“I’ve seen recordings of my own family member being taken away.”
His relative was in jail for two days, North Clackamas School District student Jensen Garcia-Gonzalez said, being profiled for being brown and “speaking Spanish at the wrong place, wrong time…[We] thought he was gonna be sent to a country he’s never been to.”
Due to a recent Supreme Court decision, Noem v. Vazquez Perdomo, ICE is now allowed to lawfully stop someone based on their race, accent, and type of work without further suspicion of being undocumented.
The increased action became notable after President Trump’s first day of office in 2025, and has since advanced throughout Oregon.
With ICE’s stronger and often violent enforcement actions, NCSD students said they are disturbed by the brutal tactics and the growing number of ICE activities in our community.
Activities that ‘instill fear’
As ICE activities become more common, images have circulated throughout the internet, showing agents breaking car windows, wrestling civilians to the ground, or enacting extreme measures.
The goal, as Gonzalez-Garcia sees it, is “instilling fear.”
A frequent protester in support of causes such as LGBTQ+ rights and Black Lives Matter, Gonzalez-Garcia has protested against ICE in Portland. As part of a crowd of demonstrators, he has been pepper-sprayed. What triggered this reaction from ICE officers, though, was “[protestors] being loud. Loud and proud.”
“We weren’t harming anyone— it’s the idea,” he said. “They think we were gonna harm them and use their nonlethal weapons.” There was no violence involved in the protests, he recalled, for “once you bring violence into a burning flame, you’re basically bringing gasoline.”
ICE’s stated mission is to prevent illegal immigration and cross-border crime in order to protect citizens of America, but now, they still act even if it means detaining actual citizens of America.
Children with birthright citizen-ship are often deported with their immigrant parents, as a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security explained in the Guardian newspaper, “Rather than separate families, ICE asks parents if they want to be removed with their children or if the child should be placed with someone safe the parent designates.”
Students’ opinions
Laila Handsaker, a student in Clackamas High School, shares the same sentiment that many students are feeling. “I just don’t think they should be taking people from their families. I think they need to actually follow up on their mission statement.”
Handshaker argues that ICE should be focused on “a criminal or someone bringing in drugs.” In fact, data collected from TRAC Immigration shows that 73.6% of current detainees have no criminal convictions.
People who learn about ICE activity on social media might not know that many detainees have not broken the law, Gonzalez-Garcia said. Without media literacy skills, they might just look at a video and not do their own research.
Advocates for immigrant communities say it’s safer to do personal research so you know what your rights are based on your documentation status. Additionally, they said, it is crucial to know how to act when your rights are challenged.
How to act when encountering ICE
Here is advice from the Oregon Bar Association and other legal experts:
- When encountering ICE in public areas or a traffic stop, stay civil, and provide your identification or documentation papers when they ask— communicate with the officer when you move to grab your information. Even if the officer is violating your rights, don’t escalate the situation.
- If you’re undocumented, you have the right to remain silent should ICE arrest you— they should read you your Miranda rights. You have the right to ask for a lawyer and to have a trial, where your immigration status will later be argued for and against in court.
- If an ICE officer knocks on your door, don’t open it. The officer needs to have a warrant signed by a judge, and if the officer claims to have an ICE “warrant,” it’s not signed by a judge— it’s signed by another ICE officer, making it invalid.
- In all situations that you encounter ICE, whether it’s you or someone else, remember that you have the right to record as long as you don’t interfere with the case.
- If you are arrested, make sure an emergency contact knows your whereabouts and that you have been detained so they can call the detention facility or a local ICE Field Office that can find you.
That’s how an ICE arrest is supposed to be executed, but cases of ICE officers using unnecessary force have been reported.
In Oregon, ICE has been making large immigration arrests with little time, and “[they’re] not done yet,” said the U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael W. Banks in a post on X.
Advocates for immigrant communities advise people to know their rights, stay vigilant, and be aware of what’s happening around them.
Fear of what’s to come
The current environment leaves some Oregon high school students in a constant state of anxiety.
Instead of walking home from school and thinking about the list of homework that needs to be finished, the sports practice in the morning, or the driver’s license test scheduled tomorrow, they’re worrying about ICE and their families at home.
Some may be forced to consider the question: “Are they coming for me next?”