Law enforcement agencies on Oregon’s North Coast are changing their approach after federal immigration enforcement officers detained at least 6 people in Seaside earlier this month.
Before, Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly said the stance adopted by police departments and the sheriff’s office in Clatsop County was that if officers saw ICE, they should go in the opposite direction.
When ICE officers began detaining people on their way to work in Seaside on Nov. 8, at least two local law enforcement officers did just that.
“But after talking about it more with other people, it’s like…should we go a little bit further and, first of all, make sure it is ICE,” Kelly said at an Astoria City Council meeting this week.Â
“And if it is ICE and they’re clearly identified and they’re doing their job, that’s one thing,” he added. “If they’re not clearly identified then we have an obligation to make sure they are.”
He said local officers can be important eyes and ears in what are currently tricky and sometimes fraught situations involving ICE.
Under Oregon’s Sanctuary laws, local law enforcement is prohibited from assisting federal agents in immigration enforcement. They also cannot obstruct any operations.
But Kelly and Clatsop County Sheriff Matt Phillips say they have grave concerns about the lack of identifiable badges or uniforms on ICE officers in recent operations across the state. They say it can lead to confusing and potentially dangerous situations for residents and local police.
Last week, Phillips, along with other sheriffs in the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association, met with ICE representatives to voice their worries.
“We laid out several instances that brought significant concern and basically they didn’t blink,” Phillips told Clatsop County commissioners at a board meeting last week. “They were maybe indifferent to what our concerns were.”
Phillips told commissioners that the attitude of ICE agents in the field undermines that agency’s credibility but also the legitimacy of local law enforcement.
Phillips told KMUN, there have been a number of concerning situations across the state where officers received 911 calls about kidnappings or carjackings and didn’t realize they were responding to a scene involving immigration enforcement. He said he and his officers haven’t experienced that level of confusion yet in Clatsop County, but the potential is there.
Local law enforcement agencies told KMUN they were given no notice that ICE would be in Clatsop County on Nov. 8. One police chief found out after another chief in Tillamook County saw a post on Facebook and called him.
According to Phillips, ICE representatives have told Oregon sheriffs they will provide notice ahead of immigration enforcement operations going forward. But both he and Kelly doubt this will actually happen.
Kelly is now recommending that if anyone is driving in Clatsop County and is suspicious about someone who is trying to pull them over — if it’s a car that isn’t clearly marked as a police car or isn’t obviously an unmarked police car — that there are other steps they should take before they comply and pull over.
First, they should put on their flashers to acknowledge the person trying to pull them over. Then they should call 911.
Kelly says local dispatchers will be able to verify if the person trying to pull them over is indeed a legitimate state, county or city law enforcement officer.