The Portland City Council will introduce a measure this week designed to impede the deployment of federal forces, in preparation for President Donald Trump sending National Guard troops to the sanctuary city while Oregon officials fight the presidential directive in court.
If adopted, the Protect Portland Initiative will act as a so-called “safeguard” against immigration enforcement.
Modeled after the Protecting Chicago Initiative in Illinois, a Democrat-led jurisdiction also facing the threat of federalized military presence, Portland’s version aims to establish “a coordinated federal response framework.”
Among its sweeping provisions, the initiative would instruct the city administration to convene with “community partners” to develop rapid response plans for countering immigration raids, extend sanctuary policies to include training city contractors in these practices, and demand stricter rules from the Portland Police Bureau forbidding local law enforcement personnel from assisting federal immigration authorities.
Portland police officers are already not allowed to coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pursuant to a 2017 non-cooperation decree passed by the Portland City Council, or conduct arrests based solely on a suspect’s immigration status.
PORTLAND POLICE HAMSTRUNG BY 2020-ERA REFORMS
As part of these ramped-up resistance efforts, the forthcoming resolution directs PPB to develop and implement a protocol for officer interactions with federal agents or members of the military suspected of engaging in immigration enforcement within city limits. Officers are accordingly expected to log each encounter in a record system, documenting the agent’s name, badge number, stated purpose, and location of the exchange.
PPB is additionally prohibited from aiding federal agencies in riot response. For weeks on end, far-left activists have been rioting outside the ICE detention center in South Portland, facing off with officers assigned to protect government property. Furthermore, the city attorney will be tasked with pursuing legal challenges against federal crowd-control tactics, targeted arrests, and use of force for quelling anti-ICE violence.
Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney and Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama-Lane, joined by Councilors Candace Avalos and Olivia Clark, are slated to present the resolution at a city council meeting on Wednesday evening.
The initiative is being billed as an affront to “federal overreach.”
In a press release announcing the proposal, Avalos said the initiative is “a way to organize the City’s efforts to protect our most vulnerable communities during a time of unprecedented federal cruelty.”
“As an elected leader, I intend to use every tool I have to stand up for our community in the face of a federal administration that is hell-bent on singling out Portland in their attempts to drive our country backwards,” Pirtle-Guiney added. “This resolution is yet another way that we will stand up against their attacks on the incredible progress our city has made.”
TRUMP IS SENDING IN ICE, BORDER PATROL, AND TROOPS TO THESE BLUE CITIES
According to a draft of the joint resolution, the city council and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson are actively workshopping “multiple ways” to combat federal operations. Per the proposal, the resolution simply serves as a starting point and does not encompass the totality of resistance efforts in the works.
Under the initiative, Wilson will create a citywide preparedness plan and launch a “public education” campaign involving the distribution of multilingual Know Your Rights material across all city facilities and the establishment of a centralized “Protect Portland” information hub, equipped with communication channels to report federal enforcement activity.
On the financial front, resolutions do not have budgetary authority. The wide-ranging agenda items, such as printing fees and staff training, could cost taxpayer dollars to implement, although officials have not indicated how much. City leadership says that many of the initiative’s expenses will be absorbed by existing city resources.
The Washington Examiner contacted the initiative’s co-sponsors for comment.
Unlike city ordinances, resolutions do not require a second reading before a vote on adoption. At the plan’s unveiling, the general public is invited to testify in favor or against the resolution during a public comment period.
Dozens of locals have already submitted written testimony to the city council, mostly in support of the initiative, though some longtime Portlanders raised cost-related concerns or outright opposed the endeavor.
“I do not support the turncoat policymaking coming from this dais,” Jennifer Robinson, a 20-year Portland resident, wrote in opposition to the resolution. “Not all embrace sanctuary policies. It is not fair to assume all want to protect and enable domestic terrorists, narco terrorists, human traffickers, and career criminals.”
Robinson, who welcomes federal intervention, said PPB does not have the bandwidth to handle the current unrest, citing delayed police response to 911 calls. “The federal government is not minimizing or ignoring real problems like local officials,” she said. “The gaslighting needs to stop.”
TRUMP OPEN TO INVOKING INSURRECTION ACT FOLLOWING ILLINOIS AND OREGON TROOP DEPLOYMENTS
In late August, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed off on a similar suite of policies via executive order. That whole-of-city initiative also instructed the Chicago Police Department not to assist federal officers in any capacity, whether with immigration enforcement or crime policing.
