Category: Portland, Oregon Local News

Thousands of local union members and supporters gathered in Portland’s South Waterfront Saturday afternoon for an anti-ICE demonstration hosted by Oregon labor leaders. The family-friendly event turned chaotic after federal agents met the peaceful crowd with repeated rounds of tear gas as they marched outside Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.

The disproportionate federal response to the peaceful protest prompted widespread condemnation from Portland leaders, including Mayor Keith Wilson, who called on ICE agents to resign in a strongly-worded statement issued January 31. 

“Through your use of violence and the trampling of the Constitution, you have lost all legitimacy and replaced it with shame,” Wilson said. “To those who continue to make these sickening decisions, go home, look in a mirror, and ask yourselves why you have gassed children.” 

The rally began at Elizabeth Caruthers Park, a few blocks north of the ICE facility, around 3 pm. A roster of local union leaders spoke to the growing crowd, emphasizing the importance of solidarity among organized labor and marginalized groups currently being targeted by President Trump’s administration. 

“The labor movement’s guiding principle is solidarity,” Graham Trainor, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO union federation, said at the rally. “That means that anything that aims to undermine our solidarity or divide our communities is a fucking labor issue.”

The labor rally in Portland came in the aftermath of the major, union-led general strike against ICE in Minneapolis on January 23. The following Friday, January 30, people around the country participated in a “national shutdown” to protest the increasingly violent immigration enforcement activity taking place across the US. In Portland, hundreds of high school students walked out of school to take part in the January 30 shutdown, and dozens of local businesses closed for the day or committed to donating a portion of their sales to immigrant rights organizations. 

At the labor rally on January 31, speakers called for more union-led actions like the general strike in Minneapolis. Mark Medina, an organizer with the Coalition of Independent Unions, called on those at the rally to “get organized” and “get ready to fight.”

“You have the opportunity to change the future and make one that is just, humane, and includes your immigrant brothers and sisters,” Medina said. “Join a union no matter what, if there is none in your industry, organize your own. If you think there is a time to fight, it is now.” 

The labor rally coalesced with a large group of people on bikes who joined the protest in support of Alex Pretti, who was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on January 24, while observing and recording the agents’ response to protests in the city. Similar rides took place in Minneapolis and hundreds of other cities to honor Pretti, who was a cyclist in Minnesota. Pretti was also a Veterans Affairs (VA) intensive care unit nurse and union member. Many people held signs honoring Pretti and Renee Good, another Minneapolis resident who was killed by federal agents earlier in January. 

After hearing from several speakers, the group began to line up for the march. Leaders expected the group to march past the ICE facility before heading back north to Elizabeth Caruthers Park. Before leaving the park, organizers said while they didn’t disparage any protest tactic, they wanted those participating in the march to commit to remaining peaceful. The crowd, which included many children, responded affirmatively. 

The march began heading south on South Moody Ave, toward the ICE facility, around 4 pm. Those at the front of the group arrived at the facility about 20 minutes later, and headed back toward the starting location, this time walking north on South Bond Ave. But the march fractured on South Bancroft Street in front of the ICE building, with some protesters choosing to stay put in front of the facility. That group, as well as hundreds more who were stationed near the back of the labor march, were hit with several rounds of tear gas when federal officers deployed the chemicals without warning, at roughly 4:30 pm. The affected group included children and elderly people. Most people were not prepared with gas masks or other protective gear. 

Lisa Morrison, 64, attended the rally with her 78-year-old husband, Bud Erland, a retired TriMet driver representing the Amalgamated Transit Union. 

“I knew the union organizers were committed to a peaceful, family-friendly march so we did not expect to be gassed and we were in no way prepared to shield ourselves,” Morrison told the Mercury. 

Morrison said she and her husband were still marching on South Moody—“in a crowd of peaceful people of all ages, from elders to babies”—when the agents deployed tear gas. Within minutes of hearing the flash bangs and seeing the tear gas cloud form, she and her husband were “overcome with burning eyes, noses, throats, and skin.” 

“We were blinded and started coughing and retching,” Morrison said. She said other protesters helped wash her eyes out with water, but she continued to feel the effects of the tear gas throughout the rest of the evening and into the following day. 

Blake Goud attended the rally with his wife and two elementary school-aged children. 

“We had come out to support the teachers at our school and to stand in solidarity with the families who have been impacted by ICE in our community,” Goud told the Mercury. 

Goud and his group were also still heading south on South Moody when the tear gas hit. He said the people surrounding his family encouraged them to get the kids out as soon as possible, and they were able to exit relatively quickly. 

“Thankfully, none of them had been directly affected by the tear gas, but my son complained of a headache all evening,” Goud said. “Our kids were scared and crying, but also angry about what had just happened, and what ICE is doing to other families. We thought this would be a safe experience given it was a daytime march and included nurse, doctors, teachers, etc.” 

The chemicals eventually forced a large group of people to turn around and attempt to leave the area as quickly as possible. Still, even after the first rounds were deployed, several hundred Portlanders remained in the streets near the facility chanting “ICE out of Portland,” dancing to music, and blowing bubbles, as volunteers cleaned up tear gas canisters and spent flash bang grenades. Others returned with gas masks and helmets after the march concluded.

