“On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in the history of America,” promised President Donald Trump in 2024 while campaigning for his second term in office. Since winning the presidential election, the Trump administration has instated a mandate for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest 3,000 undocumented immigrants per day. The rapidly increasing criminalization and deportation of undocumented immigrants in the United States has had an immediate and vast impact in Oregon and across the entire nation.
An infant can be heard crying in their mother’s arms in Oct. 15 footage of ICE agents breaking into a Portland home, weapons raised, shouting at the residents, and arresting two men inside the apartment, despite neither of them being the man the agents were supposedly seeking. A father detained while dropping off his child at preschool on July 15 rocked a community in Beaverton. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem herself watched a pregnant woman, the front door of her home blown off, be detained despite being a legal U.S. citizen, on June 12.
Recently, social media and the press have been flooded with coverage of ICE invading homes and schools, and accosting people in the streets, reflecting a significant spike in arrests. There has been pushback from numerous immigrant rights advocacy groups in response to the increased ICE presence and detainments.
One nonprofit organization, Innovation Law Lab, has organized multiple lawsuits against ICE and DHS, calling into question whether or not the federal agencies are violating the constitutional rights of those they are pursuing and taking into custody. Innovation Law Lab is a group of lawyers, coders, and organizers that has won numerous cases that have helped protect the rights of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
The first lawsuit — Innovation Law Lab v. ICE — was filed on Jan. 13 in the District Court for the District of Oregon to demand that ICE release to the public the policies that the agency follows, which dictate where detainment and transfers happen for individuals in custody. The suit followed ICE’s failure to respond to Innovation Law Lab’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, in which they stated they were seeking this information because they believe it will help “‘afford the private citizen the essential information to enable [them] to deal effectively and knowledgably with the Federal agencies.’”
The second lawsuit Innovation Law Lab is currently representing — PCUN et al. v. Noem et al. — was filed in late April of 2025, and has since been backed by a growing number of organizations. Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) is the largest Latinx organization in the state of Oregon, serving as a labor union, political advocacy group, and community space. In its initial complaint, Innovation Law Lab alleged that, as a result of the Trump’s executive order 14148 which allows ICE to take people into custody anywhere — including what the PCUN et al. deems sacred spaces, such as schools, hospitals, and places of worship — sacred spaces have become “sources of extreme anxiety rather than places of healing, expression, reflection, celebration, and refuge.” PCUN et al. is firm in its stance that sacred spaces should remain sacred.
The third lawsuit currently represented by the attorneys at Innovation Law Lab is CLEAR Clinic et al. v. Noem et al., which alleges that ICE and the DHS are acting unconstitutionally by not allowing those in its custody to access legal counsel before being transferred out of Oregon. CLEAR Clinic is a nonprofit collective of legal workers providing free counsel and legal services to Oregonians, with the express aim of dismantling systemic barriers to legal representation and due process. When filing their complaint, CLEAR Clinic et al. asserted that the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and formal federal agency policy dictate that individuals in the custody of the government who are subject to transfer or rendition must have access to legal counsel prior to any transfer of location or custody. CLEAR Clinic et al. believes that ICE has failed to provide this right to those individuals in its custody. Federal law permits undocumented immigrants to be deported to countries that they are not from and have no ties to, and occurrences of this have increased significantly since the Trump administration came into power. Instances of immigrants being sent to Guantanamo Bay, Uganda, South Sudan, and even a notorious prison in El Salvador have occurred, relocating immigrants from the United States to countries they had never been to. Among other aims, CLEAR Clinic et al. sued Noem et al. with the primary goal of requiring ICE to refrain from transferring detained individuals in Oregon for at least three business days, to give them the ability to consult with legal counsel before being uprooted. The leader of the Immigrant Protection Unit of the New York Legal Assistance Group, Melissa Chua, told The American Prospect magazine that, “[ICE is] not just isolating them emotionally, but taking them practically away from places where they would have had counsel.”
Noem et al. responded in the case of CLEAR Clinic et al. v. Noem et al., alleging, “As a matter of policy, ICE does not deny access to counsel and grants access to attorneys presenting valid Form G-28s where feasible.” Additionally, they alleged that the Portland ICE facility is prohibited from detaining anyone there for more than 12 hours, and therefore it would not be possible to keep any detained people in Oregon for at least three business days, as the CLEAR Clinic et al. had requested. CLEAR Clinic et al. countered Noem et al.’s statement by saying that, “Defendants characterize it differently, but they do not contest that access to counsel is functionally nonexistent. Rather, they object to the premise of access to counsel because it is inconvenient. None of their particular objections have merit.”
