Overview

• A new group called Operation Inflation is fundraising to buy and give away more than 100 inflatable costumes to demonstrators at the South Portland ICE facility.
• Organizers say they are shipping suits to Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, and new video from Broadview, Illinois, showed costumed protesters outside a local ICE detention center.
• The tactic accelerated after protester Seth Todd, dressed as a frog, was pepper‑sprayed through his costume’s air‑intake vent on Oct. 2, producing an image that has circulated widely.
• Participants and commentators cite practical advantages, including keeping most chemical spray off faces, complicating facial‑recognition efforts, and encouraging slower, less aggressive movements.
• Protesters are using playful imagery to counter President Trump’s portrayal of Portland as “war‑ravaged,” with scenes like T. rexes and a unicorn wedding outside an ICE driveway as federal agents stand by in riot gear.