QuickTake:

Protesters turned out to express their opposition to immigration enforcement and, apart from one detention, described the day as mostly free from conflict with uniformed federal law enforcement officers.

About 50 people rallied outside the federal building in downtown Eugene on Tuesday, Oct. 28, to chant and hold signs opposing immigration enforcement.

Federal police detained one protester briefly. But shortly before 4 p.m., about 10 people remained and said the day had passed without any coordinated show of force by federal police.

At a Sept. 23 rally, federal police used gas tactics and detained at least two protesters.

Tuesdays have been the usual days for protests at the building, where an ICE check-in office is located. This year has seen a sharp increase in the number of people with pending immigration proceedings arriving for check-ins and being detained in Eugene, and then being driven to a detention center in Tacoma, Washington, often within hours.

One protester, who asked to be identified only as “Chloe,” said there were concerns for those arriving for check-ins and ICE “not allowing them to have due process” and also concerns about the conditions at ICE detention facilities.

To be at the rally was “to say we are aware those things are wrong,” Chloe said. 

The building houses additional government offices besides ICE, and after the September demonstration a Veterans Affairs spokesperson said the activity disrupted an outpatient clinic.

On Tuesday, perhaps a half dozen protesters walked up to the building’s public doors, shouting to be let in, though the majority of protesters stood on sidewalks far from the building’s entrance.

Jetty Etty, one of the protesters on Tuesday, said she ended up in handcuffs after setting down a bag with medical supplies for protesters on a sidewalk and walking away briefly.

Upon returning to retrieve the supplies and other items like water, Etty described seeing “a bunch of DHS officers,” referring to the federal Department of Homeland Security.

After claiming ownership of the bag, the officers said she was being detained “and they just started cuffing me,” Etty said.

Etty said she was kept in handcuffs for roughly an hour and issued a citation related to the preservation of federal property. The officers also kept the bag although she was allowed to keep the items inside, Etty said.

“They were asking me, like, ‘Do you understand how scary times are? Do you know about the Oklahoma City bombing? Do you know about 9/11?’” Etty said. But Etty said she did nothing unusual in setting down the bag.

Etty said officers also complained to her about protesters shouting at officers to “kill themselves.” Etty said she does not yell that to any officers.

“They did mention in there at one point, ‘You will get your due process.’ And I was like, oh, well, that’s convenient. Me being a white woman, of course, like, I’d be the one person in this building to get my due process,” Etty said.