QuickTake:

“A nationwide public safety surge in sanctuary cities” apparently has included Lane County, although it’s hard to say how many people have been picked up by ICE agents in recent weeks.

A rise in arrests across Oregon by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has affected Lane County.

ICE officers pulled over a construction worker at about 5:30 a.m. Sept. 29 in Eugene, according to court documents that argued the man’s detention was unlawful.

A day earlier, Sept. 28, a group of mostly masked ICE officers in three vehicles pulled over a man in Eugene and detained him, according to court documents. The detained man was described in court documents as having entered the United States at least 15 years earlier. 

In both cases, few details have been made public.

Attorneys have argued ICE officers violated rights to due process. The court documents allege the officers took the men into custody without first doing an “individualized” assessment about whether each posed a danger to the community, or whether each posed a risk to flee that couldn’t be otherwise addressed, such as through a bond hearing.

It’s unclear how many others might have been picked up by ICE in Lane County in recent weeks, though the numbers are likely lower than Salem, Albany and other areas in the state.

Gov. Tina Kotek issued a statement Monday, Oct. 12, that mentioned recent enforcement activity in Salem and Brooks, both in Marion County and within a 75-minute drive of Eugene.

Two construction workers picked up last Saturday by ICE officers in Salem were headed to a job site in Eugene, according to court documents.

Oregon has sanctuary laws in place that prohibit local and state law enforcement from working with ICE to detain people on immigration violations unless federal authorities have a warrant signed by a judge.

While it’s unclear what’s behind the rise in ICE activity, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in a Sept. 26 social media post “a nationwide public safety surge in sanctuary cities.”

Kotek’s statement Monday referred to “at least 45 detentions since October 6.” She said state agencies should work more closely together as she called on Oregonians to stand together “as the Trump administration escalates harmful and aggressive” immigration enforcement activity.

The most recent update from the Deportation Data Project tallied 101 ICE arrests and detentions in Oregon in June and 84 arrests and detentions in July. The project obtains data directly from ICE under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

A report of ICE vehicles in Cottage Grove last Friday, Oct. 9, led to worry among some in the community, said Abelio Carrillo, a community resource organizer with the Rural Organizing Project.

Some people, if they were out working, “didn’t want to come into town,” Carrillo said. Others expressed concern about going out to pick up their children from school, he said.

Carrillo said he doesn’t believe ICE made any arrests in Cottage Grove last Friday. 

The community of about 11,000, which is home to a significant population of Guatemalans who speak Mam, a Mayan indigenous language, last year was the site of 15 ICE arrests and detentions, according to the Data Deportation Project.

Overall, Carrillo said fears have calmed somewhat compared to last year. School district data showed a spike in student absences in the days after heavy ICE activity last November.

But “for sure, there’s still fear,” Carrillo said.