THE GORGE — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested at least four people in Hood River and The Dalles last month.
Gorge Rapid Response, a team of volunteers who monitor ICE activity and share information with organizations across the Pacific Northwest, said that the incidents occurred in The Heights, near the intersection of Country Club and Frankton roads in Hood River and at Juanita’s Market in The Dalles.
More arrests have been reported but not yet confirmed, according to Amber Rose, who helps lead the response team.
“People are not going to doctors’ appointments, people don’t want to go get groceries. It’s hard to go to work. It’s hard to leave the house,” she said. “People are really, truly traumatized.”
This is the largest uptick in local activity since last November, as previously reported by Columbia Gorge News and Uplift Local. While federal agents continued to detain people throughout Oregon, the rate dropped considerably since ICE killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota just over five months ago, Rose explained, and those waves of enforcement create uncertainty.
“You don’t know what’s coming next,” Rose said, emphasizing the particularly acute impact on children. “You don’t know if it’s going to be a good day or a bad day.”
She also described ICE as becoming more “brazen,” pointing to the arrest made near Country Club and Frankton on June 19. There, agents stopped traffic to box in a car with multiple witnesses, which Rose said represents an escalation of tactics, alongside frequency.
Rose reminded folks that bystanders are allowed to ask questions and film in public places. For more information about what rights you have, visit the article titled “As deportation fears rise, perspectives from and information for immigrants” at columbiagorgnews.com.
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