Portland OR – On August 28, protesters rallied outside the Portland Permitting and Development Department to demand the city revoke the conditional use permit for the Portland Macadam ICE Sub Field Office.

The protest was held by Revoke the ICE Permit PDX, a coalition formed by Portland Contra las Deportaciones. After weeks of meeting with city council members and putting pressure on elected officials at city hall, organizers decided to go to the department directly responsible for managing permits in the city.

According to the conditional use permit granted to the facility in 2011, the facility is required to hold detainees no longer than 12 hours, and no detainees can be held overnight. A recent Fox 12 Oregon News Segment found ICE has violated this clause at least 28 times. In 20 of these cases, the individuals were held for over 24 hours, violating the rule that no detainee can be held overnight. According to this data, 24 of the 28 violations occurred after President Donald Trump returned to office.

This is in line with a pattern around the country, where ICE Field Offices that previously served as a location for mainly administrative work and check ins have increasingly detained immigrants for days on end, with no bedding, showers, sinks, limited food and access to medical care.

Shawnee Miller, a resident of Grays landing, a low-income housing complex directly across from ICE facility, gave personal testimony outside of the permitting office, “Let me be clear, we are not collateral damage. We are actual Portland citizens who are all being affected by these terroristic acts. When you deploy chemical weapons against a peaceful community you are creating a state of terror. When you ignore our calls for help, you are telling us that we are alone and that our safety doesn’t matter.”

This comes the week after residents of Grays landing held a press conference outside of their homes demanding that the city take action against the ICE Facility. Teargas and other chemicals weapons have been used on a regular basis outside of the Macadam Facility. At times ICE agents have even gone as far as shooting at residents trying to record these violations from their balcony.

Revoke the ICE Permit organizer Holly Brown weighed in on the inaction on the part of city officials, “Our elected officials continue to drag their feet and hide behind bureaucratic procedures to justify their inaction, while ICE terrorizes our city. But we will continue to put pressure on the city to do the right thing and shut down the Macadam ICE facility, no excuses.”

Protesters expressed concern about the inaction of city officials given the continual violation of the permit and resolved to continue to put pressure on the government. The next action scheduled for the Revoke the ICE Permit coalition will be at city hall on September 17.

#PortlandOR #OR #ImmigrantRights #ICE #RIPPDX #PCLD

Portland, OR – On Thursday, June 12, over 400 people mobilized to the ICE facility in Portland for an emergency rally in solidarity with those protesting ICE raids in Los Angeles, and to demand an end to all deportations. Portland Contra Las Deportaciones organized Portland’s protest.

The energy was high, with the crowd chanting slogans like “Fuck ICE.” Protesters took over the driveway and street in front of the building. Department of Homeland Security agents came out and shot the crowd with pepper balls in an attempt to disperse people, but the crowd pushed the agents back into the facility and refused to move.

“ICE is tearing families apart and terrorizing our neighborhoods,” said community organizer Omar Gil, a member of Portland Contra Las Deportaciones, “we will allow them no peace while they continue to attack our immigrant communities.”

The protest joined an encampment of other protesters set up outside the ICE facility 24/7 and that refused to move until ICE is out of Portland. Some of the demands raised by groups such as Portland Contra Las Deportaciones and the encampment are for the city of Portland to cancel the permit for the building that ICE uses for a temporary detention center before it transports those detained up to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington.

The protest lasted for three hours, with powerful speeches from organizers and attendees in the crowd. Those in attendance were fired up and willing to fight back, with many banging on windows and showing they were unafraid of confrontation.

Portland Contra Las Deportaciones then led a march to a nearby park, while some protesters stayed behind with the encampment. Portland Contra Las Deportaciones plans to return back the next week to protest the at the facility again.

#PortlandOR #OR #ImmigrantRights #PCLD

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