
Two resolutions approved by Portland City Council on Wednesday aim to strengthen the city’s sanctuary status and use all available legal resources to resist deployment of any federal military presence.
What was approved
Councilors unanimously approved a Protect Portland Initiative, which prevents local police from being federalized, and creates a framework to respond to “threats of federal overreach and militarization,” as well as excessive force. The multi-layered resolution does a few things, including:
-
Directing the Portland Police Bureau to ensure that Portlanders’ rights to privacy, free speech, assembly, and protest are protected, while asking PPB officers to document any interaction with federal agents. “City bureaus, including the Portland Police Bureau are prohibited from assisting in the suppression of peaceful protests,” Councilor Candace Avalos explained.
-
Requires city administrators and the mayor’s office to regularly seek government records about any undisclosed federal enforcement and military activity in Portland;
-
Establishes immigrant affairs liaisons within the city and calls for city administrators to designate “non-public” city spaces, like staff offices, that federal immigration agents would be prohibited from accessing without a warrant;
-
While city employees are already barred from sharing data or other information with immigration agencies, the Protect Portland Initiative extends that requirement to city contractors.
A resolution to codify the city’s current sanctuary status and add extra layers of protection for city staff, residents, and visitors, also garnered unanimous approval. At its core, the sanctuary resolution introduced by City Councilor Sameer Kanal and co-sponsored by four other councilors, prohibits city employees from aiding in immigration enforcement, as is already the practice. The newly adopted policy also calls for city workgroups to establish best practices for protecting and supporting staff and residents impacted by immigration enforcement.
“The resolution we have as a city is comprehensive, but as our attorneys have told us, it’s not legally binding,” Kanal explained. He said recent violations of due process rights for immigrants, and the proliferation of masked, plainclothes ICE agents using aggressive tactics to carry out arrests, signaled a need to adopt the city’s sanctuary provisions into city code.
"I believe there are a lot of things that are within our ability to do,” Kanal told the Mercury in September, referring to newly proposed city laws and policies. “States and cities have a lot of authority that is not at odds with federal law. Federal law does not dictate how we organize our city."
More to come
Councilors say they plan to introduce more legislation aimed at combatting ICE in the near future. Kanal has already introduced an ordinance to the Community and Public Safety Committee that would bar any law enforcement, including federal officers, from concealing their identities during routine operations. The ordinance would also require law enforcement badges to be clearly visible. In response to ICE agents who now carry out immigration enforcement in street clothes with masks covering their faces, the councilor says his proposed legislation protects the public and police, by preventing civilians from posing as law enforcement. Similar legislation has already passed in California. Kanal said his ordinance would also empower Portland police officers to enforce the ID requirements, meaning they could ask to verify the law enforcement credentials of a federal agent.
The Portland Police Bureau did something akin to that last month, after getting calls from the public about an ICE operation in North Portland’s Roseway neighborhood. According to PPB, a North Precinct officer on patrol near NE 70th was flagged down by someone with concerns about a suspicious ICE stop that had just occurred in a nearby parking lot.
“Thinking the individual might have witnessed federal law enforcement action, our officer obtained a phone number for a federal law enforcement agency and confirmed the incident was, in fact, federal law enforcement activity and not a criminal act,” a PPB spokesperson confirmed, noting PPB’s role was limited, and “only to ensure what was witnessed was not a crime.”
New policies garnered resounding support
While the city and state are currently fighting the Trump administration in court, the resolutions approved Wednesday are the first in a series of legislative moves to push back on the administration from a Council level.

“The federal government is wasting tax dollars, violating the Constitution, and disrupting our lives," said District 4 Councilor Olivia Clark, one of the co-sponsors of the Protect Portland Initiative. “The Trump administration’s actions have become untenable, and they are calling into question the very nature of the rule of law.”
Councilor Avalos introduced the Protect Portland Initiative, which was co-sponsored by Clark, Council Vice President Tiffany Koyama Lane, and Council President Elana Pirtle Guiney.
For some, the legislation was personal.
“I know that we are in terrifying times, and now is the time to speak up. Now is the time to stand firm in our values,” Koyama Lane, whose grandparents were sent to a Japanese internment camp, said. “In World War II, many Portlanders thought being silent and complying was the best way forward as their neighbors were being disappeared. …I’m proud to be part of the work to defend our neighbors and our democracy.”
Wednesday’s meeting drew a sizable crowd and strong public support. Roughly 70 people signed up to give testimony on the pair of resolutions.
“As tensions with the federal government continue to grow, the city of Portland must remain steadfast in its values,” Mercedes Elizalde, an advocacy director with the Latino Network, told the Council, urging a ‘yes’ vote on both resolutions. “Let’s be clear, there is no America without immigrants. There are only Americans who have forgotten their immigration story.”
Eddie Wong, the current chair of the Portland Public Schools Board of Trustees, talked about the impact of deportations on families, especially those with young kids.
Wong, who was a teacher for two decades, recalled a time when one of his student’s parents got deported. It didn’t just impact that student.
“That was the day the music died,” Wong said. “The thing about trauma is it spreads. One thing we try to do as hard as we can is protect our kids in our schools, but we can’t protect the kids right outside of our schools.”
Councilors and immigrant rights groups who advocated for the resolutions cited recent incidents of ICE detaining the parent of a middle schooler, arresting a US citizen in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie, and enacting violent arrests in North Portland.