Some agents shot pepper balls from the rooftops at protesters standing outside the facility. Just before 6 pm, federal agents again exited the facility, throwing tear gas and flash bang grenades into a crowd of roughly 300 people. The cloud of gas and smoke held in the air outside of an affordable housing complex adjacent to the facility, hovering two blocks away for several minutes. Portland Police Bureau officers looked on as they blockaded Macadam Avenue with their vehicles during the clash.

The force used by federal officers drew widespread attention and backlash from local elected officials and beyond. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield encouraged people with video footage or accounts of federal agents’ unlawful actions to report them to the state Department of Justice. 

Portland Councilor Mitch Green, who was present at the event and experienced the effects of the tear gas, posted on social media about the experience, calling on Mayor Wilson to enforce a new Portland code prohibiting the use of tear gas at detention centers like the one ICE operates. Green and Councilor Angelita Morillo sent Wilson a letter last week asking him to speed up the enforcement of a new detention center fee, which went into effect January 2. The new code makes it a violation for agencies like ICE to deploy tear gas beyond their immediate premises. 

In his statement Saturday evening, Wilson said the city is “moving swiftly to operationalize” the code change. 

“As we prepare to put that law into action, we are also documenting today’s events and preserving evidence,” Wilson said. “The federal government must, and will, be held accountable.”

The Mercury‘s Jeremiah Hayden contributed reporting to this story.

 

Why is it that when I get on a bus on a hot day all the windows are closed and the AC is off? The Sun is beating down on me and I am sweltering. No one else seems to care. Conversely, whenever it’s cold and wet outside, half the windows are open, the heat is off, and I’m freezing. No one else seems to mind. Did you know that you can get hypothermia in eighty degree weather if you’re wet and the wind is incessantly blowing on you? It’s more than just uncomfortable being cold on the bus, it’s a health concern. Can we please try for more comfortable temperatures?

GOOD MORNING, SUNDAY! It’s the perfect time to catch up on some of the great reporting and stories the Mercury churned out this week! (PRO TIP: If you despise being “the last to know,” then be one of the first to know by signing up for Mercury newsletters! All the latest stories shipped directly to your email’s in-box… and then… YOUR HEAD.)

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• Councilors Want City to Move Faster on Enforcement of New Detention Center Fee

Portland City Councilors Angelita Morillo and Mitch Green are asking the mayor to expedite enforcement of a new detention center impact fee that targets landlords. The city code change makes it a violation to emit harmful chemical agents like tear gas, which pose environmental and health hazards.

• Revered Portland Restaurant República Has Announced It Will Close

By way of his newsletter Between Courses, Angel Medina has announced plans to close Portland’s revered fine-dining restaurant República in February.

• TriMet’s Present Crisis, and Uncertain Future

Portland’s public transit agency is in a dire financial place, and it’s unclear when—or if—help will arrive. In the meantime, TriMet is going to have to make major bus and MAX service cuts.

• Gimme Shelter: Jason Statham’s Latest Thriller Warms Up a Typically Cold January

Here at the Mercury we love an action film director who’s secretly so much better than anyone asked him to be. Ric Roman Waugh’s Shelter hits theaters with a nearly wordless guy (Jason Statham) forced to return to a secret, violent vocation.

• Stopping the Slow Creep of ICE

Given ICE’s relatively limited infrastructure in Oregon, a possible federal plan to build the state’s first immigrant detention center in Newport has emerged as one of the key battlegrounds in the state’s struggle against the agency.

• The Trash Report

In this week’s spicy gossip column: ICE is everywhere and it’s scary AF, Brooklyn Beckham calls out his famous parents, Karamo backs out of Queer Eye press tour, Prue is leaving the Great British Bake Off, and more! 

• The Pickathon 2026 Music Lineup is Here!

Pickathon is back in 2026, and has announced their initial music lineup! The genres represented, as per usual, feature an expansive lineup of international heaters and regional heavyweights, and heavyweights in training.

• Art Snack

This week in arts and culture news: Portland’s claim on the summer thriller Weapons, Renée Watson won the Newbery Medal, and more!

• Proposed Renter Support Bill May Divert Some Funds to Developers

Despite a host of compromises over what to prioritize, Portland City Council has yet to decide how to allocate $21 million in funding generated by the city’s Rental Services Office.

• Mercury Music Picks

Here’s your curated Portland concert and music news guide! This week in town we’re being treated to a Meredith Monk documentary, Cate Labubu, Steve Reich’s Counterpoints, and so much more!

• What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome Documents Justin Townes Earle’s Time in Portland

A new biography by Rolling Stone writer Jonathan Bernstein, What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome, draws from interviews with family, friends, and colleagues to look at the unvarnished truth of Just Townes Earle’s life and legacy.

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WOW, THAT IS A LOT OF GOOD READIN’. I hope you didn’t have any other plans this weekend! Dig in, and remember: Producing all this hard work costs moolah—so please consider contributing to the Mercury to keep it all coming! Thanks!

