Right-wingers and Anti-fascists in Violent Clashes Portland, Oregon

Anti-fascist and right-wing activists clashed in Portland, Oregon on Saturday night as violence broke out during a march in support of a conservative Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, media reported.

Scuffles broke out after anti-fascists pelted marchers from the right-wing Patriot Prayer group with eggs, water bottles and firecrackers, the Oregonian newspaper reported. The Patriot Prayer group's founder Joey Gibson is running for the Senate.

Patriot Prayer supporters – many of whom reportedly wore "the colors of a rightwing fraternity called Proud Boys – were seen hitting counter-protesters with flagpoles, trash can lids, and their fists."

Police made a handful of arrests from both sides, and officers seized utility knives, pepper spray and clubs, according to the newspaper. 

A spokesperson for the Portland police could not be immediately reached for comment.

Over the weekend, protesters flooded more than 700 marches, from immigrant-friendly cities like New York and Los Angeles to conservative Appalachia and Wyoming. They gathered on the front lawn of a Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas, near a detention center where migrant children were being held in cages, and on a street corner near Trump’s golf resort at Bedminster, New Jersey, where the president is spending the weekend.

U.S. President Donald Trump has backed away from family separations amid bipartisan and international uproar. His “zero tolerance policy” led officials to take more than 2,000 children from their parents as they tried to enter the country illegally, most of them fleeing violence, persecution or economic collapse in their home countries.

Those marching Saturday demanded the government quickly reunite the families that were already divided.