Federal immigration officers detained at least one person in Seaside and two people in downtown Astoria Friday morning.
In Astoria, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers chased one man down 15th Street. Employees at Blue Scorcher Bakery on the corner of 15th and Duane Street witnessed his arrest. Videos and photos of the incident show officers with their faces covered putting the man into unmarked cars.
The arrests come as Oregon’s North Coast has seen increased ICE activity in the last month. ICE officers have detained at least 12 people total in Clatsop County since mid-November.
A spokesperson for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement told KMUN on Dec. 3 that ICE officers are in Clatsop County to locate and apprehend illegal immigrants who pose a threat to public safety or who have violated U.S. immigration law.
ICE has declined to provide any information about who they have detained, the immigration statuses of the people detained or the reasons why they were detained. Nor will ICE answer questions from KMUN about whether the people who have been detained face deportation.
Before Dec. 3, ICE had not responded to any of KMUN’s requests for information or comment.
On Dec. 3, ICE spokesperson Jason Koontz said operations in Clatsop County and elsewhere focus on convicted felons, known gang associates, fugitives and repeat immigration violators. However, he added, “any illegal alien encountered during these operations is subject to arrest and removal. The goal is to keep communities safe and uphold federal immigration laws.”
The operations have sparked fear in Latine communities across the North Coast, with cascading impacts on local schools and some businesses as a number of people chose to stay home while ICE officers were rumored to be in the area.
“ICE’s claim that they are detaining people who ‘pose a threat to public safety’ is unacceptable,” said Jenny Pool Radway, executive director of Consejo Hispano in Astoria. “If that were truly the case, ICE would be coming in with judicial warrants and clear charges; not conducting fishing expeditions that terrorize families.”
She said ICE’s actions “violate civil rights, destabilize communities and traumatize children.”
“Hiding behind vague rhetoric while carrying out harmful enforcement without transparency or accountability is indefensible,” she added. “This is not law enforcement, it is abuse of power.”
Officials in several cities across Clatsop County have condemned the tactics used in ICE operations in November and early December.
Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly said he did not have any information about the two people detained by ICE in Astoria Friday morning. But he said ICE did notify local dispatchers just before they began their operation. The ICE officers also appeared to be wearing identifying gear and using emergency lights on their unmarked vehicles, a change from recent operations in Clatsop County.
Local law enforcement had expressed strong concerns about federal agents who are not wearing any identifying badges or clothes, and the potential for confusing and dangerous situations when it isn’t clear what is happening or who is involved. In recent operations, ICE had not told local law enforcement ahead of time that they were in the area.
Following ICE arrests in Seaside in early November, Kelly told Astoria City Councilors that these tactics meant local police might need to do more to monitor future situations and confirm the legitimacy of the people involved.
On Friday, though, Kelly said, “We know this is federal agents doing their job. We don’t have a role.”
But people who witnessed the arrest on 15th Street on Friday said they are shaken by what they saw.
Trudy Van Dusen Čitović, who works at Van Dusen Beverages and runs a hospitality business in Astoria, was on her way to work when she saw two unmarked cars turn on flashing lights and briefly heard a siren. She continued to work, but called the non-emergency line for the Astoria 911 dispatch center to try to confirm if what she had seen was law enforcement.
“Then it clicked to me that it was ICE,” she told KMUN.
She turned around and arrived back at the scene in time to take a video of ICE officers just after the person they were trying to apprehend — the man later arrested at 15th Street — ran away. In the video, the officers’ faces are covered but they are wearing vests marked with the word “police.”
“Having seen all the citizen footage online made me realize that this is important, this is what might get them to stop,” Van Dusen Čitović said. “And it was true. As soon as I took out my video camera, they stopped.”
The officers left the detained man’s car partially in the street and still running on Marine Drive.
Van Dusen Čitović said she called a number of groups without much response. The Astoria Police Department told her that the officers involved in the arrest would come back to take care of the car. But no one returned. Van Dusen Čitović and others at the scene ultimately moved the detained man’s car out of traffic.
She said she never dreamt she would witness something like this in Astoria.
“Just the actions of someone getting taken right in front of your eyes,” Van Dusen Čitović said, “but the the biggest thing was not getting any response from anyone and just being there for 45 minutes, just a car running in the middle of the street. No one came.”