"ICE Out For Good" Rally in Gresham Repudiates ICE
Speakers at rally critical of and seek abolishment of ICE.
On Saturday January 31, 2026 the activist group Multnomah East Indivisible held a “ICE Out for Good” rally in opposition to the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the community. The protests were held in response to the killings of two Minnesotans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents.
The protest came after the Gresham City Council passed an emergency declaration over the community impacts of immigration enforcement the previous week after sustained community pressure to do so. The speakers at the rally included two members of the Oregon legislature: Oregon State Senator Chris Gorsek and State Representative Zach Hudson, Joshua Dunham a local pastor, and Raquel Barajas an immigrants rights advocate.
Oregon State Senator Chris Gorsek expressed concern over immigration agents wearing masks to conceal their identities describing it as “hiding in plain sight.” Gorsek said that he had “substantial concerns” that the training federal immigration agents were receiving wasn’t thorough.
When Gorsek rhetorically asked what happens when law enforcement aren’t well trained, a protester answered his question “people get shot in the street.” “Right” Gorsek said, “and violations of civil rights and civil liberties.” Gorsek also ridiculed ICE for, “this nonsense of arresting people in hospitals, near schools, near courthouses - no, no, no, no, we have to say no to that.” Since the Trump Administration rescinded guidance around “sensitive locations,” which had previously discouraged ICE from doing immigration enforcement at schools, hospitals and churches, concern about the presence of ICE at such locations has increased.
A recent example brought up by several speakers was the detainment of Diana Crespo, a second grade student at Alder Elementary, along with her family when they took her to get medical care at a local hospital.
Rep. Zach Hudson described ICE as “operating outside the law” and “patrolling the streets and stopping anyone who they think look foreign” or non-white and “insisting that they prove their citizenship or legal residency. It’s as if the fourth amendment somehow doesn’t apply to anyone with the wrong skin tone.”
Hudson said that the “horrific killings” of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents had awakened many to “the violence that can be inflicted by the hands of the state.” But said that, “For many in our communities of color, this is nothing new and some of us are only waking up to that now”
He described the detention and then relocation of Diana and her family, who were applying for asylum, to Texas as them and thousands like them being “disappeared” and said that “nothing about this is keeping us safe.” (Diana Crespo and her family arrived back in Oregon escorted by Oregon Congresswoman Maxine Dexter on Feb. 7, 2026.)
Hudson called on protesters to vote in the upcoming midterm elections to shift control of the US House of Representatives away from Republicans who are “enabling Trump’s takeover” to the Democratic party. Losing their majority, Hudson said, would mean that Republicans wouldn’t be able to control the budget process or “block a third impeachment motion.”
Local pastor Rev. Joshua Dunham, who previously called on the Gresham City Council to pass an emergency declaration spoke at the “ICE out for Good” rally. Dunham expressed regret that “it took the deaths of Renee and Alex, two white folks, for us to wake up because we know we know that they were not the first to lose their lives at the hands of ICE and sadly won’t be the last.”
He characterized ICE as a “secret police” targeting people of color and the state of immigration as a crisis of conscience and a crisis of faith. He posited that Jesus as a brown skinned refugee “likely would have been rounded up by ICE and his family deported.” Dunham said he wanted ICE out of Gresham for good and called for the abolishment of ICE.
Raquel Barajas, an immigrants rights advocate, said that the local organizing that went into lobbying the Gresham City Council into passing a resolution declaring an emergency over immigration policy on Jan. 20, 2026 “made our power impossible to ignore” and “the Gresham City Council listened and they passed a resolution.” Barajas described the resolution as “a promise that must now be turned into action, it is the beginning of a conversation and not the end.” Barajas called for the abolishment of ICE and for action to be taken to pressure Gresham City Council to end “all loopholes of collaboration with ICE like the Flock cameras.” The Gresham City Attorney, Ellen Van Riper, has denied that the city has any contract with Flock group.
Protesters marched along Burnside with a set of signs with the names and photos of people who are known to have either been killed by immigration officers or died while in ICE custody in 2025 through January of 2026. According to reporting from The Guardian 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025 and eight had died in January of 2026. Dunham said, “We are remembering those who lost their lives at the hands of ICE” before the signs were brought out to lead the march.
Note: I canvassed for Rep. Zach Hudson and Sen. Chris Gorsek in the lead up to the 2024 November election.