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Good morning, Portland! If yesterday was too toasty for you, just know that today will be *slightly* cooler, with a high of 88 and a low of 57. The rest of the week should stay below 90 degrees (fingers crossed!)
In Local News:
• Amid recent targeting of sanctuary cities and states like Oregon, ICE is continuing its arrests of asylum seekers without cause. In one case, a Portland-area father who has a work visa and a job was ordered to check in with ICE or face deportation to Sudan. He complied, and was arrested and sent to an overcrowded ICE detention center in Tacoma. His attorney says he’ll likely be held there for months until his next asylum court hearing. “His wife is scared to leave the house,” a friend of the local dad who was arrested tells us. Read more about ICE’s tactics and their impacts in our latest coverage.
A Portland-area father is among several asylum seekers in Oregon who's been arrested and targeted for deportation without cause. Attorneys say asylees are being summoned to check in with ICE, only to be detained and transported. One man was threatened with deportation to Sudan if he didn't comply.
— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) July 1, 2025 at 7:12 AM
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• Portland's search for the next fire chief has already hit a bump in the road. The Oregonian reports a candidate accepted the city's job offer, then backed out not long afterward, for unexplained reasons. Now, the city's Public Safety service area director will likely reach out to the other candidate who was a finalist for the job. Portland Fire & Rescue's previous chief, Ryan Gillespie, retired in March. Gillespie was tapped to lead the bureau back in 2023.
• Summer in Portland means endless events and special offerings each week, and we’re here to help you keep track of them. The lovely and culturally savvy Lindsay Costello has curated a new compilation of arts and culture events to check out, called Do This, Do That.
Portlaaand! The Mercury’s 2025 Queer Guide is out now—but once you snag your copy (obviously), you’ve got roughly 10,076 other minutes this week to play with. Why not slurp ceviche in the heat, catch queer yakuza cinema, or see Jonathan Richman jangle live? Read our rundown in Do This, Do That.
— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) June 30, 2025 at 2:06 PM
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•Speaking of ways to spend your summer, this month marks the Mercury’s Summer of Slushies! Enjoy a boozy, frozen drink at over 20 locations in and around Portland for just $10 all damn month.
@cocorocha It’s that time again 🍸 Floating through festival season one spritz at a time. #shenanigan #cannesfilmfestival #cannes ♬ original sound - Alexander Begnel
In National/World News:
• Last night, the Senate was still trying to find agreement to several amendments in Trump's Big Beautiful Bill (which should really be called the Big Beautiful Lie, so we can abbreviate it to BBL). In a nutshell, the budget bill, which the Congressional Budget Office says will add $3.3 trillion to the nation's debt load, offers tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of Medicaid and some nutrition assistance programs. The bill would increase the US debt ceiling and according to Reuters, "the Senate bill would result in about 11.8 million additional uninsured people, surpassing estimates for the House's version." Oh, and it's also pissing off Elon Musk, Trump's former first bro, who's now threatening to fund the political opponents who challenge Republicans that vote for the bill. Musk is mad that subsidies for electric vehicles are being taken away, because it stands to hurt his companies like Tesla. If the Senate does reach agreement, the bill still needs to pass the House. Other highlights, Reuters notes, "several hot-button political issues, including a prohibition of Medicaid funding for a list of almost 30 medical procedures related to gender transition, as well as an increase of immigration-related funding for criminal and gang checks for unaccompanied migrant children, including examinations of 'gang-related tattoos' for children as young as 12 years old." 🥴
• Trump is in Florida today to tour "Alligator Alcatraz," a new 1,000-bed immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades. The site was built after a somewhat-secret planning process and has environmentalists concerned that its existence in wetlands could threaten endangered species. The site, which was primarily funded by the federal government, is estimated to cost the state about $450 million a year to operate and will rely largely on tents and trailers rather than sprawling brick-and-mortar buildings.
Worth putting it on the record here, though you probably already know it: “Alligator Alcatraz” is a concentration camp.
— Andrea Pitzer (@andreapitzer.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 6:46 AM
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• Around 170 nonprofits and aid groups are calling for the current food distribution system in Gaza to be shut down. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is backed by the US and Israel, and critics note that more than 500 Palestinians have died and nearly 4,000 more were injured while trying to access or help distribute food in Gaza over the past month.
Anyway, for all the GOP folks crying "no such thing as a free ride," HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS?!!
@cristianmarius62 ♬ sunet original - Marius Mystery
