A large group of protesters in Bend, Oregon, surrounded and blocked two buses for nearly 12 hours that were attempting to transport two people who had just been taken into the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The standoff began around 1 p.m. PDT Wednesday when two large white buses tried to depart an area near downtown Bend’s Crane Shed Commons area. The vans carried two men, who had recently been arrested by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations officers within the local community and were being transferred elsewhere.
As the vans pulled out, a man stepped in and blocked the vehicles from proceeding. He then began livestreaming the altercation, prompting others to visit the parking lot and block the vans alongside him. The Bulletin, a local newspaper, identified the man as Luke Richter, founder of the Central Oregon Peacekeepers.
“The only resolution that we’re accepting is that they show us documentation that the men were allowed to be detained and there’s nothing we can do legally, or the ACLU files an emergency motion that gets them off,” Richter told the Bulletin.
ICE defended the move in a statement released later.
“The law enforcement activity in Bend, Oregon is part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s mission to arrest criminal aliens presenting a danger to public safety and take them off the street. The two individuals arrested each had a history of criminal violent behavior,” an ICE spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner on Thursday morning.
[Read more: Dismantling Homeland Security emerges as election-year cause for the Left]
This is how the blockade of the ICE deportation started in Bend, OR. It just takes one person. pic.twitter.com/57aNcqlLoa
— Chad Loder (@chadloder) August 13, 2020
Local police from the Bend Police Department arrived shortly. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz wrote on Twitter that his officers were on scene, not to assist ICE, but “to allow free speech.”
By 4:30 p.m., dozens of people had heard of the standoff and gathered in the parking lot. Pizzas were brought to feed the protesters, who were peacefully sitting and standing around the buses. The two detainees remained on the buses, blocked from leaving the parking lot.
Department of Homeland Security agents in riot gear arrived in the evening, prepared for a possible conflict with protesters. A local report stated that the federal agents may have used a spray or gas to push the protesters away from the buses.
Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel attended the protest and wrote on Twitter afterward that he had “never been so disgusted by my government and so proud of my community.” He said the county had tried to work with the DHS to avoid ICE entering the community and arresting two people but had not been able to reach an agreement.
The two men on the buses were taken off shortly before midnight, prompting the crowd to eventually disperse and agents to leave.
It is not clear where the men were being transported.
Due to Bend’s sanctuary policies, local law enforcement usually cannot turn someone who has been arrested, charged, or convicted over to ICE or notify the agency when someone in custody makes bail or is released.
The warranted arrests are daily operations for ICE, unfolding simultaneously across major cities. Each day, hundreds of illegal immigrants with criminal histories or convictions are arrested in operations such as the one in Bend.
Spontaneous protest to stop ICE from detaining two longtime residents of Bend is in its 6th hour. pic.twitter.com/UeHvvxfGUd
— Emily Cureton (@emilycureton) August 13, 2020
