[ad_1]
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The pews inside the Augustana Lutheran Church in Northeast Portland were filled with people gathered for an interfaith service, brought together by fear of 200 National Guard troops being deployed in the city this week and a desire to not be alone.
“We have a lot of people in church yesterday, and people who have never been before. They’re looking for a place to hear words of compassion and love and also action,” said the Rev. Dr. Mark Knutson, the pastor at Augustana Lutheran. “It’s about saying to this administration: Portland is not in any war zone. It’s a beautiful city.”
Other leaders, including some Portland city councilors who attended, hoped to connect with the many migrant families in Portland to let them know people are there for them.
“Remember that when you go back home, back to your neighbors, about the love of migrants the migrants don’t hate in no one,” one speaker said.
But a few miles from the church, large helicopters patrolled the skies above the ICE facility in South Portland. The Port of Portland told KOIN 6 News the helicopters appear to be related to federal law enforcement or military activity — things they don’t control.
The FBI also confirmed four people are in custody after one of them allegedly pointed a laser at a law enforcement aircraft flying over Portland on Saturday night. FBI officials said they located and searched the home of a suspect who is accused of aiming a laser at a Customs and Border Patrol helicopter. However, the agency did not share the details of what the law enforcement activity included or why it was being carried out.
Protesters outside the ICE facility, like Sammy, are on edge but trying to stay peaceful.
“We have a federal building that is surrounded by communities who are protesting peacefully and nonviolently and having an a watchful eye here,” Sammy said, “bearing witness that we can practice our First Amendment, civilly, peacefully, with nonviolence.”
[ad_2]
Ariel Iacobazzi
Source link