diff --git a/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_portability_build_only.sh b/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_portability_build_only.sh
index 9fac5bcac076005063e25f0eb50fec8773e40464..ebdc0e82d767f5bbc71b3e496b0e63c39413665c 100644
--- a/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_portability_build_only.sh
+++ b/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_portability_build_only.sh
@@ -35,4 +35,7 @@ cd $(dirname $0)/../../..
 
 git submodule update --init
 
+# download docker images from dockerhub
+export DOCKERHUB_ORGANIZATION=grpctesting
+
 tools/jenkins/run_jenkins_matrix.sh -f portability linux --build_only
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/python_utils/filter_pull_request_tests.py b/tools/run_tests/python_utils/filter_pull_request_tests.py
index ca1d6d4eb5aa2999148134ae34ee196bfb5e7813..3734f025d5f9408d4b3a00fe1d8d2668a85a1753 100644
--- a/tools/run_tests/python_utils/filter_pull_request_tests.py
+++ b/tools/run_tests/python_utils/filter_pull_request_tests.py
@@ -98,6 +98,7 @@ _WHITELIST_DICT = {
   '^test/distrib/php/': [_PHP_TEST_SUITE],
   '^test/distrib/python/': [_PYTHON_TEST_SUITE],
   '^test/distrib/ruby/': [_RUBY_TEST_SUITE],
+  '^tools/internal_ci/': [],
   '^vsprojects/': [_WINDOWS_TEST_SUITE],
   'binding\.gyp$': [_NODE_TEST_SUITE],
   'composer\.json$': [_PHP_TEST_SUITE],