose City Antifa (RCA), one of the most prominent anti-facist groups in the nation. Typically masked and clad in black, antifa groups claim that confronting hate groups in the streets is the best approach — whether that means protesting against them or brawling with them.

"We call on the community to defend itself, as it has countless times before," RCA said in a statement ahead of Saturday’s rally. "We must tell these far-Right and neo-Nazi groups that they are not welcome in Portland, and their search for victims on our streets will not be tolerated!"

Antifa members in Portland were condemned in June after they attacked conservative media figure Andy Ngo during clashes with the Proud Boys. The incident led Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana to introduce a resolution to designate the groups as domestic terrorist organizations.

"Antifa is a group of hateful, intolerant radicals who pursue their unhinged agenda through aggressive violence," Cruz said in a statement. The bill, which has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been criticized for language referring to antifa and "left-wing activists" interchangeably.

President Trump later said on Twitter that he too was considering declaring antifa "a major Organization of Terror (along with MS-13 & others)."

Several hate groups have also pushed the narrative that antifa is a threat to society. In June, Enrique Tarrio — a Proud Boy leader and the current Florida state director of Latinos for Trump — launched a White House petition urging President Trump to label antifa a domestic terrorist organization. The petition was closed when it failed to receive enough signatures. Tarrio also attended the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, though he has claimed to have left before the march turned deadly.

Meanwhile, observers note that a key strategy employed by far-right wing groups is provocation; and portraying themselves as victims whose speech has been repressed.

"We are anticipating the far-right participants in this weekend’s events to purposefully escalate tensions and instigate physical conflict to reinforce their false narrative," Jared Holt, an investigative reporter at Right Wing Watch, told Cheddar. "It is part of a larger gas-lighting effort to obfuscate the Right’s own track record of violent extremism in the United States, which has manifested itself in senseless murder and violence at an increasing rate in the Trump era."

Wheeler also added that far-right groups target Portland because they know "conflict is guaranteed, and that is what they are looking for."

Portland police are coordinating with the FBI and state law enforcement agencies to prepare for Saturday. "If things turn violent, we are going to have the personnel, the resources, and the partnership to be able to address that," Wheeler said.

The mayor's office also gathered over 100 local organizations on Wednesday to reject the anticipated hate groups. The coalition included the Portland Business Alliance, the Portland Public Schools Board of Education, and Portland State University, to name a few.

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