President Trump’s newly emboldened ICE agents have been targeting immigrants in our community.
As a Sanctuary City, Portland prohibits our local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE for deportations. But even with those protections in place, the federal government can still override our local authority. Trump has given ICE a multi-billion dollar budget, and federal laws prevent us from addressing everything they’re doing.
However, that is not stopping us from taking action with every tool we have available to us at the local level.
As the only immigrant on City Council, Councilor Morillo feels this issue in a profoundly personal way and is working directly with impacted communities to make decisions.
Our office is also working closely with legal experts and community partners like PIRC,Oregon For All, and the ACLU to explore every available option to protect immigrants and asylum seekers.
Here are a few strategies that Councilor Morillo and her colleagues are taking action on:
Making Federal ICE Agents Identify Themselves
Right now, plain clothed federal agents operating in our city are able to abduct our neighbors off the street without having to identify themselves. They don’t wear badges. They cover their faces. Without official identification or names, anyone can pose as an ICE agent and kidnap people with no warrant and no authority, as we’ve seen happen in other cities.
At the federal level, some Congressional leaders are trying to ban ICE agents from covering their faces during enforcement interactions. States and Counties are considering similar efforts but, just like our city, are largely unable to directly regulate the Federal Government.
Regardless, our offices are still looking into any and all options.
Addressing Chemical Munitions in Neighborhoods
We’ve received reports from organizers on the ground and those living near the facility about ICE and DHS using chemical weapons on protestors. These chemical munitions contain things like hexavalent chromium (a carcinogenic) and lead salts, and as of right now they are legal in Portland.
Our neighbors shouldn’t be getting sick from the very people who have sworn an oath to protect our communities. That’s why Councilor Sameer Kanal is working on policies to address the harmful effects of chemical weapons used by federal agents on Portlanders.
Relocating the Cottonwood School
Given what we know about the dangers of teargas and other chemical weapons being used by ICE and other federal agents, keeping kids in the neighborhood safe has been a top priority.
Councilor Mitch Green worked with the Cottonwood School in District 4 to relocate them to a building farther away from the ICE Processing Facility before the start of the school year. Due to the short timeline for relocation, there were limited facility options.
Data Privacy and Surveillance
Councilor Angelita Morillo’s office has taken the lead on addressing data privacy and technology that ICE is using to track immigrants and other community members alike.
Despite our City’s facial recognition technology ban, the federal government has been able to use facial recognition technology to track people. We are exploring ways to address this urgently, because this kind of technology undermines our civil liberties. All people, regardless of immigration status, have the right to live free from unwarranted surveillance and fear.
Revoking the Macadam Permit
Many community members are calling for the City of Portland to revoke ICE’s permit to operate on Macadam.
Our team has been actively monitoring the situation, reviewing the permit details, identifying possible violations, and assessing footage and reports from those on the ground. Our staff is working with the City's land use attorneys to evaluate the legal basis for action specifically focusing on the safety plan and detainment provisions within the contract.
Here’s an update on that process:
The Permit Process:
- Back in 2011, a prior City Council granted ICE the permit to operate in Portland. For the new Council to reconsider the conditional use approval, it would have to go through the following process:
- Someone files a complaint that the building is violating the permit (a complaint was filed on July 16th, 2025 which triggered the investigation)
- The City’s executive branch (the Mayor and City Administrator) has the power to investigate the complaint.
- If City Council ignores the law and tries to revoke the permit without an investigation, the Courts would swiftly overturn the decision.
- If the Mayor and Administrator-directed investigation finds a violation, the City is legally required to give the facility the opportunity to correct that violation.
- If the violations are not corrected, the City will charge a monthly code enforcement fee. However, the Mayor and City Administrator have limited power to force the Federal Government to pay those fees.
Other Options
- Council has power to enact new zoning and land use regulations but it may not be possible to have it retroactively apply to an existing permit (like the ICE permit).
- So even if Council can create a regulation that effectively prohibits ICE operation in the City, it might not apply to the existing ICE permit.
Councilor Morillo has been working with immigration attorneys on the ground to get feedback on the importance of the Macadam building.
Macadam is a processing facility where immigrants have mandatory check ins as part of their routine naturalization process. Even if this building closes, those immigrants still must have those meetings. If ICE can’t host the meetings at Macadam, they may send immigrants to the Detention Facility in Tacoma, WA or other undisclosed federal buildings. This forces immigrants to travel numerous hours for their mandatory meetings and puts them at greater risk. Once they go into the Detention Center, it is much more difficult for immigration attorneys to get them out.
Impacts of a potential facility closure in Portland:
- In June, an immigrant was kidnapped by ICE off the streets of Portland. Because the Macadam building was temporarily closed, he was taken to the Tacoma Detention Center.
- Immigrants having to take a day off work, finding childcare, and not having access to advocates who usually know to find them in the Macadam building.
- If they miss a meeting, it puts them at greater risk for deportation.
- Right now, immigration attorneys have been able to get some of their clients out of Macadam and save them. When their clients go to the Tacoma Detention Center, it has been described as “a miracle” to get them out.
Common Questions:
- Q: How is the Portland ICE facility different from the facility in Tacoma, WA?
- A: The Macadam ICE facility in Portland is a processing facility where immigrants have mandatory check ins as a part of their routine naturalization process. The Macadam facility in Portland is only allowed to hold detainees for a maximum of 12 hours. The Northwest ICE Detention Center in Tacoma, WA is a jail. The Northwest ICE Detention Center’s current capacity is 1,575, making it one of the largest immigration prisons in the United States.
- Q: Why doesn’t ICE do the meetings virtually?
- A: ICE gets to choose how they host the meetings. They have historically not made efforts to make it easier for people.
- Q: How are we a Sanctuary City if ICE is still allowed to arrest immigrants in our city?
- A: ICE and DHS are federal agencies with the power to operate anywhere in the United States. Our Sanctuary City ordinance simply means that our local law enforcement will not assist ICE in their deportation efforts. For example, ICE has been known to ask local jails to hold people past their scheduled release date so that ICE can pick them up for deportation. But in Portland, federal agents cannot rely on local help to carry out deportations.
- Q: Why would we renegotiate a permit if the holder is found to have broken the terms of their permit?
- A: "Renegotiate” is the legal term used to amend the existing permit. Technically it would not be a full revocation.
Relevant Links:
There are difficult choices before us as City Council works in partnership with community to address the impacts of a fascist federal government at the local level. We hope that you will engage in strategy creation with us as we work to protect our neighbors with every tool available to us.