Join the Rapid response network!
After ICE detained two community members in Bend this summer, central Oregonians came out in unprecedented numbers to stop ICE's violence. While Trump insisted on kidnapping them despite our best efforts, we invite you to join us in being better prepared for the next time this happens in our community. Mecca Bend, Central Oregon Peacekeepers, Clergy for Justice, and Rural Organizing Project will hold a training & strategy session to get on the same page, make plans and learn how we can show up for each other across Central Oregon!
You are specially invited to join us because we know you care about human dignity! Please join us!
Rapid Response to ICE Raids Training
Saturday, October 17th from 10 - 11:30 am
Emma Ronai-Durning, Rural Organizing Project Organizer, will facilitate this training and strategy session and cover how to:
- Protect people facing ICE detention
- Document ICE and rights violations to help with legal defense
- Organize community pressure to stop deportations
- Uplift the leadership of directly impacted people and create solidarity across communities.
We will learn skills like how to tell the difference between real judicial warrants and what ICE pretends are warrants, how to set boundaries to keep ICE from entering homes, cars or businesses, and more! This online training is open to all who are interested in learning how to invest their time and resources into existing networks protecting the rights and dignity of our undocumented neighbors. After this session, a second meeting will be made available to those who wish to join the networks, and are ready to take a role in protecting the human rights of all.
El entrenamiento es específicamente para la comunidad aliada. Se les demostrara la mejor manera en la que puedan responder y defender a la comunidad inmigrante. Será traducido a Español.
#immigrantsrightsarehumanrights
Post Bend City Council Meeting August 20
Full press release:
Bend, OR -- The first Bend City Council meeting held after an impromptu demonstration to stall ICE busses, was flooded with calls and emails from hundreds of community members who stood up for the Latinx community in Bend and asked their elected officials to be accountable for their actions on Wednesday evening. On Thursday, local leaders Janet Llerandi of Mecca Bend and Bend City Council candidates Rita Schenkelberg and Megan Perkins responded.
“We are here today because Bend’s leadership has failed to meet this moment,” said Rita Schenkleberg, Bend City Council candidate, position 4. “The people of Bend showed incredible courage and strong conviction when they showed up to protect their neighbors last week. Many risked arrest, assault, and even their lives as they stood up for what is right – wearing the Bend flip flops and shorts they showed up in – against an armed invasion of Federal troops in our small city. The response from our leadership has not matched the courage shown on that day.”
Donald Trump’s immoral and unamerican Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deports any undocumented person whether they have committed a crime or not. When undercover ICE agents abducted two long-time Bend residents the morning of Wednesday, August 12th, 2020, the men were not shown any warrants nor told what they were being detained for. This swift kidnapping without any due process would have been typical of what this deportation force does in cities like Bend across the country on a regular basis.
The difference this time is that the Latinx community asked for help, and hundreds of Bend residents answered the call. They stood up for their neighbors and demanded their constitutional rights be upheld. “Janet and I saw the individuals that showed up last week and we are proud of all of you. We are proud to stand next to you, and we are proud to have you all support us as a community,” said Rita Schenkelberg.
The two men, both fathers who have lived in the community for more than a decade, were being held on giant unmarked buses in a parking lot. Over the course of the afternoon and into the night, non-violent demonstrators blocked the bus so that ACLU attorneys could file an injunction to keep their case in the jurisdiction of Oregon.
Although it was later confirmed by the City of Bend Police Department that no information was known about the men, the Mayor of Bend’s only official statement during the demonstration and for days afterward was via social media: “I’ve been informed that both men being detained have warrants out for their arrest. This is not a sweep for undocumented immigrants. Let’s please keep our community safe. Please leave peacefully.”
Mayor Sally Russell has still not officially retracted this unfounded, inflammatory statement nor has she apologized directly to the families for the damage it caused. Janet of Mecca Bend called on her to set the record straight: “Mayor Russell, I hope you find your humanity sooner rather than later, and issue an official apology for spreading misinformation and damaging the Latinx and undocumented community the way you did. I hope and can only hope that you listen to the residents of this city that have demanded you see to it that we become a sanctuary city and do all we can to protect the lives of all residents, but especially the most vulnerable among us.”
The three community leaders appeared together to set the record straight and call for more courageous leadership in these difficult times.
Mecca Bend's Official Statement
"We are here today because Bend’s leadership has allowed the narrative that hard working immigrants are violent criminals as our Mayor tweeted - these accusations were made without factual basis. The narrative being rewritten has caused further division in the community and we see how the Latinx and undocummented residents of CO have not received the support of all but most importantly from our own elected officials on city council and our own Mayor.