In Sara Jaffe’s short story “Today’s Problems,” the narrator keeps a living document of national and international headlines—police violence, Israel’s potential annexation of Jerusalem—alongside intimate anxieties, like their own kid’s possible ringworm. The combined list functions as a reminder that “today’s problems” aren’t abstract forces. They express themselves in the strange frictions of everyday life.

The Portland writer’s new collection Hurricane Envy (Rescue Press) operates like a larger version of that document. Its stories braid world-scale urgency with the dilemmas of the individual—identity, parenting, artistic life. The catastrophic bumps up against the mundane. It’s a relatable push-pull, like texting your partner about dinner while systems of power scorch the world. Jaffe, formerly of the improvisational post-punk band Erase Errata and now a fixture in the local literary scene, navigates this terrain with gentleness. She seems suspicious of an easy resolution. 

Hurricane Envy’s dominant concerns repeat across the collection. Her characters often exist in states of flux: queer people contemplating parenthood, youngsters with fake IDs wiggling around in their new independence at gigs. Their problems don’t resolve neatly. The stories pause inside tension. The mood is tender, sometimes bleak, and often weirdly funny.

Music provides much of Hurricane Envy’s imagery and its sensory core. A fruit shop fills with the repetitive whistle of a “shriller Steve Reich.” A guitarist stirs up a “massy rumbling” and kicks at sonic “confetti.” Jaffe describes sounds with visual texture—an E chord becomes “wheat with sugar, the long lawn, the field.”

Jaffe self-released an instrumental compilation titled Earth to You: Guitar Players Respond to a Short Story About a Guitar Player on her book’s publishing date. Partially funded by a Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC) grant and mastered by Fred Thomas, the recording includes tracks from eight of her favorite guitar players, each invited to respond to the story “Earth to You.”

Four of them—Ilyas Ahmed, Marisa Anderson, Jenny Hoyston, and Tara Jane O’Neil—will perform selections from comp at Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) on January 31.

The stories in Hurricane Envy feel in tight conversation, almost as though they could all share a single narrator. Many characters occupy similar demographics and jobs. It’s a very Portland collection, and the city surfaces everywhere: in bridges and buggy kale, in “WASP Hollow,” in a coffee shop that plays the Slits and a preschool that’s “great on social justice.” If you live here, you’ll likely see yourself somewhere within it.

Jaffe’s characters are ultra-conscious of how they’re perceived, sometimes to the point of embarrassment or ego indulgence. A writer mourns the loss of a pebble-sized sculpture. A therapist’s patient feels too guilty to use a disposable cup. A parent worries that they’re “uncaring and monstrous” for texting their child’s preschool teacher back too quickly. In “Ether,” a part-time DJ discovers a song that becomes her carapace. “It wasn’t about whether anyone in the room was paying attention to the specific songs Ada played,” Jaffe writes, “but about the shell the songs built for her.”

Experiences of queer parenthood form another strong throughline. In “Today’s Problems,” the parent-narrator chooses the title “mom” for its “jaunty, soft-butch” quality, but finds it sounds strange in other people’s mouths. They see no trace of themselves in a famous novel’s heteronormative, “neatly binarized” rage; instead, they wonder whether their own ambivalence to parenthood would be as widely celebrated. Jaffe resists plotty payoff, allowing her characters to sit with these complexities.

“Someone Like You” offers the clearest distillation of Hurricane Envy’s themes. As the story’s musician narrator faces their partner’s “dealbreaker”—they want to become a parent—they also reconnect with an old friend, Carlo, who has traded touring for a career in music algorithm development. The start-up flattens sound into a range of preset descriptors, like “angry female vocals.” Carlos explains this, saying: “It’s not so much about what users want as what they don’t yet know they want.” The line reaches far beyond tech and into the narrator’s fears: betraying their musician identity, the quiet pain of selling out, their unknowable future as a parent.

In Hurricane Envy, Jaffe’s characters might envy a storm for its clarity—the chance to be immersed in something decisive, powerful, and real. Instead, as with the living document in “Today’s Problems,” they’re figuring themselves out in a time when self-scrutiny overlaps with wider crises and systems of power. But Jaffe’s consistently uncertain characters don’t represent a failure of narrative. These are honest materials.

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Earth to You: Guitar Players Respond to a Story About a Guitar Player will be performed at Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, 15 NE Hancock, Sat Jan 31, 7 pm, $15-$50, pica.org, all ages.

Maybe it wouldn’t have made much difference, but often when I take TriMet somewhere, people remark something to the effect of, “Oh, I didn’t know there were buses along there”. Examples: direct lines from Lake Oswego to Tualatin (37), Oregon City to Tualatin / Tigard etc (76), a route along Forest Park from Downtown to Sauvie Island (16), and most essentially, an express line from Downtown to Tualatin (96), among others. Never have I seen a billboard, sign, or flyer, saying “now offering service to ____”. I also rarely see businesses or parks saying you can take such and such bus to get here (although some do). This is just one thing I think about this low ridership and funding situation.