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OHSU/Michael McDermott

In the days leading up to this morning’s sweep of the Occupy ICE encampment, both Mayor Ted Wheeler and ICE protesters acknowledged that the protest camp had become a problem for OHSU.

According to Wheeler, OHSU had become increasingly concerned that the blockade created by federal police on SW Bancroft St. would disrupt patient care and emergency access to its facilities nearby. While the protesters themselves hadn’t set up barriers to block off the road—federal officers said they wouldn’t lift their road block until the protesters no longer posed a threat to federal property. And, it appears, it’s easier to evict a protest camp than get the federal government to lift a road block.

Juno Suarez, a spokesperson for a certain faction of the ICE protest (one that voluntarily left the camp Monday morning), echoed Wheeler’s reasoning.

“We don’t want to negatively impact people needing to access health care,” Suarez told the Mercury yesterday.

This morning, OHSU confirmed those concerns. Here’s how OHSU spokesperson Franny White explained it, in an email to the Mercury:

“OHSU respects the rights of citizens to demonstrate. Many OHSU faculty and staff have expressed outrage over the separation of children and families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

However, OHSU was concerned demonstrations at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Portland office at SW Macadam Boulevard & SW Bancroft Street could disrupt OHSU operations. Road closures or events that disrupt traffic flow always have impacts on OHSU’s operations on the South Waterfront, including patient care. Patients access lifesaving care on OHSU’s South Waterfront campus a few blocks from the demonstrators’ encampment. OHSU also has a warehouse nearby that stores medical supplies, which are transported to OHSU hospitals and clinics via local roads.

Soon after the encampment was formed, OHSU met with both the Mayor’s staff and ICE demonstrators to discuss these concerns, and we are grateful the road closures near the encampment were infrequent. OHSU has been largely able to minimize the impacts of these road closures through advance communication with employees, patients and vendors.”

Alex Zielinski is a former News Editor for the Portland Mercury. She's here to tell stories about economic inequities, cops, civil rights, and weird city politics that you should probably be paying attention...

3 replies on “OHSU Responds to Occupy ICE Sweep”

  1. I will vote this election for candidates who prioritize citizens over illegal aliens, those who oppose sanctuary cities, amnesty and taxpayer funded in state college tuition discounts for illegals. That means NO Democrats.

    When will Democrats figure out that when you reward illegal immigration with jobs, amnesty, drivers licenses, discounts for college tuition, scholarships encourages MORE illegal entry.Just debating this in congress is costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars….. thank the parents.

    People fleeing persecution? or people fleeing for freebies? they sure don’t stay in Mexico when they reach “safety” or ask for political asylum in Mexico. Why? because Mexico will give them nothing. So they make the long journey to our border, our giving liberals and our tax dollars.

    Just a few examples of the more outrageous costs associated with illegal immigration, we will pass this burden on to our children as has been passed on to us

    *The cost of educating illegal aliens children is staggering. From K-12 it costs taxpayers $122,000 for EACH illegal alien student. This does not include the billions spent on bilingual education for illegal aliens.

    *30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.Does not include local jails and State Prisons. At $21,000 per year expense per inmate in Federal Prison U do the math.

    *$3Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens, I repeat 3 MILLION a DAY to process Illegals in the Criminal justice system.

    *$2.2Billion dollars a year is spent on is spent on food assistance programs such as SNAP (food stamps) WIC, & free school lunches.

    *Taxpayer funded in state tuition college discounts for illegal aliens cost taxpayers over a billion dollars annually.

  3. It’s funny how if the Merc publishes an article about brown people these days, the comments section here turns into OregonLive.com right wing word salad.

    GTFO with that shit, get back to your echo chamber at OLive where you can be xenophobic racists in without stinking up a reputable publication.

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