Portland’s New Front: Rose City ANTIFA Laser Attacks

The case for a global FTO designation

When I published my last piece arguing that Antifa should be designated as a terrorist organization, critics said the charge was rhetorical overreach. Since then, events on the ground have rendered those objections impossible to sustain. What began in many places as chaotic street confrontations, now demonstrate all the signs of coordination, persistence, and explicit intent to degrade government capabilities. Portland has become the clearest example of that evolution. The city’s longstanding radical scene has adapted methods, tested tactics, and embraced online coordination that resemble a highly organized conflict more than spontaneous protest.

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This follow-up lays out recent evidence, describes the alarming escalation of laser attacks against government aircraft, evaluates Rose City Antifa’s role, summarizes calls from lawmakers to treat Antifa networks as transnational threats, and evaluates the risks to public safety and the rule of law. The threat is real and demands an evidence-driven response that protects the public.

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The Violent Reality: an arc of escalation

For years, clashes in Portland and other cities were episodes of property damage and scuffles. Over the last year, a more worrying pattern has emerged. Activists with Antifa affiliations have shifted from ad hoc street fights to deliberate campaigns aimed at targeting federal personnel and infrastructure. The targets are not only symbolic. They are operational. ICE facilities, CBP and ICE helicopters, and federal courthouses have all been singled out repeatedly.

Portland is the place where tactics have evolved the fastest. There, decades of radical organizing have produced networks that sustain recruitment, training, and online messaging. Those networks have proven capable of coordinating sustained campaigns, and they have adapted methods that put pilots, detainees, and civilians at risk. That is no longer theory. It is now a matter of arrests, seizures, and federal prosecutions.

Lasers: the threat, the law, and the next flashpoint

Over the past month, federal authorities have tracked a disturbing trend out of Portland: the use of high-powered lasers to target government aircraft. This tactic is already a federal felony under 18 U.S.C. § 39A. It has been rebranded by some activist circles as a “coordinated disruption” technique. The intent is to blind or disorient pilots of low-flying helicopters used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, potentially forcing aircraft to ground and creating chaos during federal operations.

Now, reports indicate that the Portland-based Rose City Antifa group called for a citywide “laser party” on October 11, 2025, at 9 p.m. local time. The call, promoted as resistance to “federal regime spying,” asked demonstrators to shine high-powered lasers at federal surveillance helicopters flying over the city’s ICE facility. The post originated on Rose City Counter-Info, an anarchist platform linked to Rose City Antifa, but it was later deleted by its authors.

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The planned action is not merely symbolic. Directing lasers at pilots can cause temporary or permanent eye damage, disorient crew members, and lead to catastrophic accidents. Federal authorities responded: DHS and the FBI have made arrests over similar incidents elsewhere in Oregon, and they have seized laser devices in recent raids. Those arrests demonstrate both the seriousness of the tactic and the willingness of investigators to pursue charges.

I will not provide operational details or instructions. The public-safety imperative is to describe the threat while not amplifying techniques for copycats. What matters is this: these calls for mass participation are both illegal and recklessly endangering. They are not a form of civil disobedience; they are severe criminal acts that risk lives.

Rose City Antifa: persistence, coordination, and capability

Rose City Antifa (RCA) is not an abstract label. RCA is among the oldest continuously active Antifa nodes in the United States. From Portland, Oregon, its public footprint includes a website, zines, and the Rose City Counter-Info platform. RCA is a founding member of a wider Torch Antifa Network that links several chapters across the country. Those links are practical: they enable information sharing, digital coordination, and the diffusion of tactics, including doxxing and targeted disruption campaigns.

RCA’s structure is not corporate or formal in the traditional sense, but its persistence, publications, vetting practices, and use of encrypted communications give it operational continuity and structure that ad-hoc cells in other cities often lack. That continuity matters because it makes it easier to mobilize, to pass techniques between groups, and to sustain campaigns that have tactical and logistical complexity. When a call goes out on a well-followed platform in Portland, it reaches a far larger audience of sympathizers and potential participants than it would if sent from a transient flyer.

From repeated confrontations with other opposition groups between 2016 and 2020, to long nights of unrest at federal courthouses, to this year’s anti-ICE campaign and reported laser strikes, RCA’s evolution is clear. It clearly shows how a localized network can develop capabilities that threaten federal operations and public safety around the country and overseas.

Senator Schmitt’s letter and the transnational argument

In a bold move, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) has called on Secretary of State Marco Rubio to designate Antifa’s international networks as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), framing the group as a coordinated global threat rather than a loose domestic protest movement.

In a letter sent on October 10, 2025, Schmitt argues that Antifa’s transnational operations, spanning the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Europe, constitute a sophisticated network of violent far-left extremists. He cites shared tactics, funding streams, and in-person collaboration as evidence of Antifa’s global reach, positioning it as a “node” in a broader system that enables militant activity across the West. Schmitt’s proposal aligns with President Trump’s recent pledge to dismantle Antifa’s “international architecture,” with Trump explicitly endorsing the FTO designation, urging, “Let’s get it done.”

The senator’s letter comes amid escalating tensions in cities like Portland, where Antifa-linked protests have turned violent, targeting ICE facilities and federal agents. By framing Antifa as a transnational criminal movement, Schmitt seeks to unlock stronger federal tools—like sanctions, asset freezes, and enhanced law enforcement powers—to disrupt its operations. This push reflects growing alarm over Antifa’s role in civil unrest and could reshape the U.S. approach to combating domestic and international extremism.

Legal implications:

The Justice Department must use existing criminal statutes vigorously. Actions that endanger aircraft, assault federal officers, damage federal facilities, or conspire to do so are already crimes. The laser arrests in Oregon show that law enforcement can and will act. Prosecutors should pursue these cases transparently and by the book.

Investigators should pursue evidence of transnational coordination and funding. Where evidence of foreign direction, funding, or training exists, it should be compiled and, if warranted, referred for further action, including consideration of an FTO listing. Senator Schmitt’s push reflects legitimate concern that America may be facing networks with international ties. That concern deserves an evidence-based response.

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Conclusion: evidence, proportion, and urgency

The arc of the last few months shows rhetoric becoming tactics, online chatter becoming operational calls, and regional networks developing methods that can threaten lives. Rose City Antifa’s continuity, the reappearance and coordination of laser attacks, the arrests and seizures in Oregon, the Alvarado attack in Texas, and the political push to consider Antifa as a transnational threat together create a pattern that cannot be ignored.

That pattern does not erase complexity. Many who take to the streets do so peacefully and in good faith. Legal advocacy groups play a vital role in defending civil liberties. But when activists call for acts of violence that risk aircraft, federal personnel, or detainees, the state has a duty to protect lives.

The rising threat of Antifa’s transnational network demands an immediate, all-out response from our government. We must demand that our leaders act with unrelenting urgency: enforce laws with maximum force, launch aggressive investigations into Antifa’s funding and global connections, and deploy every legal tool at Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s disposal to crush this coordinated political violence. The federal government must move swiftly to prosecute crimes, dismantle these dangerous networks, and protect communities from further chaos. With Antifa’s actions growing bolder, the time for half-measures is over—our government must strike decisively to restore order now.

Godspeed,
Ryan Geho