Federal police detain protesters at anti-ICE rally

This story was updated at 1 p.m. Wednesday Sept. 24.

Federal police wearing gas masks grabbed two protesters from a sidewalk and pulled them inside the downtown federal building in Eugene on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

It wasn’t clear why federal police took the two into custody at about 7:30 p.m., as about a dozen uniformed federal personnel approached a similar number of protesters near the building’s main entrance facing High Street.

A federal Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday that federal police arrested three people “for assaulting law enforcement and vandalism.” Homeland Security did not identify the three people detained.

The building houses an office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and has served as a frequent gathering point for sidewalk protests this summer opposing stepped-up immigration enforcement activity under President Donald Trump. The Tuesday protest lasted until about 2 a.m., Eugene police said Wednesday.

Some of the guards wore dark federal police uniforms while others wore camouflage colors, but they all appeared to be working together.

By about 7:30 p.m. when the two were detained, the crowd of protesters was no more than 20 people. They reacted by tossing orange construction barrels near the building’s main entrance facing High Street. Another person tossed a temporary construction sign onto the same area, which led to uniformed officers emerging again from the building.

Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs, in a statement Wednesday characterized events as a “violent riot.”

“The riot was approximately 60 individuals, many dressed mostly in black clothing. These rioters threw rocks and metal objects at federal law enforcement officers, vandalized federal property, and attempted to block the entrance of the building,” McLaughlin said.

In a statement released Tuesday night, Eugene police said some protesters “were seen throwing objects at Federal Protective Service agents,” referring to a unit of law enforcement that’s separate from ICE but still under the umbrella of the federal Department of Homeland Security. The statement also said some property was “damaged and defaced.”

Eugene police did not appear at the site in the early evening, although what appeared to be a drone could be seen hovering in the night sky. Eugene police said its Mobile Response Team would monitor the area “to maintain public safety and protect city property.”

In a statement Wednesday, Sept. 24, Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said city police “will continue to strictly adhere to sanctuary laws and not assist or facilitate immigration enforcement.”

“We will, however, continue to monitor protest and demonstration activity in our community and take appropriate action if criminal behavior occurs. I’m deeply concerned when people travel from outside our community to participate in these protests.”

Leading up to Tuesday, the protest had been described on social media as “Portland In Solidarity With Eugene,” and Eugene police in their statement Tuesday said “anonymous public information” indicated many of those at the federal building Tuesday were from Portland.

While some tossed objects, others used megaphones to vent their frustrations.

“The only thing I’ve done all day is chant and dance,” one protester said angrily.

Video from earlier in the day posted online by TV news station KVAL also showed perhaps three or four protesters near the building’s main entrance, yelling at people inside through megaphones.

Protesters frequently used profanity when shouting at uniformed officers. Messages of protest were written in chalk on the sidewalk and other paved surfaces, as well as on a sculpture outside the building’s front entrance.

Lily Cudmore, 27, told Lookout Eugene-Springfield on Tuesday afternoon she is part of a group that has been camping outside a Portland ICE processing center for more than 100 days.

“We really wanted to help bring more momentum down here,” Cudmore said. “They have not been under pressure at all. People are still being kidnapped from these communities.”

She said the protesters are trying to help keep the community safe. 

“We literally use our bodies as frontliners to take the blunt force to try to keep them off community members that can’t do what we’re doing,” said Cudmore, who also said she is the daughter of an immigrant.

She said she planned to stay at the federal building until at least 2 a.m. to document people and cars leaving the building. 

The federal building houses offices for multiple agencies, and protest activity disrupted an outpatient clinic run by Veterans Affairs, according to a statement from a spokesperson. The clinic provides mental health and social work services.

The clinic remained open during regular business hours “but visitor screening for building entry by the [Federal Protective Service] was suspended between 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.,” according to the VA’s statement, which also called the protest activity “in support of illegal immigrants and against the rule of law.”

Eugene police reported making two arrests in the general area of the protest, including a Portland man suspected of spraying mace on someone in the 300 block of East Seventh Avenue, a block from the federal building.

Police also arrested another man, from Eugene, on suspicion of spray painting protest graffiti on the Ferry Street Bridge, about a half-mile from the courthouse.

Federal police took at least one other person into custody, according to a witness. The witness said he had been sprayed by a uniformed officer.

“I saw that they’re arresting the person, and I’m telling them that they should be ashamed of themselves. And then, they, then the guy in charge looked at me, was like, ‘F— you.’ And then sprayed me in the face,” said the witness, who declined to give his name.

Others in the crowd — police estimated the total to be 60 at one point — spoke about being hit by some sort of chemical agent.

“We’re yelling at them, and one of them pulled out a can of what I’m assuming is pepper spray or some sort of chemical spray, and attempted to spray me with it. They hit my forehead and the side of my arm,” said the protester.

“They said, ‘F— you,’ and he pulled it out, and he sprayed me,” said the protester, adding that they had stayed on the sidewalk and not been given any commands to move or leave before being sprayed.

McLaughlin, the Homeland Security spokesperson, cited “unprecedented violence” directed against ICE and said “it is time for politicians and activists to tone down their rhetoric and stop comparing ICE to the Nazi Gestapo, Secret Police, and slave patrols.”

McLaughlin referred to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in stating that anyone “who lays a hand on an officers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”