Ryan Pickrell on June 28, 2018
Federal officers in riot gear took federal action Thursday to reopen a Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, Oregon.
Authorities “initiated a law enforcement action to reopen the federal facility” on SW Macadam Avenue at approximately 5:30 a.m. Thursday, Federal Protective Service spokesman Robert Sperling told local outlet KGW8 in a prepared statement.
Authorities blocked off the road and began driving out the demonstrators and dismantling their camp, Oregon Live reports.
Officers are loading up a couch. #OccupyICEPDX pic.twitter.com/YW0UQXDv4Z
— Jim Ryan (@Jimryan015) June 28, 2018
Protesters tried to form a human chain to block off the building, but they backed down when law enforcement asked them to move.
Police detained several protesters, including several individuals that refused to cooperate, according to another local outlet KATU News, citing a Department of Homeland Security official. Police are not removing all the protesters, merely those occupying federal property.
The activists, which are determined to abolish ICE, remain undeterred.
DHS is currently clearing the front of the building, arresting the people who were chained up and threatening people with felony charges. We are here holding shit down and we’re not going anywhere. Arrest us today, we’ll grow stronger tomorrow! #OccupyICEPDX
— Abolish I.C.E PDX (@OccupyICEPDX) June 28, 2018
The movement began over a week ago when hundreds of protesters descended on the facility to protest the Trump administration’s decision to fully enforce U.S. immigration laws, eventually closing down local ICE operations at that facility. As the “zero tolerance” approach has, in some cases, resulted in the separation of illegal immigrant families, many have condemned efforts to curb illegal immigration as a human rights atrocity.
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