I have publicly asked that Mrs. Russell issued an apology to the families affected by her callous words and will continue to do so and advocate for those that count on us to step up and hold our elected officials accountable for their actions.
Yesterday evening city council meeting was flooded with calls and emails from hundreds of community members that stand in support of the Latinx & undocumented neighbors of Bend, and demanded that Bend be upgraded to a sanctuary city rather then just a quote “welcoming city”. A welcoming city only if you have a piece of paper from the US government declaring you human. You, them, US, WE - deemed illegal on our own lands.
Bend, OR is known as a friendly warm progressive city with incredible outdoor scenery, amazing food, and the kindest people you’ll come across in the PNW; yet I ask you all to think about what kindness was shown to the children of Josue and Marco when they weren't even allowed to see their fathers face prior to their abduction. What beauty can be found in living in fear, and not being able to show up to work because of your immigation status? And what warmth exists in everyday residents of Bend being tear gassed by over 40 federal agents when they sat peacefully before a bus.
ICE presence is not new to Bend. Those that are aware of the sweeps that have occurred here before are equally as traumatized by these events. The Latinx and undocumented community is hurting and while I cannot speak on their behalf, I can speak for myself in telling you that since Wednsday morning at 10:30 am when I received the first phone call alerting us of their presence in Bend, my phone has not stopped ringing with concerned friends and neighbors asking if it safe for them to be out driving, or showing up to work.
City council, Mayor Russell, I hope you find your humanity sooner rather than later, and issue an official apology for spreading misinformation and damaging the Latinx and undocumented community the way you did. I hope and can only hope that you listen to the residents of this city that have demanded you see to it that we become a sanctuary city and do all we can to protect yes the lives of all residents, but especially the most vulnerable among us.
#nohumanisillegal
ICE in Bend on August 12
August 16 - Community Update
From attorney Dan Larsson; “The last information I have is that the two individuals from Wednesday are at the Tacoma NW. Detention Center waiting for a bond hearing - both should be eligible for bond and relief in immigration court. One of them has no known criminal record other than the equivalent of a traffic ticket. Still ICE sent them out of state before the Oregon federal judge had a chance to rule on the TRO temporary restraining order/lawsuit that was filed late Wednesday with the help of local and Portland immigration attorneys. I know that these marching orders came from ICE headquarters.
Immigration lawyers are assisting these two and their families and hopefully they will be released soon and the community stepped up and I think ICE will think twice before coming into this area again like this but lots of work still to be done."
In a previous statements attorney Dan Larson publicly stated “ I was aware of the previous criminal records of both individuals And neither should be subject to mandatory detention and should qualify for relief.”
The rhetoric that Mexican immigrants are rapists and murderers was repeated by our own mayor Mrs. Sally Russell. Mrs. Sally Russell on two occasions I have extended an invitation to sit down with you to speak about your callous and disgusting comments on Twitter that you later recanted due to your incompetence in first gathering facts to support your allegations of these men being a used of “violent crimes”. Since you lack experience in dealing with immigration issues and all of the complexities that go into these cases, allow me to educate you in the ways that our federal government lies to officials like you and to the public in order to gain access and abduct fathers such as Josue and Marco.
Your statement Issuing an apology to the community and your excuses as to why you were not present on Wednesday fall on deaf ears. As an elected official and the mayor of the city it is your responsibility to see to the safety and well-being of all residents of this coymmunity regardless of their immigration status.
Have you been present on Wednesday you would have heard from Mr. Dan Larson himself who in conjunction with attorneys in Portland to file the temporary restraining order and to advocate for these men not being removed from our state. Would have also seen the desperation in the two mothers faces and would have heard the cries from the children pleading the drivers of the buses to let them see and say goodbye to their father. But you chose not to show up for us.
I ask you publicly today to make a sincere apology to the families of these two fathers who you have accused of such heinous things without having factual basis to do so. I ask you publicly to reach out to me to convey this message to the families so that I can translate them for you. And I ask you publicly today that if you continue to ignore the members of the community which you serve, that you resign from your position that you are not capable of upholding.
Cora Ives types messages to the transportation driver to plead them to give the men water
se busca a 10 participantes
Si usted reside o trabaja en la área del Distrito Central de Bend pudiera participar y recibir $125 de recompensa.
Mas detalles abajo.