The union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler on Monday, claiming that the mayor “turned the lives of our employees over to an angry mob.”
The letter from the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council objected to Wheeler’s hands-off approach toward Occupy ICE, a protest that began June 17. In the letter, attorney Sean Riddell, who is representing the union, wrote that Wheeler’s response to the protests created “a zone of terror and lawlessness” where protesters were making threats of physical violence and harassment to ICE employees.
From June 20 to 28, protesters shut down the building leased by the agency and built a nearby encampment that lasted for several weeks.
“The mayor stated publicly that he supported the protests, which were supposed to be about protecting immigrant families. But what about the moms and dads that we had working in that building? What about their kids?” Chris Crane, the union’s president, told the Washington Times. “These are questions that we’ll be expecting the mayor and city of Portland to be answering in the days to come.”
The letter states that the council does not want to pursue federal litigation but is “prepared to protect our membership and their families.”
“The Council and I assert that your current policy forbidding Portland law enforcement agencies from assisting employees of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (“ICE”) who request law enforcement assistance while at or away from work is a violation of the United States Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause,” Riddell wrote.
Portland has been central to the nationwide protests this summer, which have involved taking down the building’s U.S. flag and attempts to damage employees’ cars with homemade spike strips, according to one ICE officer.
