Anti-ICE protesters gathered once again Tuesday outside the Federal Building in Downtown Eugene, drawing a response from federal law enforcement.
Demonstrators spread out around the building's perimeter to monitor each exit. They were there in hopes of slowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ongoing efforts to detain migrants.
ICE has a field office in Eugene's federal building, and local immigration advocate say people have been being detained during regular check-ins.
"My friends and also family members have decided not to show up to their appointments because of being detained," said protestor Marbella Vasquez. "Let it be known that we want ICE out of here—out of Lane County, out of Eugene, out of Oregon, everywhere."
Just before 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, as protesters stood near the parking lot gates, a Department of Homeland Security vehicle began trying to exit to the street. Demonstrators initially refused to move.
A group of DHS officers then approached the crowd and told them to back up, before pushing some of them out of the way. KLCC captured that encounter on video.
Note: The video contains explicit language.
Less than an hour later, a law enforcement officer tried to exit the building in an unmarked car. Protestors demanded that person confirm whether there was anyone detained in the back seat, before letting the car proceed.
Rob Fisette, an organizer with the Lane County Immigrant Defense Network, said there's a back-and-forth between ICE and protestors, with each group adjusting their strategies week-after-week.
“When we're out here demonstrating, and we lose for the day, what that means generally, is that they take someone [into] the building and they kidnap them and they take them to Tacoma," said Fisette. "And that's really visceral."
Tacoma is home to a regional detention facility operated by ICE.
But Fisette said the the success of these protests is something that's harder to spot—the detainments that aren't happening.
"The real change is when ICE has to think harder about whether it's worth the trouble to try to detain people today," said Fisette. "That's a larger benefit that we're bringing to the community."
The number of ICE detentions in Eugene dropped sharply in July, after spiking the previous month, according to statistics cited by Lookout Eugene-Springfield.
Fisette said activists plan to be at the federal building the last Tuesday of every month, and whenever they receive word about a person facing deportation.
Also on Tuesday, protesters said DHS officials tackled and detained a person outside of the federal building. DHS didn't respond to a request for comment and clarification about the incident.
ICE also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the protests.
