Six protesters arrested in Portland after two people shot by border patrol agents | Portland
Six protesters were arrested by police in Portland, Oregon, late Thursday, as calls for calm from local leaders were largely accepted, despite growing anger over federal immigration enforcement in the city after two people were shot by U.S. Border Patrol agents.
On Friday, dozens of protesters gathered again outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, holding signs denouncing ICE agents as “thugs” and “Nazis.”
A sign taped to a pole read the name of the woman killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday: Renee Nicole Good. As a black pickup truck entered the facility, a man riding an electric unicycle, wearing a red inflatable dragon costume and carrying a Venezuelan flag shouted: “Murderers!”
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identifies two men shot by federal agents in Portland in a statement Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras and Luis David Nico Moncada are undocumented immigrants from Venezuela.
department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said he told Fox News Both were suspected of having ties to a Venezuelan gang, but that connection appeared less certain than initially indicated by federal authorities in the immediate aftermath of the shootings.
On: a press conference On Friday afternoon, Portland Police Chief Bob Day said both shooting victims were in “stable condition” at the hospital. He added that criminal investigations in the area showed that he had “some relevant ties” to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Authorities have not publicly documented this claim, and the Guardian has not been able to verify it.
Zambrano-Contreras and Moncada were shot outside a Portland hospital Thursday afternoon. DHS said U.S. border patrol agents stopped a vehicle to search for a person they suspected was an undocumented immigrant affiliated with Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. According to agents, they opened fire when the driver of the vehicle tried to run them over, DHS said. “An agent, fearing for his life and safety, opened fire in defense. The driver fled the scene with the passenger,” DHS said in a statement.
A man in the medical building He told the Oregonian He saw federal officers following a Toyota pickup truck into the office building parking lot and trying to corner it. He said a police officer banged on the window. The driver then backed up and moved forward at least several times, hitting a car behind them and then turning and speeding away.
The FBI’s Portland office said it was investigating the attack.
Authorities did not confirm the condition of the injured, but emergency dispatch Acquired by Fox 12 Oregon He stated that the 911 call came from a man who said he had been shot twice in the arm and his wife had been shot in the chest.
The attack, which came a day after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, intensified criticism in Portland of the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on immigrants.
Last year, Portland saw months of protests at an ice processing plant on the city’s south shore. Donald Trump attempted to send members of the National Guard to the city in response, but that deployment was blocked by a federal judge who said the president’s claim that the city was “war-torn” as a result of small-scale protests was “irrelevant from the facts.”
On Thursday, city leaders strongly condemned the attack and called on residents to protest peacefully.
Jeff Merkley, one of Oregon’s two Democratic senators, urged protesters to remain calm in the face of the shooting. “Trump wants to start a riot,” he said in a post on X. “Don’t take the bait.”
A banner at the top of Portland’s city government website late Thursday advised residents: “Respond with coolness and determination.”
Portland’s police chief echoed those pleas. “We understand the increased emotion and tension many are feeling following the Minneapolis shooting, but I ask the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Bob Day said.
It was seen that citizens heeded this call. About a hundred protesters gathered outside city hall in downtown Portland on Thursday evening, chanting “Abolish ICE!” shouted the slogan. A smaller number of protesters also returned to the ICE facility; many of them wore animal costumes, which have helped defuse tensions in recent months. Police then used force to remove protesters from the street outside the facility. arrest six peopleIncluding a young man who usually wears inflatable frog costume He attended protests but was in street clothes.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said at a press conference: “We know what the federal government says is here. There was a time when we could trust their word. That time has long passed.”
“We cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts. Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘full force’ the administration is threatening would have deadly consequences. As mayor, I call on ICE to cease all operations in Portland until a full investigation is completed.”
Maxine Dexter, the Democratic representative of the district where the shooting took place and also a doctor, called on ICE to leave Portland.
“ICE has done nothing but inject terror, chaos and cruelty into our communities,” Dexter said. “Trump’s immigration machine uses violence to control our communities, directly in line with authoritarian tactics. ICE must immediately terminate all active operations in Portland.”
Portland leaders were adamant about demanding a local investigation. “We need to let our local law enforcement do their job,” Dexter said. “There must be a thorough investigation without Trump’s interference.”
Oregon attorney general Dan Rayfield said in a statement late Thursday that his office had opened a formal investigation into the incident to examine “whether any federal officer acted beyond the scope of lawful authority.”
“We have been clear about our concerns about the excessive use of force by federal agents in Portland and across the country,” Rayfield said.
The FBI on Thursday took control of the investigation into the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said its access to case materials, witnesses and evidence had been revoked.
