Thousands of federal agents were deployed in Bend, Ore., Late Wednesday after protesters stood for hours to block the path of buses carrying two people who were seized by immigration agents, according to witnesses and videos from the scene .
The federal officers arrived at the scene of the protest, a hotel parking lot, in helmets and tactical gear, said Barb Campbell, a member of the Bend City Council. Using crowd-control devices such as pepper spray, officers were able to work their way through the public, remove the prisoners from one of the buses and take them away, she said.
The attempt to block the buses began Wednesday morning when Luke Richter, president of the Central Oregon Peacekeepers activist group, heard from a friend that U.S. immigration and customs officers were operating in the city. He was able to find two unmarked buses and decided to block their path while playing video games of the scene.
Others later joined the effort, including Mrs. Campbell, who parked her car and set up a lawn chair in front of one of the buses. As the day went on, hundreds of Protestants gathered. Mr Richter said he was overwhelmed by the community’s response.
“They are not welcome here,” said Mr. Judge over the federal agents.
Janet Sarai Llerandi Gonzalez, who heads a local support organization for Latinos named Mecca Bend, said children of the men were at the scene pleading with bus drivers to let them go. When federal agents arrived to remove the men, she said family members were forcibly thrown to the side.
“This is something we may never have thought would happen in our community,” Llerandi Gonzalez said.
It was not immediately clear why the men were arrested. In a statement, ICE accused the men of a “history of criminal violent behavior.”
“While ICE respects the rights of individuals to vote peacefully, it does not interfere with its federal law enforcement duty,” the statement said.
Ms Campbell said that if the men had committed crimes, the city police department and attorney could handle it without the involvement of federal officers. Bend is a community of about 100,000 people in central Oregon – a few hours drive from Portland.
Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said he went to the scene Wednesday to better understand what was transpiring, but could not get answers from federal officials about who was picked up and why. Mr. Hummel said that as the crowd grew into hundreds, he worked with the governor’s office to try to talk to federal officials about how to bring things to a calm resolution.
Instead of trying to escape the situation, he said, federal officials said at the scene that they were shielding reinforcements from Portland and Seattle to try to bring the prisoners back.
“I hope that if the federal government will come in with full tactical gear and weapons as they did, that it’s because all options are short of violence,” Mr Hummel said. “To force as the first option was disappointing.”
Officials in Oregon have repeatedly expressed frustration over the tactics of federal lawmakers during protests this summer, especially over the handling of demonstrations around a federal courthouse in Portland, which often includes the use of tear gas and other vicious measures to control the public. behellen.
Lawyers from the Portland-based Innovation Law Lab have filed a motion in federal court to block the deportation of the Bend detainees.
