Public comment: ‘Terror came to our front door’

Presenter: Lane County residents speak out against ICE activity, including one particularly brutal incident in Cottage Grove. During public comment Nov. 18, Brenda Kame’enui:

Brenda Kame’enui: My name is Brenda Kame’enui from Eugene.

[00:00:13] In a country we scarcely recognize from a short time ago—a country riddled with noise and lawlessness celebrated by those in power; a country with no sheriff in town to put a stop to the wreckage; and one where people are made to suffer so that those in power can feel more powerful, exact revenge, and line pockets in violation of laws—Lane County has been a bit of an oasis, until last week when terror came to our front door.

[00:00:46] My thanks to Commissioners Buch, Farr, and Trieger for speaking out about the assault in Cottage Grove, the injustice and terror of the raids, and the harm to our communities. I ask Lane County to speak loud and clear to the Department of Homeland Security about proper standards of law enforcement behavior, stand up for the rights of all Lane County residents, abide by the Oregon sanctuary law, and denounce excessive force.

[00:01:13] The lawless federal government needs to hear from every county and state in the nation that the prescribed behavior of ICE is license for bullies and has no place in democracy. Please order an investigation.

[00:01:28] Thank you to Lane County government for releasing funds for food and housing, and to our community for stepping up to fill the gap for those living with extreme food insecurity. Oregon and Lane County are great places to live, but we have to work hard, really hard now, to keep them great for all our community.

[00:01:48] Jolene Siemsen: My name is Jolene Siemsen, I’m a resident of Lane County. As you know, recent events on Nov. 5 in Cottage Grove involved ICE agents pulling a legal resident from her car on a dark and wet early morning, pulling her to the ground, surrounding her, kneeling on her, cuffing her, and detaining her. Her daughter was finally able to intervene, crying out, ‘What are you doing? That is my mother.’ Her cry in the dark was heart-rending.

[00:02:21] I am here to thank County Commissioners Buch, Farr, and Trieger for immediately speaking out in opposition to this horror. I am here to thank Lane County for release of emergency funds to help mitigate the economic pressures experienced by community members most impacted by this federally-sponsored reign of terror.

[00:02:43] I am here to urge Lane County Commissioners to make a public statement opposing these terror tactics. I urge all of you to use your elected office and authority to stand together for just treatment of all human beings residing in our community.

[00:03:01] I am here to urge you to order an investigation into the incident of Nov. 5 when a legal resident was assaulted and detained against her will and with no legal basis.

[00:03:13] I am here to ask the county sheriff to partner with state and municipal police departments to protect the rights and well-being of all Lane County residents. And I am here because I fear this won’t be the last time something like this happens in our community.

[00:03:29] I am here to show support for those most heavily impacted and to let you know that our hearts and this community are with you. And I just want to say I welcome Juanita (Avila) and Emely (Agustín), who are here witnessing this meeting today.

[00:03:44] Chris Ellis: Greetings. I’m Chris Ellis. I live in Cottage Grove, and I live just around the corner from Juanita’s store. And what they did to her, what they’ve been doing to so many others everywhere, it’s just straight out barbaric. There’s no other way to describe it. These people are just mindless psychos. That’s what they’re behaving like.

[00:04:12] And I had a grandfather on my mother’s side who deployed to Europe 80 years ago to fight the Nazis in World War II. And for him to, if he was here to see what is happening here in the country he put his life on the line to defend, to see the same thing happening here that he witnessed in Europe 80 years ago. He would be beside himself with rage.

[00:04:42] And this has got to stop. One way or another, it has to stop. It has no place whatsoever in a civilized democracy. What they did to her and what they’re doing to so many others is just straight out barbaric. Please do what you can to stop it once and for all. Thank you.

[00:05:04] Barbara Miller: My name is Barbara Miller. I’m here for the same reason most of these other people are here. I ask you as an elected body to please document your disgust and your rage about what the federal government is doing–their policies, their hatred, their evilness. This is beyond the scope of anybody’s imagination.

[00:05:27] And I ask you, because of your elected capacity, because you’re official, would you please document and let everybody know how much against all of this you are, because it is a disgrace and it’s an embarrassment to be an American at this point, given what our government is doing. 

[00:05:45] Sue Craig: My name is Sue Craig. And I just want to give you a little bit different perspective on all this business that we are talking about now.

