City of Portland arrests immigrant rights protesters while catering to right-wing extremists
Portland, OR – On May 5, the immigrant rights organization Portland Contra Las Deportaciones (PDXCD) held a protest in front of the Portland Hearings Office to demand the city reject an appeal of a land use violation filed against the Portland ICE facility in September 2025.
The land use violation was issued to the building for holding detainees past a 12-hour limit and boarding up the windows. Despite almost a year passing since the violation was issued, the city has yet to penalize the landlord of the facility, Stuart Lindquist. The city allowed a five-month administrative review of the decision, and then when Lindquist filed an appeal of the violation in March 2026, allowed for the hearing to be pushed back and rescheduled multiple times to May 5.
Protesters met outside the office to speak with the media and hold a rally. Almost immediately, they were disrupted by right-wing agitator Thomas Allen, known for harassing and assaulting immigrant rights protesters. He began circling the protesters and yelling “God bless ICE” over them so they were unable to do interviews.
Protesters formed a barrier and kept Allen away from the rest of the group. But he began to assault activists, hitting and destroying their signs they were holding between themselves and Allen.
Allen then assaulted one of the protesters, Samatha Ibarra. In self-defense, she used pepper spray.
Allen swiftly called Portland Police and claimed he was attacked and being “swarmed” by protesters, a complete fabrication. The police showed up and proceeded to wait until the media left, and then arrested Ibarra, charging her with multiple misdemeanors.
Immigrant rights protesters filed numerous police reports against Allen for attacking people with pepper spray over the last year. At some protests he has sprayed over ten people, including elderly protesters, completely unprovoked. Activists either never hear back, or are told the case would likely not work out in their favor.
After Ibarra’s arrest, PDXCD immediately went to Multnomah County Corrections, where Ibarra was being held, to hold a protest outside demanding her release. She was released a few hours later and participated in a press conference the same day to demand the charges are dropped.
As all of this was occurring, the hearing for the appeal of the land use violation began. Thomas Rask, attorney for ICE landlord Stuart Lindquist, called one witness to testify in support of the ICE facility. The witness was Katie Daviscourt, another known right-wing agitator who has attended round tables with Donald Trump to spread lies about “Antifa” and who regularly goes to the Portland ICE facility to provoke protesters.
Daviscourt testified it was necessary for ICE to board up their windows due to the “violent” protests at the ICE Facility, painting a picture of ICE agents under siege.
In reality, federal agents regularly attack protesters at the facility, going so far as to break the bones of multiple unarmed protesters simply holding signs.
The hearing was supposed to end that same day, but due to delays on behalf of Lindquist’s lawyer the hearing did not conclude until May 7.
On May 10, the hearings office put out a notice that the final decision on the case would be made on June 5. At this point it has been several months since the violation was issued. Despite claims of impartiality, City Administrator Raymond Lee was caught in a leaked video stating the city was “committed to keeping the facility open as it provides “essential services.”
Activists are angry at the willingness of the city to act quickly to repress the voices of immigrant rights activists, while stalling on action on ICE.
“Again and again, we see the city say it stands on the side of immigrants, and yet it only ever uses its powers to silence protesters,” said activist Cami Saunders. “Not only are they misleading the public, but they are trying to suppress the voices of those who call on them to do more.”
In another example of this pattern, Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez added three more charges to Ibarra’s case after her arrest, and Allen posted on X stating the DA personally called him to let him know about the extra charges.
PDXCD remains committed to fighting for the charges to be dropped and also to ensure that the Portland ICE facility is shut down entirely.
Samantha Ibarra also stated she will fight the charges and plans to take the fight to court if needed.
“I’m not planning on taking any plea deals because I defended myself from a local terrorist. If and when it goes to trial it will expose the agitators for who they are,” said Ibarra.