Photo by Beth Nakamura/Staff
By EDER CAMPUZANO
The Oregonian/OregonLive
It's been nearly one week since protesters began blockading the entrances to the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Portland.
Now, the Occupy ICE movement has begun to spread to other major cities across the country, including Detroit, Los Angeles and New York City.
There's even a website dedicated to tracking the different occupations across the U.S.
In Los Angeles, tents line the sidewalk outside of a detention center as the occupation's official Twitter account promotes itself with pizza and "kick-ass company."
Demonstrators there, as they had in Portland, blocked the entrance to the building's parking facility as ICE employees prepared to leave Friday.
The protest in New York City also started Friday with demonstrators employing many of the same tactics at one of the agency's processing centers.
In one video posted on Twitter, Department of Homeland Security police officers and other building employees linked arms to push protesters away as a van exited the parking garage.
A small camp also popped up at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington.
Videos posted to Facebook show a line of tents clustered outside the facility -- a megaphone blares in one as a protest organizer blasts a "morning wake up" for those inside.
The protest camps at ICE facilities across the country emerged after demonstrators in Portland
, which led to the
temporary closure of the agency’s headquarters
here.
The occupation began as a vigil spurred by news reports about federal facilities for children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, some crossing illegally while others were seeking asylum.
Some Portland protesters began the week saying they would end the occupation if the Trump administration rescinded the family separation directives
to illegal immigration.
The president
one day after Portland demonstrators pledged to continue their vigil indefinitely. Protest leaders on Wednesday announced they would carry on as long as ICE kept offices in the city.
An ICE spokesperson said the facility would remain closed until "there are no longer security concerns" for employees. Homeland Security officers escorted workers out of the building as demonstrators heckled them Tuesday, the last day the office was open.
Meanwhile, Mayor Ted Wheeler said Portland police will not assist federal officers in removing protesters, a reversal from the city’s approach eight months ago when local law enforcement came under fire for
from the same site.
Aside from a few arrests, the Portland protest camp has grown over the week with relatively minor incident.
Steve Lindquist, whose family owns the building, struck a protester with his SUV early in the week, Willamette Week reported. The woman said she was "not forcefully struck," but that the incident may have aggravated a previous hip injury.
And on Thursday, at least six ICE employees, including a Milwaukie city councilor, had their home phone numbers and addresses posted to Twitter and Facebook when an activist pulled information from their public LinkedIn profiles and distributed it online.
A
Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
--Eder Campuzano
@edercampuzano
503.221.4344
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