Port of Astoria leaders say staff who allowed federal immigration enforcement officers to access fenced-off property at the port on June 7 followed state law and did the right thing in a tricky situation.
ICE officers claimed it was an emergency when they asked for access to the property, Port Commission President Dirk Rohne told KMUN on Tuesday. Rohne did not elaborate further, but said, “In my opinion, the port official followed state law. I believe our person did the right thing under a very difficult circumstance.”
He echoed these comments at a Port Commission meeting Tuesday afternoon where people expressed their concerns about the port’s response and what they believe are issues around staff training when it comes to Oregon’s sanctuary law and community members’ First Amendment rights.
The arrests of two men by ICE and the federal officers’ use of port property at Pier 1 to stage vehicles on June 7 alarmed local activists and immigration advocates. They warned that allowing ICE to use port property may have been a violation of Oregon’s sanctuary law, which prohibits local and state law enforcement and state agencies from collaborating with ICE officers on immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant.
Port commissioners and Executive Director Will Isom said they were not aware of what was happening at Pier 1 until the situation was already unfolding.
According to an ICE spokesperson, federal officers were in Clatsop County to arrest a Venezuelan man, Marco Antonio Mendoza-Cesar. ICE claimed he had a deportation order from 2025. Local advocates who have worked with his family dispute this, saying there is no such order.
ICE officers arrested another man as well: Gerardo Chavez Lopez, a longtime United States resident who lived in Seaside and operated multiple businesses in Clatsop County. He came to the United States from Mexico as a teenager.
The Oregon Department of Justice received multiple complaints about the June 7 incident, specifically the use of port property. On Tuesday, port leaders confirmed they were working with the state on the matter.
But some Clatsop County residents are pushing for more from the port.
At the Port Commission meeting Tuesday, Warrenton resident Debra Ferency said she wanted to see transparency from the port about how it understood its obligations under Oregon’s sanctuary laws.
“I’d like to see communication around findings of any violations of that law, how you intend to remedy our assumption that your staff is not receiving adequate training around that law,” she said.
She asked port leaders to speak with legal counsel about their ability to limit ICE actions on port property when federal ships are docked at the port.
Immediately following the June 7 events, Rohne and others believed ICE may have taken advantage of the presence of a U.S. Navy ship docked at Pier 1. The fenced-in area was considered under federal jurisdiction at that time.
Ferency noted that most of the community members who were present on June 7 and who were denied access to the fenced-in area were there as legal observers, exercising their First Amendment right to record and document law enforcement performing their duties in public spaces. They were told by port security staff to stay away from the area or they could be arrested by federal officers, statements that stoked fears at the time the port was collaborating with ICE.
Norma Hernandez of Astoria told the commissioners she was disappointed at the port’s “lack of public accountability” and that the June 7 incident was not listed as an agenda item for the meeting.
“What we witnessed was irresponsible to say the least. … It’s not acceptable,” she said. “How are we supposed to trust this board? How are we supposed to believe in your integrity and ethics? How are you protecting your Latinx employees?”
Hernandez works as the deputy director of Consejo Hispano, an Astoria-based nonprofit that serves the Latinx community on the North Coast, but she told KMUN she was speaking only for herself and not on behalf of the organization.
Rohne and other commissioners thanked people for attending and expressing their concerns. Rohne said he shared many of those concerns and that he hoped to be able to share more information in the future.
“We’re the only ones having a public meeting people can speak at,” Rohne noted of the situation.
An ICE spokesperson did not directly answer questions about the use of port property, but dismissed concerns about the June 7 operation. ICE also claimed that as officers left the area, they were threatened by around 20 rioters who tried to block their exit. Officers pepper sprayed one woman who approached their vehicles.
People on the scene dispute ICE’s account of rioters. A video of the pepper spray incident shows only a few people standing on a nearby sidewalk and nobody blocking ICE vehicles.