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The mayor of Portland, Oregon, is calling on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to leave his city after federal agents fired tear gas into a crowd of protesters, including young children, outside an ICE facility over the weekend.
Mayor Keith Wilson characterized Saturday’s protests as peaceful, as federal agents reportedly used tear gas, pepper balls, stun grenades and rubber bullets against anti-ICE protesters.
Wilson urged ICE agents to resign and for the agency to leave Portland, denouncing their “use of violence” and “trampling of the Constitution.”
“Today, federal forces deployed heavy waves of chemical munitions, impacting a peaceful daytime protest where the vast majority of those present did not violate any laws, posed no threat, and posed no danger to federal forces,” he said in a statement Saturday.
CHICAGO MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON PUTS ICE ‘ON NOTICE’ WITH EXECUTIVE ORDER SEEKING THE PROCESS OF AGENTS
Mayor Keith Wilson characterizes the protests in his city as peaceful and called for ICE to stand down. (Ali Gradischer/Getty Images)
“To those who continue to work for ICE: resign. To those who control this facility: leave. Through your use of violence and trampling of the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame. To those who continue to make these disgusting decisions, go home, look in the mirror and ask yourselves why you have gassed children. Ask yourselves why you continue to work for an agency responsible for murders on American streets. No one is forcing you to lie to yourselves. themselves, even as their bosses continue to lie to the American people,” the mayor continued.
The mayor added that this nation “will never accept a federal presence where officers exercise lethal force against the very people they are sworn to serve.”
“I share impatience with those demanding that we use every legal tool at our disposal to confront this inexcusable, unconscionable and unacceptable violence against our community,” Wilson said. “I share the need to act. Actions that can withstand the scrutiny of the judicial system take time and we cannot afford to lose this fight.”
CBP/BORDER PATROL AGENTS PLACED ON ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE AFTER DEADLY CONFRONTATION WITH ALEX PRETTI
Federal agents fired tear gas into a crowd of protesters, including young children, outside an ICE facility in Portland. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Portland officials are working to implement an ordinance, which went into effect last month, that imposes a fee on detention centers that use chemical agents, the mayor said.
“As we prepare to implement that law, we are also documenting today’s events and preserving the evidence. The federal government must and will be held accountable,” he wrote.
“Portland will continue to strongly support our immigrant neighbors, who deserve safety, dignity, and the full protection of the communities they help build,” he continued. “We are also proud of the Portlanders who showed up today in peaceful solidarity, demonstrating the strength and clarity of those shared values in the face of federal overreach.”
This comes amid national unrest and bipartisan scrutiny of immigration enforcement tactics following two killings of American citizens at the hands of federal immigration agents last month in Minneapolis.
The Trump administration has faced bipartisan scrutiny over its immigration enforcement tactics following two killings of American citizens at the hands of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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Renee Nicole Good was shot to death by ICE Agent Jonathan Ross on January 7 in Minneapolis, and Alex Pretti was shot to death on January 24 by Border Patrol Agent Jesús Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection Officer Raymundo Gutiérrez while recording immigration enforcement operations in the same city.
Pretti, an ICU nurse, appeared to be trying to help a woman who officers had tackled when they sprayed him with an irritant, pushed him to the ground and punched him, according to the video and witness accounts. An officer was later seen removing Pretti’s legal firearm from his waistband before other officers fired several shots, killing him.