[00:05:54] First of all, we are using our tax money to do these illegitimate and against-the-law actions. I’m paying for this. I am paying for the National Guard to go in. I am paying for, then you come up and use your wonderful funds to help these people that have been impacted. That’s my tax money. It’s just kind of crazy when you think about it.

[00:06:24] So I want you to think about, I want everybody to think about the fact that we are paying for things that are against the law. This is what we’re paying for, and that’s wrong. I want my tax dollars to go to all the good things that we need to do: the education, health care, all the wonderful things that you have done in this community, and that’s where our money needs to go, not for things that are against the law. Thank you so much.

[00:07:00] Marshall Curry: My name is Marshall Curry. I love Lane County. I grew up in Springfield. I love its rivers, its people. And I was raised by local leaders in Springfield Public Schools and sports teams and religious organizations to know how to show unconditional love to those around me, including those that are statistically underserved and oppressed.

[00:07:20] I had to change my story today to be here, and I’d ask you all to consider your own stories and how we can change them today.

[00:07:27] Today I’m here to ask us to protect one another. What is happening is ignoring due process. I’m concerned about my family, who is a family of immigrants, not by blood, but by marriage, and they’re all legal citizens, but we know from many cases that they’re ignoring, that federal agents are ignoring citizenship.

[00:07:51] Thank you, Commissioner Buch, Farr and Trieger for changing your story and speaking out on behalf of us as community members.

[00:08:00] Thank you for speaking out against federal ICE kidnapping and aggression in our communities. Uncertainty and fear kills business. It creates social isolation. Your efforts as the county government to release funds is why I took time off work to come say thank you. I really mean it. It shows that the people of Lane County care. I’m asking you to use your power. Change your story. Change your story, to make it harder for federal agents to cause harm, ignore our rights, and take parents away from their children.

[00:08:36] My son had nightmares when I described to him a book we were reading about the story of his grandparents and how I had to describe it in comparison to what his classmates are going through right now.

[00:08:49] I ask commissioners in Lane County to lead inquiry into the incident of Nov. 5 and others when they occur. I ask when can we expect an official summary statement from the county regarding this inquiry.

[00:09:05] I urge the county to communicate standards of law enforcement behavior and to do more to call out and change policy on what is allowed. And please stand up for the rights of all Lane County residents. Denounce the use of excessive force publicly and loudly with all of your supporters behind you.

[00:09:25] I’ll be there. My heart and soul are with those impacted families. And my eyes are on all of us in this room to see our stories change to support local safety. Thank you.

[00:09:33] Dru Winters: I’m Dru Winters. I’m from Noti. I’m not as eloquent as the previous speakers, but I wish to thank you for condemning the actions in Cottage Grove, the three commissioners who did. I wish to thank you for the aid you gave to our residents, housing aid and food aid. I wish to urge you to inquire into what is going on. This is not due process, which is guaranteed by the Fifth and 14th Amendments of our Constitution.

[00:10:12] The more we can do, the better off we are.

[00:10:18] Prior to Cottage Grove, I was still going to come here today because I wanted to speak against Flock. It has been used to target people across state lines. It has been used for personal vendettas as well as ICE. The data it collects does not belong to Lane County. It belongs to Flock and has been weaponized. Please, I urge you, I know you haven’t installed them, which is a good thing, but I urge you to return them, get them out of our communities.

[00:10:58] Rose Wilde: I’m Rose Wilde. I think I pretty much can affirm and agree with all of the public comments so far and reinforce the call to ask the county to investigate and to put some energy into attempting to interrupt, to distract, delay, anything you can legally do as a board of county commissioners to play your role in making it more difficult for ICE to conduct their illegal and appalling operations in Lane County. There’s lots of ways, you know: lawsuits, investigations, interviews, simply enforcing our expectations as a community.

[00:11:39] I just also want to, I’ve been bumping around here in Lane County for most of my life and working in nonprofit and human services and volunteering in different capacities, particularly with children and families.

[00:11:52] And I was at the vigil in Cottage Grove last week and I got to hear Emely and Juanita talk about their experience and it reminded me of something that Carmen Urbina said years ago when she was the director of Centro Latino Americano and has since gone on to many high positions, many more high positions in this county and state. And she said that where she grew up, one of the things that they did when they greeted each other is, they centered the children. They said, ‘And how are the children?’

[00:12:25] And I thought, how awful to see your mother thrown to the floor, to see somebody kneeling on her back, to not know if she’d be taken away and possibly disappeared, lost in a system where you wouldn’t know how to find her. And thank God she was there to advocate for her mom. And what a strong person.

