Portland, OR – On February 18, immigrant rights organization Portland Contra Las Deportaciones (PDXCD) held a rally at city hall to demand city council take immediate action to revoke the permit for the Portland ICE facility. The event turned into a violent suppression of protest by the Portland Police Bureau, with multiple arrests.

The night began with high tensions as local right-wingers antagonized protesters at the rally by yelling “I love ICE” in megaphones and the unprovoked pepper spraying of five activists. At the same time, city hall security came out and told Cole Dunahugh, a regular protester at city hall, that he was “trespassed” from the building and not allowed to enter. When documentation was requested, it was not provided. The right-wingers who assaulted protesters were allowed to enter city hall.

Activists were not deterred, continued chanting and refused to allow the reactionaries to silence their message.

After the rally, protesters entered the chambers and provided compelling testimony demanding the council take action to shut down the ICE facility and called out the councilors’ hypocrisy.

“The fact that some of you have the audacity to ride the wave of ‘Abolish ICE’ while you unironically have argued and defended keeping the Macadam ICE facility open for the sake of immigrants might be the worst of your offenses,” said Elijah Thahir, referencing many of the councilors’ claims that the facility must be kept open to “serve” immigrants.

The city administrator was asked to give an update on the ICE facility, which has been issued a violation for holding detainees past a 12-hour limit. The enforcement process was stalled for five months while the city granted the landlord multiple extensions on an appeal. Only recently did the city deny the landlord’s appeal, after PDXCD protested at the mayor’s house and at the office of permitting and development.

As the city administrator gave excuses for the inaction of the city, those in the chambers chanted, “Revoke the permit.”

Susan Anglada-Bartley, the original creator of the petition to revoke the permit, walked up to the desks of the councilors with a printout of all 19,000 signatures on a petition to revoke the permit. She was placed in a chokehold by security and physically assaulted.

At this point, City Council President Jamie Dunphy immediately shut down the meeting, ordered security to remove protesters, and all the councilors left the room to reconvene the meeting online.

Protesters continued to stay in the chambers, chanting for around 30 minutes. At this point around 30 police officers entered city hall and arrested Anglada-Bartley. The rest of the protesters linked arms and refused to move, and were violently pushed down a flight of stairs out of city hall by the police. Madison Delsanter and Henry Roloff were arrested for “trespassing,” despite being confined in a space they could not leave by police.

On the other side of the building, Cole Dunahugh was also arrested for “trespassing” despite the fact he was never allowed to enter the building.

Protesters immediately moved the protest from city hall to the nearby jail and held a rally to demand the release of the four detained activists. Three of the activists were released the same night, and one the next day. All face charges.

Rather than apologize for their use of force to suppress the free speech of Portlanders, city council members and the Portland Police Bureau doubled down the next day.

Councilor Loretta Smith posted on her Facebook calling the protest a “mini insurrection” and told press she is drafting legislation to allow councilors to open carry in meetings with the public, implying she would shoot immigrant rights protesters.

The Portland police held a press conference to justify their use of force where Police Chief Bob Day stated he sent “nearly every available officer” working in the city at the time to attack the protesters. He attempted to blame protesters for this egregious attempt to silence First Amendment rights by stating this was a “drain on the city's resources.”

“Why is Bob Day blaming his irresponsible act of over-policing and violence on protesters?” questioned Kacey DeSantis, “It was completely unnecessary for him to send any police officers to prevent the city council from hearing from its constituents. He should be ashamed.”

PDXCD will hold a press conference and protest on February 20, before the arraignments of Dunahugh, Anglada Bartley and Madison Delsanter. They demand that all the charges are dropped, that the city of Portland stop criminalizing free speech, and take action to shut down the ICE facility.

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