Gresham City Council Called to Make "Emergency Declaration" Over ICE Activity
Community groups called on the Gresham city council to make an "emergency declaration" because of local immigration enforcement actions.
The council chambers were packed as the Gresham city council heard what their options were to address the aggressive approach taken by immigration enforcement officers by the city attorney at a Dec. 9, 2025 council meeting. Local community members and a group of community organizations that referred to themselves as the Sacred Organizing Coalition called on the city council to pass an emergency declaration to address the actions of immigration enforcement agents in the community.
Rev. Joshua Dunham from the Gresham Covenant Presbyterian Church told the councilors that his church had experienced disruptions due to the environment created by broad Immigration and Customs Enforcement removal operations. Dunham said that “ICE abducted a young man in front of my church” and that they were “fully masked, fully armed and not identifying themselves.” He says that the Spanish language congregations that use their building had seen significant drops in attendance and that one has stopped meeting altogether and won’t be attending church for Christmas. Dunham says this is because, “There are many, due to the actions of ICE, who are afraid to celebrate this season.”
City Councilor Kayla Brown said they found the tactics, profiling and lack of training by federal agents concerning but that those problems had also “made it nearly impossible to acknowledge that some truly dangerous individuals have been removed from our streets.” Councilor Brown said that the city is “upholding our sanctuary city duties.”
Gresham Council President Jerry Hinton said that they loved how people can “come from all four corners of the world and come to America and become an American.” He also his expressed his belief that immigrants are an important part of society and help keep the US population growing: “We need our immigrants to be part of our society.” He continued that “We want them but we also believe in the rule of law - we need to document them.” Hinton also expressed a desire for progress to be made towards bi-partisan immigration reform.
The city attorney, Ellen Van Riper, also addressed concerns brought up by community members that the city could be using automated license plate readers made by flock which could be used by federal agencies to enforce immigration laws. They said that, “contrary to a statement made during the last council meeting the Gresham Police Department does not have a contract with flock group for any surveillance or data collection system.” And that further, the Gresham police department does not share or sell any data to federal, state, or local law enforcement for immigration purposes. Riper said that City of Gresham staff and police would work to ensure that their policies and contracts do not allow the sharing of any data without explicit permission.
Riper said that Oregon’s sanctuary promise law prohibits state or local law enforcement from helping federal agencies with enforcing immigration law. Riper said that the city could not prevent DHS or ICE from entering public property “otherwise open to public access” but could exclude ICE and DHS from entering “city property or facilities not open to the general public” without a valid judicial warrant. Riper said that model policies drafted by the office of Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield are currently being reviewed by their office.
An immigrant who spoke to the councilors who asked to be referred to as La Guerita said that immigration officers use of face coverings and being unwilling to identify themselves is spreading fear in their community. “We don’t exactly know if they really are immigration or not they cover they face they just come and give fear to everybody.” And they said that immigrants are being “treated like criminals.” “We’re not criminals,” they said. (To be clear, the social science data does not support claims that increased levels of immigration lead to increased rates of crime.) Since the start of the Trump Administration the number of people arrested by ICE without any criminal history has dramatically increased.
Initially, Councilor Brown said that they weren’t sure if the city was in enough danger to make an emergency declaration. But their views seem to be evolving. They concluded that, “my opinion on the state of emergency is changing and that’s because of you guys tonight.”
The next Gresham City Council meeting is currently scheduled for Tuesday January 6, 2026.