[00:12:47] And, you know, but think of all the children who couldn’t defend their parents, you know, last week, two weeks ago, and all the children around the country who are afraid to go out, afraid to go to school, people are afraid to go to work, afraid to shop. I’m getting text messages and all the time saying, ‘Do you know people who might go shopping? Because people are afraid to leave their homes.’

[00:13:11] So, you know this is not making our community safer and the wrongful blame of immigrants for problems in our society is just a tool used to manipulate us and it doesn’t make us safer or better as a community so thank you for what you are doing I hope and encourage you will think creatively about what else we can do to pull us together as a community and make things better and safer for our kids. Thank you.

[00:13:39] Leslie Hunter: Good morning. My name’s Leslie Hunter, and I’ve been living in Oregon for about 46 years, and I had no idea I’d be at this microphone today. All of a sudden, I got up and said, I have to come down here and see what’s happening, and I’ve got to say I feel very supported in all of my beliefs by being here, hearing what the Commission’s been doing, hearing how my fellow citizens are feeling and what people are doing. I’ve been active in little tiny ways here and there to combat.

[00:14:17] What I feel is really the Nazis moving in to our community. I lost my partner three years ago to Vietnam, basically, because of his poisoning there. So there’s just, there’s so much good we can do as humans to help each other. And now we’re in the position of just having to defend evil all the time instead of helping our homeless and feeding our children and educating our children.

[00:14:49] And what I hear the administration, the federal administration, do is say over and over and over, that what they’re doing is legal. Well, I just want to remind myself and everyone else that what Hitler did was considered legal. So legal is no longer a term we can fall back on or support.

[00:15:13] We have to do what’s right, what’s right for our children, what’s right for our community. And I think this body has been heading in the right direction, and I thank you for that.

[00:15:28] So again, as Commissioner Loveall said, we all have to pick our own way to support this. And you guys, being in a little bit more of a position of power, have a lot on your shoulders to fight against things like the Flock cameras, which will be used. This is not, you know, five years ago where we’re just dealing with the criminal element. No, no, no. We’re just dealing with people that want to live their lives. 

[00:15:58] Naphtali Renshaw: My name is Naphtali Renshaw. My pronouns are she, they. I am speaking with TALC and as a faith-rooted community developer in the area. I want to thank Commissioners Buch, Trieger, and Farr for taking action and speaking out in support of our targeted community members. I hope that you will continue to do so and that Commissioner Ceniga and Loveall will also speak out on behalf of our targeted community members.

[00:16:32] I also want to thank the release of funding for our most vulnerable members who are facing increased food and housing insecurity. I hope that the county will continue to look for ways to support groups throughout this winter. Unfortunately, we don’t think that ICE activity will decrease, and we’re going to have hungry people in need of support from their neighbors.

[00:17:04] I also want to speak to the Flock cameras that the county has purchased through the sheriff’s department. There has been ample testimony on the city level. I would encourage our county officials to examine that testimony. It does compromise our sanctuary promise is a county level and our status as a sanctuary state. There’s ample evidence that ICE has used Flock cameras to target vulnerable community members. And this is not good for our county.

[00:17:44] Presenter: To kick off the public comment, Commissioner David Loveall shared a story:

[00:17:48] Commissioner David Loveall: The Board has been receiving a lot of emails about the recent ICE involvements and what’s going on in our community, and I’d like to just tell a small little story if I could, so please, humor me a little bit.

He calls himself part of the brown people. I call him Ru. He’s a friend, a father, a husband, a business owner, a mortgage holder, a caretaker to his mother-in-law, hard worker, and an undocumented man whom I’ve trusted with many projects of development for well over a decade.

[00:18:14] He shed tears of great fear the other day in my driveway for federal agents fearful of how things could play out if he was detained, separated, and had to start the his immigration status from scratch back in Mexico.

[00:18:26] Two years ago, we had this conversation about making his immigration right. My family put up a bond, helped with lawyers, wrote letters of recommendation, and got personally involved to bring proper legal status to ensure his peace of mind and safety.

[00:18:40] He’s on his way, but he’s still afraid. And in the middle of the prayer that I was speaking over him, Ru’s tears in my driveway, it hit me even deeper. This is everyone’s problem. It’s not us and them, it’s us. It’s not bringing this story to boast, but to rather shift the narrative, the words and the protest signs into action.

