A week after protesters began their campout in front of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office building in Portland, Oregon lawmakers called on the federal government to eliminate ICE altogether.
“[ICE] frames immigration issues as national security issues instead of human rights issues,” said Representative Diego Hernandez before a crowd of supporters in front of Portland City Hall this afternoon. “They scoop up people in apartments, courthouses, hospitals, schools, workplaces, separating families every day. We need to abolish ICE. Si, se puede”
“ABOLISH ICE!” the crowd shouted back. Hernandez was joined at the “Not in Portland” rally against the Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy by fellow state Representatives Rob Nosse, Sheri Malstrom, and state Senator Michael Dembrow.
Several hundred people showed up in the midday heat to hear the legislators speak, despite a the event being moved last-minute to the city hall steps.
Sen. Dembrow compared the modern detention of immigrants with historic internment camps of Japanese Americans during World War II. “This is not a one-off for this administration… This is just the logical extension of the immorality of this administration,” he said.
Representative Diego Hernandez, who represents East Portland, demanded that Democrats to recall their bipartisan involvement in the founding the country’s prison industrial complex—specifically pointing to former President Bill Clinton’s hand in spurring the so-called “war on drugs” in Latin America. “Prison corporations are the biggest lobbying group in Washington, and nobody is talking about it,” Hernandez said.
Rep. Malstrom echoed Hernandez’ cry to abolish ICE. .
“If this administration will snatch a breastfeeding infant from her mother and put her in a camp, there are few limitations as to what they will not do. And this will not end with immigrants and asylum seekers. This will be remembered as a stain on our country, and I will not be silent,” she said.
But after they spoke, lawmakers were admonished by some community members for not speaking sooner.
“I’m really glad you’re angry. It took you a while, though,” said an unidentified speaker, who said she was undocumented immigrant. She pointed out that ICE has existed since 2003. “Listen to our voices and our leadership. That’s how we are going to abolish ICE. We’ve been asking for it for 15 years.”
Maria Garcia, head of Don’t Shoot Portland said, “Our families are being separated, you have no idea the pain they’re going through. The kids are hungry. The kids are suffering, they’re going to lose their parents, they’re going to lose their language, they’re going to lose everything,” she yelled, her voice breaking with emotion.
An hour later, activists with Occupy ICE PDX —an amorphous group which has camped out in front of the Southwest Portland ICE building since Sunday, June 17—shared their own criticisms of the politicians’ remarks at a separate press conference at their camp. Activist Gregory McKelvey called the speakers at city hall “corporate Democrats,” spurring boos from the crowd.
McKelvey also called out Mayor Ted Wheeler and Governor Kate Brown, suggesting that they should shut down the roads around the ICE building if they truly want to be a sanctuary city or a sanctuary state.
“When it’s popular they want to come out here and be part of the resistance, but they’re not the resistance, we are. They need us, we do not need them,” he said.
But a growing number of lawmakers have joined the state legislator’s call. Even US Congressman Earl Blumenauer has weighed in, publishing a blog post today titled: “It’s time we abolish ICE.”
At today’s rally, Rep. Malstrom reminded the crowd that the path to abolishing ICE starts at the ballot box. She urged everyone to vote during the midterm elections. “[Vote] as if our democracy depends on it, because it might.”