Rural Oregonians believe in looking out for our neighbors. ROP has been working towards rural communities that are safe and welcoming for all since our founding in 1992. This fall and winter, our safety has decreased dramatically as ICE scaled up and intensified its violent kidnapping of community members across the state.
In the past few months, we’ve gone from seeing 2-3 people taken per day to 2-3 dozen each day across the state. Rural communities have been hit hard, and we are in deep grief for the ways our communities are being ripped apart. We know many of you are right there with us and working tirelessly to protect your communities, so we want to share some lessons we’ve learned from recent organizing in Cottage Grove and the Columbia River Gorge.
These awful moments are unwelcome reminders of the time we’re living in, and that there’s a lot we can do to be as prepared as possible. If your community is looking to build or strengthen your rapid response team, check out ROP’s Menu of Options for Community Protection and Rapid Response or reach out to your local organizer for support.
Warmly,
Amber and the ROP team
What happened:
Cottage Grove
On Nov 5th, ROP organizers were alerted to ICE activity at a local trailer park in the wee hours of the morning. ROP organizer, Abelio, jumped out of bed, called PIRC to report the activity, and got his phone camera out to record what was going on in the community via the Mam Facebook page that he manages.
Shortly after, he texted the local rapid response signal chat, but it was so early that no one responded to that local message. Abelio was able to get in touch with ECO attorneys directly, who jumped in the car and drove to the Eugene ICE facility. Unfortunately, ICE was driving two large white vans, which advocates never saw show up in Eugene. Their typical SUVs were nowhere to be seen that day. Two documented community members drove around filming the ICE activity they saw, working to capture evidence through legal observation of what was taking place. There is some risk involved in observing ICE, even if what you’re doing is completely legal, so ideally, the people doing this are those with more privilege.
At one point, Juanita Avila, a local business owner, was pulled over by ICE, violently arrested, and questioned, despite her legal status. Luckily, Juanita was released with injuries severe enough that her daughter, Emily, took her to the hospital next.
ROP sent staff from other field offices to Cottage Grove to reinforce the support team. See “How organizers responded” below for some of the first actions we took.
In The Gorge:
On Nov 10th, ROP organizers were alerted to ICE activity in multiple locations across the Gorge in the wee hours of the morning. They activated the rapid response signal, and trained rapid response volunteers drove around filming the ICE activity they saw, working to capture evidence through legal observation of what was taking place.
At one point, an ICE officer intentionally hit a car they were chasing and then recklessly and dangerously crashed their own car, later falsely accusing the person they hit of being responsible for the crash.
ROP sent staff from other field offices to the Gorge to reinforce the support team. See “How organizers responded” below for some of the first actions we took.
How organizers responded:
Assess the scene
In the Gorge, ICE reports were continuing to come in from all over the region. Until reports quieted down, legal observers and dispatchers spent many hours checking rumors and confirming the location(s) of ICE.
Direct support for the families post-abduction
- Figure out who was detained and establish who can be a liaison between the individuals/families in need of assistance and whoever is coordinating support.
- Where were they taken? Can we locate them in the system to find out where they are being held? Do they need any medical care? What platform does that facility use for communicating with the outside world? Do they need some money added to that system ASAP?
- Connect them with legal support through Equity Corps of Oregon (ECO) and a private immigration attorney
- Set up a way for community members to contribute financial support for the direct needs of the family/ies (rent, utilities, food, child care, etc). Collecting contact information has helped us be even more prepared to reach out to the community in the future when there are support needs.
- Donations poured in to support the families in Cottage Grove. We’ve raised over $23,000 for the impacted families so far. If you would like to contribute, please click here!
- Donations are also coming in to support impacted families in the Gorge. We’ve raised over $1,300 so far. If you would like to contribute, please click here! Additionally, other community members have been organizing fundraisers for specific families, modeling another way to coordinate community support.
- Make a plan to host a space for folks to process their experiences or to connect family members with mental/emotional health support that is culturally relevant
Support for rapid responders/others traumatized by ICE’s violence
- Connect them with legal support if they were also directly subjected to violence
- Consider hosting a space for folks to process their experiences.
- In the Gorge, rapid responders hosted a debrief meeting with all those involved in the response over dinner that night to decompress and hold one another, process what they learned and what could have gone better, and to plan for the coming days and weeks
Make a plan for engaging allies
- Organizers asked themselves: Who do we have relationships with who are in positions of power to mitigate harm in this moment? Who do we have relationships with? Who can we trust? Who’s proactively responding/reaching out? They discovered some unexpected allies. Then make a plan for engaging with each individual or group:
Law enforcement engagement
- Consider the type of relationship your team has with them and what level of trust there is. Then determine which of the following questions might make sense to ask:
- What was their response to ICE in the community?
- Did they act in accordance with the Sanctuary Promise Act?
- Can they support in investigating the brutality ICE used? As of November, there is precedent for this in Colorado.
- Are there other supportive roles they are willing to play in future incidents?
Local elected official engagement
- What was their response to ICE in the community?
- Did they act in accordance with the Sanctuary Promise Act?
- Can they support by making funds available to impacted families, like Lane and Washington Counties have recently done?
- Are they willing and equipped to speak to the media about the impact this has had on the people they represent?
- Are there other supportive roles they are willing to play?
- The City of Hood River recently declared a state of emergency in response to ICE impacts on the community. Lane County also released emergency funds to support the community.
- Are they willing to speak to the media about the impact this has had on their business, congregation, etc?
- Are there other supportive roles they are willing to play in bringing more people into alignment against authoritarianism and for a multiracial and inclusive democracy?
Broader Community and Growing Our Movement:
- How are people being invited into collective action around this moment? Some folks can donate money, some can donate time, and some can reach audiences that your group can’t yet.
- How can we maximize the backfire of ICE perpetrating violence in our communities to build our movement for justice and dignity for all?
- Additional ways people have plugged in in Cottage Grove so far:
- Right after the raid, we hosted a Rapid Response and ICE verification training for new folks. This led to the growth of a volunteer team that is doing daily ICE watch patrols every morning, receiving ongoing training, and is now actively recruiting more members. In the subsequent weeks, the community has been able to get community members home who were at risk of detention, also coordinating the return of their abandoned cars that might otherwise have been towed.
- Now, when there’s a rumor of ICE activity, there are always folks with more privilege who are less at risk of retaliation who are ready to patrol and verify rumors.
- More folks signed up to support ongoing accompaniment efforts to ICE appointments in Eugene
- A community vigil created space for Abelio and Juanita to share their stories, for folks to come together to collectively grieve and resist this violent event, and provided an opportunity to amplify the story across local news sources.
- Encouraging folks with personal relationships to directly share what they can with the impacted families, whether that be food, gas cards, rent money, childcare, or anything else.
