EPD: ICE is acting independently

Presenter: The Eugene Police Department says that ICE is acting independently and does not share its plans in advance with EPD. At the June 17 meeting of the Eugene Human Rights Commission, Lt .Jeremy Williams took questions. Here’s HRC Chair Blake Burrell:

Blake Burrell (Human Rights Commission, chair): This may or may not be something that you can speak to, but I think a lot of us are interested on what the Police Department’s interaction with ICE has looked like, and what systems of notification for any ICE activity in the community look like, and how your department is engaging those agencies, if there’s anything that you can share about the interaction between those municipal bodies.

[00:00:41] Lt. Jeremy Williams (EPD): Yeah, I’m happy to talk with you about it. But I’m not aware of any interaction we’re having with ICE. I don’t even know who their agents are. They act independently of us. I think there’s been activity around the country that has made them take an approach of solidarity, solitarity—they’re acting within their own agency without much interaction with local law enforcement outside their federal partners.

[00:01:03] And as the events from a month and a half ago or two months ago show, they’re also not providing us with any kind of schedule or operations plan or notification in advance. Or afterward.

[00:01:17] Presenter: From the Eugene Office of Equity and Community Engagement, Fabio Andrade:

[00:01:22] Fabio Andrade (Eugene, Office of Equity and Community Engagement): And just to add, I asked for more information and EPD reached out to ICE and all they provided was a number of their PR person. They say, talk to the public information office, and they don’t share much information.

[00:01:36] Presenter: HRC Chair Blake Burrell:

[00:01:38] Blake Burrell (Human Rights Commission, chair): I’m curious if there’s been a lot of public inquiry or outreach to the office of Equity and Community Engagement or city of Eugene regarding concerns about that type of activity here, asking for clarification or information.

[00:01:52] Fabio Andrade (Eugene, Office of Equity and Community Engagement): Yes, we got requests from city staff trying to understand what to do. So the city did share information with staff regarding what we have in place, which is our ordinance on protection for individuals and also the state law. So city staff has received information of what to do, what to say, and what we can share. And that’s based on the laws we have in place.

[00:02:14] In addition to that, our office does reach out to organizers. So we have several events happening, especially now in the summertime.

[00:02:24] So we have talked to most organizers about what kind of support they need. There was a question if some events should be suspended or not. And what we heard from most people is that they would not recommend canceling the events that are mostly attended by Latino people and other immigrants, but we would share, the organizers would share information and the support that is available.

[00:02:48] So we have staff who attend some of those coalition meetings, the United for Immigration Justice Coalition meeting, and then we communicate with the organizations that serve specific communities as needed.

[00:03:01] Blake Burrell (Human Rights Commission, chair): Okay. Yeah. Thank you. I think this is a topic of immigration and the associated instances of racial profiling and what we’re seeing in other cities and with recent bans that have been put in place as well.

[00:03:13] We have a very multicultural city in a lot of ways, especially with a lot of students and international employees that come in with the University and there’s been some dialogue around students that are leaving the country and trying to leave the United States, have that dialogue with all the students that have decided to leave.

[00:03:32] This has been kind of an ongoing topic in the outreach community, as well, is different restrictions that have been put in place if you’re associated with federal grant offerings on your ability to serve folks who are undocumented without verifying citizenship status, which is—Lane County Human Services Division sent out an email about contingencies from the federal executive orders that impact our relationship with being able to render services to individuals.

[00:03:58] So I know that folks that are working in federal agencies and just subrecipients of federal funds are also seeing some major implications in this space. So I think the more public dialogue we’re having around citizens being able to protect themselves and organizations and municipalities, what those regulations are right now and what our rights are, I think is a really important component of this discussion.

[00:04:23] So I appreciate you sharing, on behalf of EPD, what your interaction with that agency has looked like and us knowing that status.

[00:04:30] And I think that for this body and ongoing dialogue, if there are instances of interaction with ICE that you can share in a public format such as this, I think that we’d be interested to know, on an ongoing basis, especially while there’s a lot of communities that we’re liaisoning with that are expressing the negative implications of that, we’re seeing trends with this community being targeted.

[00:04:52] Presenter: Lt. Jeremy Williams:

[00:04:54] Lt. Jeremy Williams (EPD): I can’t speak to what I might be able to share in the future, but we certainly, the Police Department doesn’t operate in secrecy and the transparency to the public is an important piece of this. And we have a different duty than what our federal partners are performing.

[00:05:07] We certainly empathize with the fears and the uncertainty that the community’s going through and it’s a strange position to be a law enforcement officer and not to have the answers you’re asking for.

[00:05:19] Presenter: The Human Rights Commission hears that federal ICE agents are acting independently and they are not sharing their plans with the local police department, either before or after their operations.