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At a press conference Aug. 13, at the scene of the Aug. 12 standoff between activists and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, Bend City Councilor Barb Campbell told the crowd: “We absolutely will look into whether or not the Bend Police were aiding ICE agents,” during the Aug. 12 incident. Campbell mentioned “allegations that ICE agents were, for example, charging their phones in our police cars.”
We reviewed our own footage of the events of Aug. 12 and found video of an ICE official inside a Bend PD vehicle, alongside a Bend PD officer.
As Oregon’s sanctuary law states, no law enforcement agency in the state can use agency moneys, equipment or personnel for the purpose of detecting or apprehending people thought to be in violation of federal immigration law. We asked Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz for comment, who responded:
“After review of laws and policies I do not consider the charging of a phone or providing food and water, any sort of legal violation or policy violation. The persons in custody were already in custody, and we did not assist in those custodies. There is nothing preventative, legally or in policy, that would prohibit us from allowing someone to charge a phone or sit in a car during a static situation that did not involve the “use of agency moneys, equipment or personnel for the purpose of detecting or apprehending persons who only violation of law is that they are persons of foreign citizenship present in the United States in violation of federal immigration law” (ORS 181A.820).
“This is the State law specific to immigration prohibition that we are held to, and our local policy reflects this. The two persons who were in custody had already been sought out and apprehended. Bend Police being on scene and allowing the use of a vehicle to sit in and to provide food or water to any federal employee and the persons that were being detained do not violate ORS or Bend’s policy.
A representative from the Rural Organizing Project—a group dedicated to “advocating for democracy in rural Oregon,” according to its Facebook page, told the Source that it is working with its legal team to address the issue of ICE using Bend PD resources on Aug. 12.
“Oregon’s sanctuary law is intended to protect the people of Oregon from ICE’s unlawful actions,” Emma Ronai-Durning, organizer for the ROP told the Source. “There is no doubt that the Bend Police Department’s actions supported the needless separation of two Bend families, not to mention a tear gassed assault on peaceful protesters.”
The Source spoke with several people at the protest who had been pepper sprayed by U.S. Border Patrol police who arrived on the scene late into the night. Another attendee, who asked to remain anonymous, also reported seeing clouds of what appeared to be tear gas billowing from the area where border patrol officers carried the two detainees after removing them from the ICE bus Wednesday night.
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