Portland: Homeland Security detains immigrant rights protesters at ICE facility, community fights back

Portland, OR – On June 4, activists rallied outside of the ICE facility in Portland at 4310 SW Macadam Avenue, demanding an end to Trump’s racist attacks on immigrants. They arrived in the morning encountering a long line of immigrants waiting to enter the building. Sometime later, a van pulled out of the facility, full of people who had been detained.

Activists protested the bus leaving the facility and were pushed by security guards. Then Department of Homeland Security agents came out and detained three protesters, handcuffing and taking them into the ICE facility.

At no point were those detained read their Miranda rights or told they were under arrest. When inside the facility they were placed in shackles. One of the protesters confirmed that inside the building there were people being held in cells, many of whom were in line outside the building earlier in the morning.

A coalition of groups such as Portland Contra Las Deportaciones, Portland for Palestine, and Tesla Takedown heard of the attack and immediately put out a call to gather outside the facility, and a dozen people arrived to demand their release. Those outside yelled at the cars of employees exiting the building and chanted slogans such as, “No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state!”

After being held for over an hour, DHS released the protesters. They were told they were never under arrest, but charges will be filed against them later.

“What happened to us was a terrifying, illegal abduction without due process. We were shackled and held without cause or arrest, inside a government building used to process human suffering,” stated Michele Darr, one of the activists that was detained, “My heart breaks for every soul trapped in that building and every family torn apart. We will not be silenced. We will not be deterred. We will keep showing up – because no one is free until all of us are free.”

The coalition of organizations remained at the facility until every activist was released. They returned to the facility the next day to hand out Know Your Rights materials to immigrants in line at the building and to track the situation. They spoke to family members of immigrants who went inside the building and were detained. Members resolved to keep fighting and were planning another protest outside of immigration court the next day.

The following is from a statement released by Portland Contra Las Deportaciones, “We unequivocally stand against these attacks on our community. While we are glad our comrades were released, we are devastated knowing there were other people detained that day that did not get released. We keep them in our minds and hearts as we commit to fighting even harder against ICE’s terror.”

The statement continued, “We demand an end to all deportations! We demand justice for immigrant rights protesters! We demand an end to the reign of terror by ICE against our immigrant communities and demand that our government free them all!”

#PortlandOR #OR #ImmigrantRights #PCLD