Despite ICE and the DHS remaining firm that their practices are entirely legal, insider ICE agents have expressed concerns over the recent quotas and increased ICE activity, according to local news outlets. One ICE agent told the New York Post that because of the executive order requiring a certain number of individuals to be apprehended, “All that matters is numbers, pure numbers. Quantity over quality.” This is reflected in recent ICE arrest data which, according to the New York Times, reported that “In high-profile operations, more than half of those arrested had no criminal record.” Because ICE agents are required to fulfill a quota of arrests every day, they are seeking out the weakest and most vulnerable people, rather than anyone who may be engaging in criminal activity.
The rush to detain as many people as possible has also led to the detainment and violent mistreatment of over 170 U.S. citizens, according to a count from ProPublica. Leon X, a plaintiff and the class representative for CLEAR Clinic et al. v. Noem et al., expressed in his declaration of support, “Even though I have deferred action, I am terrified that ICE will arrest and detain me without a warrant or cause while I am living my daily life in Oregon. My fear is not abstract.” This fear is legitimized by real stories such as that of Garcia Venegas, a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent who has had his real ID dismissed by ICE agents on multiple occasions. “If they decide they want to detain you, you’re not going to get out of it,” he told Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Though the challenges Oregon immigrant and Latinx communities are facing right now may feel insurmountable, there are also numerous organizations here committed to protecting immigrant rights. Many of these organizations are also involved in the various lawsuits against ICE, including Innovation Law Lab, PCUN, and CLEAR Clinic.
Another very impactful resource for Oregonians dealing with ICE is the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition (PIRC), which operates a volunteer-operated, toll-free hotline to connect immigrants with necessary resources, including legal representation provided by Equity Corps of Oregon. The PIRC hotline has seen a tremendous increase in calls since Trump’s 3,000-a-day detainment quota was instated, but it remains a widely used resource working to combat the fact that only 23% of defendants in court for immigration cases have legal representation.
Innovation Law Lab, PCUN, PIRC, and over 100 other partners, including the Oregon Food Bank and the ACLU, belong to a coalition called Oregon For All. Oregon For All is a collaborative effort to share information and advocate for change with the ultimate goal of advancing immigrant justice and making Oregon a safe and welcoming place for everyone.
Students and staff at Franklin have been working to protect students and families from being racially profiled and detained by ICE. Yessica Becerra works at Franklin as a site manager for Step Up, a student support program in Portland, and has been primarily responsible for compiling resources and distributing what she calls “red cards.” Red cards are multilingual slips of paper that list people’s rights when encountering ICE, and can be shown to ICE should they be stopped by an agent. Becerra has also been working with lawyers to put together a list of legal resources for concerned community members to speak with and help create emergency plans for families. She notes that concern about ICE’s presence has caused many students from immigrant families to fall behind on grades and attendance because they are suddenly in charge of numerous new responsibilities, and urges teachers to have patience and empathy.
Jesus Rodriguez Juarez, Franklin senior and president of Latino Club, has done his best to create a space where fellow students can share about their mental health and learn their rights. “[As] a teenager, you’re supposed to be worrying about classes, prom, and stuff like that,” he says, elaborating that, because of the threat of ICE in their neighborhoods, “Students here are having to become early adults and take more responsibilities than they should be taking.”
“Immigrants and farmworkers put food on our tables and make our nation strong and should not have to live in fear when they take their kids to school, go to church on Sunday and visit the doctor,” said Reyna Lopez, the president of PCUN, on PCUN et al. v. Noem et al.. Federal changes in ICE regulations and increased deportations have caused fear and uncertainty for many Oregon residents, and it can be hard to know what, if anything, to do. Natalie Lerner, an immigration law attorney at Innovation Law Lab, recommends taking out your phone and filming if you see ICE. “Even though they have these horrible brazen tactics, they ultimately do not like to be filmed,” she says.
As detainments and arrests become more and more frequent in Portland, it is vital to stay educated and informed about ICE and immigrant rights. For those concerned about ICE, Rodriguez welcomes any student to come to Latino Club on Mondays during lunch in SS-216. Ultimately, Becerra wants to emphasize the importance of not letting fear stop you from advocating for your rights and the rights of your loved ones. The best thing to do as someone who is not being targeted by ICE, is to stay educated and informed. To those who are being targeted, Becerra reassures them: “We are not alone.”