[00:18:59] If this issue means something to you, proclamations, words, finger-pointing won’t solve the problem. Do your personal involvement and be involved in a brown person’s lives. I urge each one of us to help one. Do something for someone else. Thank you for that.

[00:19:16] Presenter: Several speakers echoed the commissioner’s encouragement to get involved. 

[00:19:20] Emily Heilbrun: My name is Emily Heilbrun. First of all, I want to thank Commissioners Trieger, Buch, and Farr, who signed the statement denouncing recent actions by ICE. Thank you also to the county for releasing funds for food and to assist basic household needs of the families disrupted by the recent immigration enforcement activity.

[00:19:43] There are families with children who cannot pay their rent now because the wage earner in the family has been taken to Tacoma and is in detention.

[00:19:52] Anyone who is detained for any reason is entitled to due process under our constitution. Community members being detained by ICE are being denied due process and access to their attorneys.

[00:20:05] I hope the entire Board of Commissioners will take a stand on this and advocate for our community members’ constitutional rights. Chair Loveall and Commissioner Ceniga, I urge you to join your colleagues in the statement that they make and Chair Loveall, I appreciate the support that you gave and I to a community member you knew, and I know that many in this room have done that.

[00:20:29] The fact is that many of the people referred to as undocumented have filed claims for asylum and are following the process and checking in with ICE and have cases pending sometimes now for many, many years, because the immigration system is even more backed up than it was in recent years, which was already very bad.

[00:20:48] So I thank you for considering this and doing what you can to deal with this terrible situation. Thank you.

[00:20:55] Rev. Dennis Reynolds: My name is Dennis Reynolds. I’m an affiliated community minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church here in Eugene. And I want to thank you, Commissioner Loveall, for bringing up a sense of each of us are called to do what we can. And you’ve acted as an individual.

[00:21:13] You also fill roles that are public, that are elected to be more representative and have a different kind of power. That’s why I’m deeply grateful for the statements that Commissioner Farr, Trieger, and Buch have made publicly. And we can do more.

[00:21:28] We’ve witnessed excesses in immigration enforcement across the country, and now more recently in Lane County. A trespass into the lobby of the county jail trespass to take one into custody is not civil rights and appropriate behavior in our county.

[00:21:49] I urge continuing investigations of what kinds of errors led to that possibility. Continuing investigation of how Lane County law enforcement can reduce incidents like what was described happened in Cottage Grove– Not in our town, not in our county, not in our communities, because we want to be different here.

[00:22:14] Okay, so how should we proceed? How should we go forward? I think Hebrew scripture offers us a clear answer to that question. I want to thank you, Commissioner Lovell for noting the T-shirt I wear, which was an answer to how should one love God, how should one love divinity, however you name it, and it’s simple: ‘Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.’ That’s not the action that federal law enforcement is taking into our county.

[00:22:44] So through investigations, through public statements, through work with county law enforcement, let’s do all we can to make Lane County a place where such action is taken as reality and where liberty and justice and civil rights exist for everyone who lives in our county for all our neighbors. 

[00:23:07] Victoria Koch: My name’s Victoria, and yes, just what Mr. Loveall was talking about. I walked here, and it was really cold, and I thought, gosh, I’m an asylum seeker sponsor, and my asylum seeker walked from El Salvador through several countries with a caravan at the time. And I just was thinking, ‘Wow, just think and they it was children families she walked all that way across the border in Arizona and there she was put on a plane and shackled, both her arms and her legs, to transport her–this is six years ago–to a detention in Colorado.

[00:23:54] And I found out about her through OCAN, Oregon Community Asylum Network, and she was going to go back. She was just like she was treated so horribly. I thought I can take her. I can help her. And I did, and I’m so grateful I did. And she came and lived with me for a couple of years and it was an amazing experience.

[00:24:16] And just like Mr. Loveall said, it’s really important to get involved with people personally. And she changed my life because I just learned so much about the privilege I have, but also just about what do they want? They’re just human beings. This is what gets me. We’re all humans. They just wanted safety, care, a good home.

[00:24:41] And I’m glad to say she’s got an incredible job. She’s actually a supervisor where she’s working right now. She’s doing good things.

[00:24:50] And this is what gets me. I just want us to be humane. And we as a city, as a state, as a county, we need to make a statement. Just what you said, Mr. Loveall, that we care about these people. These are our neighbors. These are our friends. And she’s doing good. And she’s helping. And we need them. So thank you for all you’re doing.

[00:25:13] Presenter: Residents speak out against ICE actions in Lane County and call for an investigation.