Protesters clashed with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials over the weekend in Salem amid a surge in immigration enforcement, leading to advocates recommending residents stay indoors, a drop in sales at some Latino-owned businesses and pushback from elected officials.
Federal agents tear gassed protesters in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Northeast Salem on Saturday after a group of about 30 attempted to block their vehicles, according to local police. The confrontation came a day after a video showed an ICE agent using pepper spray on a protester who jumped on the hood of the agent’s car during a protest at a Salem gas station not far from the location of Saturday’s clash.
Sandra Hernández, director of Latinos Unidos Siempre, a local youth immigrant support group, said children and families going about their normal business were among those caught up in Saturday’s encounter and exposed to tear gas, smoke bombs and pepper balls.
“Because of everything that was happening and the risk with the escalating violence, we told families to stay indoors and to reach out to loved ones that needed support on getting their everyday things,” Hernández said Monday.
The clashes in Salem came amid a sharp spike in federal immigration enforcement across Oregon that began to intensify last Tuesday, less than a week after federal officials confirmed they would conduct immigration enforcement surges in sanctuary jurisdictions across the country.
Between Thursday and Monday, Hernández said Latinos Unidos Siempre assisted 14 families in the Salem area impacted by the uptick in immigration enforcement. That compares to two to four families the organization had been helping weekly between April and early October during what has been described as a ‘silent surge’ in immigration enforcement that began in the spring.
Statewide, there were 48 verified immigration arrests reported between Tuesday and Saturday to the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition, which tracks and verifies immigration arrests in Oregon.
That compares to an average of about 20 arrests weekly from June to September, the group said.
An ICE spokesperson said officers were surrounded Saturday in Salem by anti-ICE protesters “on foot and in vehicles who blocked their ability to depart.”
“These rioters struck government vehicles with baseball bats and rocks, threatening harm to our officers and the public while causing significant damage,” the unnamed spokesperson said in an email. “Violence against ICE officers, or any law enforcement personnel, will not be tolerated. Our officers carry out their Congressionally mandated duties in service to public safety and the rule of law. Any bystander or individual who assaults, obstructs, or violently attacks officers will be subject to arrest and prosecution permitted by law.”
The Salem police department said it’s investigating Saturday’s clash, which took place at the corner of Lancaster Drive Northeast and Sunnyview Road.
Videos showed a car blocking an ICE vehicle during Saturday’s protest and one protester could be seen hitting a black ICE SUV with a baseball bat. The videos also showed federal agents using their vehicles to push back cars, at least a few of which appear to be blocking ICE’s vehicles. Two agents can be seen walking toward one vehicle blocking them, as the car backs away, and the woman who is driving gets out of the vehicle, leaving her car on and in reverse. Her car then rams into parked vehicles.
Another video showed an anti-ICE protester jumping on the hood of an ICE SUV at a Salem gas station Friday and laying on top of the hood. The video shows the agent grabbing the man to pull him down from the hood before both briefly grab each other by the neck. The protester then throws a punch but doesn’t hit the agent and the agent responds by deploying pepper spray from a close distance, directly at the man’s face for several seconds.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment regarding the Friday incident or to questions about the decision by federal agents to use their SUVs to push back cars in the shopping center parking lot Saturday.
Sgt. Jon Hardy, a spokesperson for the Salem Police Department, said a medical assistance call was made in the area of the gas station where Friday’s incident took place near Silverton Road NE and Lancaster Drive NE. He said Salem Fire and Marion County Fire responded.
Hardy said the incident fell under the jurisdiction of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
Lt. Todd Moquin, a spokesperson for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, on Tuesday said the sheriff’s office received a call regarding Friday’s incident, but it did not meet the criteria for a patrol response.
“It was later learned that the incident involved federal immigration officers,” he said in an email, adding that there’s no active investigation into the matter.
Salem resident Jose A. Garibay Esquivel, who last year began to share information on social media about immigration enforcement, and his wife, Leticia Vitela, were at the shopping mall where Saturday’s confrontation took place alongside other community members to document what was happening.
Garibay Esquivel said he believes there are some protesters whose actions could end up hurting immigrants more than helping. People should protest within the legal limits because the conduct of a small group of protesters further agitates federal agents, he said.
But he also said federal agents could have de-escalated the situation Saturday by leaving once their vehicles were no longer blocked in. But instead, he said more ICE vehicles arrived and began circling the parking lot, hitting people’s cars.
Agents were also rolling down their windows and blowing kisses at people and making heart symbols, he said.
“When the other agents arrived, they just entered the parking lot and started throwing smoke bombs, they didn’t see what was happening,” he said. “They just entered aggressively. … They got (out of their cars) and started shooting pepper balls.”
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson didn’t respond to questions regarding Garibay Esquivel’s allegations.
A video shows an agent pointing a pepper-ball rifle near or at a woman who was recording with her phone from a distance.
Hernández said it’s ICE’s responsibility to defuse situations like the one on Saturday and she criticized officers’ for releasing chemical munitions in a busy shopping mall parking lot where members of the community going about their days were exposed.
“The responsibility falls on the agents who are supposed to be trained and understand how to handle situations and de-escalate,” she said. “But what we have seen is that they escalate (the) situation, they make things worse and they are very aggressive with the community and the people that they detain.”
On Friday and Saturday, Garibay Esquivel, who owns Isabella’s Market in Salem, said sales at his store were down by 80% as advocates for immigrants urged people to stay home.
“That impacted all of the businesses because people didn’t go out,” he said. “The smaller the business, the more affected.”
Amid the surge of immigration enforcement, Democratic members of Oregon’s congressional delegation made an unannounced visit to the ICE facility in Portland on Friday.
There, they learned that federal agents had begun transporting immigrants directly to the regional detention center in Tacoma, rather than bringing them to the Portland facility first, according to U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter. Dexter said federal agents told lawmakers that decision was made in part because an anti-ICE protester has been standing outside the ICE facility dressed in camouflage with a rifle. She said her office confirmed with police that the person has an open carry license and hasn’t threatened anybody with the rifle.
“It is intimidating,” she said. “I don’t dismiss that that would be of concern for anybody going in and out of that facility, including families and people being arrested.”
But Dexter said the decision to take immigrants straight to Tacoma is making it more difficult for their family members to locate them and their attorneys to connect with them, raising due process concerns.
Other elected officials on Monday issued statements about the recent immigration enforcement escalation.
Gov. Tina Kotek in a statement urged Oregonians “to stand united as the Trump administration escalates harmful and aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities across Oregon.”
Kotek directed state agencies to improve coordination and the sharing of information. She cited the news reports about Saturday’s incident in Salem and reporting by The Oregonian/OregonLive about an ICE incident at food processing facility NORPAC in Brooks that sparked fear among workers.
Oregon House Democrats condemned the increase in immigration activity.
“This weekend, I witnessed firsthand the cruelty and barbaric actions of ICE in Woodburn. What I saw was ICE hunting human beings,” Rep.Lesly Muñoz, D-Woodburn, said in the statement. “Oregon sits at the center of Trump’s retaliation against sanctuary communities, and the violent attacks on immigrant and refugee communities continue in full force. Oregon did not ask for this fight, but we will not walk away from it.”
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