Mayor Wilson issues statement on ICE actions in Portland
Protests at ICE headquarters in South Portland prompt response
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson released this statement Saturday night about the actions of federal agents at Portland’s ICE headquarters.
Dear friends,
Today, federal forces deployed heavy waves of chemical munitions, impacting a peaceful daytime protest where the vast majority of those present violated no laws, made no threat, and posed no danger to federal forces.
To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave. Through your use of violence and the trampling of the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame. To those who continue to make these sickening decisions, go home, look in a mirror, and ask yourselves why you have gassed children. Ask yourselves why you continue to work for an agency responsible for murders on American streets. No one is forcing you to lie to yourself, even as your bosses continue to lie to the American people.
Our nation will never accept a federal presence where agents wield deadly force against the very people they are sworn to serve. I share the impatience of those who demand we use every legal tool at our disposal to push back against this inexcusable, unconscionable, and unacceptable violence against our community. I share the need to act. Actions that can withstand the scrutiny of the justice system take time – and we cannot afford to lose this fight.
The city of Portland is moving swiftly to operationalize an ordinance that went into effect this month, imposing a fee on detention facilities that use chemical agents. As we prepare to put that law into action, we are also documenting today’s events and preserving evidence. The federal government must, and will, be held accountable.
Portland will continue to stand firmly with our immigrant neighbors, who deserve safety, dignity and the full protection of the communities they help build. We are also proud of the Portlanders who showed up today in peaceful solidarity, demonstrating the strength and clarity of those shared values in the face of federal overreach.
Gratefully,
Mayor Keith Wilson
Pearl District resident Barbara Bennett sent this message for publication:
I am proud of Mayor Wilson for candidly speaking up against the unlawful activities of ICE,
prompted by the unbalanced felon in the white House, and I once again sent a message to our mayor to that affect.
I am proud of Gov. Kotek and Police Chief Day for standing up to the unlawful and dangerous attempted domination emanating from the White House, and I have told them so, more than once.
Trump loves chaos; well, he ain't getting it here. We will not allow him to tear down our state and country. We here in Oregon and our United States are All in This Together.
Barbara Bennett
More pandering and misinformation from our mayor; every pol in this town should acquaint themselves with the Constitutionn's supremacy clause; then they should read, starting with 8 USC, chapter 12 (on the books since 1952), and then amendments such as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, the REAL ID Act of 1996...and then get back to us.
This is playing to a certain hysterical portion of the populace, which likes to march around with preprinted signs and dress up in silly costumes (and carry guns to such proceedings) and bring their kids along...but they are playing at something dangerous (as 2020 should have taught us), not to mention a basic undermining of central principles of republican (small R folks) government that got its test in 1864.
This is part and parcel of the socialist-revolutionary cult, which has once again pulled the stake out of its heart, knowing that few products of current education don't know much, if anything, about the socialist adventures of the 20th century. They are in the business (a profitable one at that!) of destabilising any and all foundational institutions so that they can remake them in line with their utopian dreams--with them as bosses, of course.
There they are. Proudly getting tear-gassed.