The mayor of Portland has called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to “halt all operations” in the Oregon city after two people were shot and injured by Border Patrol officers on Thursday.
“We are calling on ICE to halt all operations in Portland until a full and independent investigation can take place,” Mayor Keith Wilson said at a press conference late Thursday. “Our community deserves answers. Our community deserves accountability. And most of all, our community deserves peace.”
The shooting occurred during a vehicle stop just a day after an ICE agent fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis.
At 2:19 p.m., Border Patrol agents were conducting a “targeted vehicle stop” against the vehicle’s passenger, an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant allegedly affiliated with the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang’s prostitution ring and involved in a recent local shooting, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants, the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents,” DHS wrote in a statement on X. “Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot. The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene.”
The driver of the vehicle is believed to be a Tren de Aragua member, per DHS.
"These individuals are still alive, and we’re hoping for more positive updates," Portland City Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney said at a City Council meeting on Thursday.
After receiving reports of a shooting around 2:20 p.m. and confirming federal agents had been involved, Portland police soon “found a male and female with apparent gunshot wounds” nearby in the area of Northeast 146th Avenue and East Burnside, officials said.
The pair are husband and wife, sources told CNN.
“Officers applied a tourniquet and summoned emergency medical personnel,” the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement. “The patients were transported to the hospital.”
The incident occurred across two scenes, according to Portland police: the site of the shooting at a medical clinic at 10200 SE Main Street, and about three miles away at SE 146th Ave and East Burnside, where the wounded were found. Police arrived at the second scene after getting information that the wounded man was calling and requesting help.
“Portland is not a training ground for militarized agents. When the administration talks about using full force, we are seeing what it means on our streets,” Wilson said.
Portland police were not involved in the shooting. The FBI was on scene investigating the incident.
Protesters began to gather as the evening wore on and erected a vigil at the site of the shooting. Local officials called on protesters to remain peaceful.
“If people choose to gather, we ask that it be done lawfully and safely,” Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey wrote in a statement. “As a community, we must commit to responses that heal rather than destroy.”
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek said at the press conference, “When a president endorses tearing families apart and attempts to govern through fear and hate rather than shared values, you foster an environment of lawlessness and recklessness.”
Oregon leaders have called on the Trump administration to pull federal agents out of the city.
“Trump's deployment of federal agents in my hometown is clearly inflaming violence — and must end,” U.S. Senator Ron Wyden wrote on X.
The Trump administration has focused military-style immigration enforcement on Portland for months, and has made exaggerated claims about the state of protests against agents there.
Over the fall, the president tried to deploy federal troops from the National Guard there in response, but was blocked in court.
The alleged circumstances of the Portland shooting mirror those of the one in Minneapolis, where federal officials claim an agent fired defensive shots at a driver using her vehicle as a weapon. Local officials, citing video of the Minneapolis incident, say this narrative is inaccurate.
Elite Border Patrol personnel have deployed alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the U.S. as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing deportation crackdown, including in Portland.
The Trump administration has cracked down on alleged Tren de Aragua members in the U.S., summarily deporting hundreds to a brutal Salvadoran prison last year, cases critics say lacked evidence or due process.
The U.S. considers itself in an armed conflict with Venezuelan drug groups, a designation it has used to justify its recent strikes on boats in the Caribbean.
Jonathan Ross identified as ICE agent who fatally shot woman in Minnesota: Report
Iran protests live: Millions take to streets to demand regime change as dozens killed
Trump to meet Venezuela’s Machado and says it would be ‘honor’ to take her Nobel
Trump: I don’t need international law – only one thing limits my power
Trump ‘hopes’ Xi doesn’t attack Taiwan after US raid on Venezuela
Trump wants a Nobel Prize for all ‘eight and a quarter’ wars he claims to have solved
