PORTLAND, OR – Oregon’s congressional Democrats are pressing federal officials on the treatment of immigrants and protestors at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility south of downtown Portland.
The facility has been the site of mostly small, mostly peaceful protests since June, and a lightning rod for President Donald Trump, who has focused on deploying National Guard troops to Portland and to the facility in recent court cases. In September city officials notified the building’s private owner that ICE was likely violating its agreement with the city by detaining people longer than the sanctioned 12-hour limit. The city cited reports that people were kept overnight at least 25 times between Oct. 1, 2024 and July 27, 2025.
Oregon’s Portland-area U.S. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici and Maxine Dexter, and U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, all Democrats, visited the Portland ICE facility on Sept. 25, just days before Trump posted to his social media site TruthSocial saying that he would deploy Oregon National Guard troops to “war-ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary.”
The visit left the politicians, “deeply concerned by the lack of oversight and accountability of ICE agents, including those operating out of the Macadam (Portland) facility,” they said in a statement.
On the trip, the four said, they met with ICE officials who failed to thoroughly respond, and provided some conflicting answers, to their questions about immigrants’ access to legal representation, the use of pepper bullets and tear gas against protestors and protections for nearby residents caught in the fray.
They sought clarity in three separate letters sent on Wednesday, with demands for information, to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Erik Johnson, deputy field office director of enforcement and removal operations at the ICE field office in Seattle. Only their letter to Noem includes a deadline for an answer, for Oct. 22.
Spokespersons for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from the Capital Chronicle on Thursday. An automated message from the U.S. Attorney General’s office said: “During the current lapse in appropriations, this inbox will not be monitored on a regular basis. Inquiries outside of essential public safety functions will be considered when the lapse in appropriations ends.”
Noem, who came unannounced to visit Portland and the ICE facility on Tuesday, called Gov. Tina Kotek, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Portland Police Chief Bob Day “a bunch of pansies” on Fox News after the visit, and vowed to send “four times the amount of federal officers” to Portland if the mayor didn’t comply with her demands. The demands include a security perimeter around the building, increased police presence and the creation of designated free speech zones where protests are contained. Wilson has increased police presence at the facility, but did not agree to create a perimeter or restrict protest zones.
At a White House roundtable on antifa, or antifascists, Wednesday, Noem accused Kotek and Wilson of “covering up the terrorism that is hitting their streets.”
In their letter to Noem, Oregon’s congressional Democrats expressed concerns that federal law enforcement officers over the weekend escalated their use of pepper bullets and tear gas against crowds, without provocation, endangering protestors and nearby residents. They asked what kind of pepper bullets and gas were being used, and what criteria must be met when officers decide to use them against crowds.
They also asked for details about federal officers’ engagement with protestors and how officers are working with neighbors and businesses around the facility to reduce the impacts of lingering tear gas in the area.
In their letter to Johnson, the politicians raised concerns they’d heard about immigrants with legal status being detained, immigrants being denied bond and held for excessive amounts of time, and immigrants with documented medical and health concerns being deported. They asked for clarity about the agency’s public accountability standards for unidentified and masked ICE agents, and why it was hard for the agency to hire for a community relations position at the Portland facility.
To Bondi they expressed concerns over reports that some immigrants at the Portland facility were being denied counsel, and asked whether or not requests for virtual immigration hearings were being granted.
This story first appeared on Oregon Capital Chronicle.
