WATCH: Behind the scenes with ICE in sanctuary state that endangers agents and children

PORTLAND, Ore. — Before dawn broke over the quiet streets of a town an hour outside Portland, federal agents sat in their cars watching a small home in the middle of a suburban block. Their target, an illegal immigrant once charged with sex crimes against children, was believed to be inside.

As sunrise first hit the driveway, a man stepped out and climbed into a car registered to the suspect. Agents noticed a child in the passenger seat. The team waited until the kid was safely dropped off at school before making their move.

When agents finally closed in, the driver wasn’t the man they were after, but he wasn’t innocent either. He admitted to being in the country illegally, with prior convictions for driving under the influence and a hit-and-run. ICE agents took him into custody, even as their original target, a convicted child sex offender, remained at large.

The arrest, which the Daily Caller News Foundation witnessed during a ride-along with ICE’s Portland field team, shows how Oregon’s sanctuary laws not only hinder immigration enforcement but also endanger the very communities they claim to protect.

ICE’s initial target was deported 25 years ago but later returned, repeatedly encountering local law enforcement and charged with several counts of rape, sodomy and sexual abuse of a child.

In 2011, the Mexican national was convicted of four counts of second-degree felony sex abuse, receiving just over eight years for his crimes. But he never served his full sentence, as ICE officials told the DCNF he was convicted again shortly after his release.

“ICE did place a detainer on him. The detainer was not honored, and he has been released into our community,” Laura E. Hermosillo, acting field director of the Portland ICE office, told the DCNF.

“This is why sanctuary policies are so dangerous,” Deputy Field Office Director Julio S. Hernandez told the DCNF. “So what happens is … the resources that we’re wasting here on the street, in other states like Arizona, we send two officers, they collect him at the jail, because he committed a crime, and then they bring him into ICE custody. Oregon doesn’t honor detainers, and they release.”

Hermosillo echoed Hernandez’s concern. “They just don’t tell us when they were released,” she said — a warning of how many illegal immigrants with criminal records are back on Oregon’s streets under the state’s protective policies.

THE COST OF SANCTUARY

The heart of the issue, agents said, runs deeper than a single arrest. Oregon’s decades-old sanctuary laws have erected a wall between local police and federal immigration agents — one that, in ICE’s view, keeps dangerous criminals on the streets.

Oregon first passed its sanctuary state legislation in 1987, later strengthening protections through the Sanctuary Promise Act in 2021. The law effectively created a safe haven for illegal immigrants by prohibiting state and local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

While data is limited on how many illegal immigrants have entered Oregon since the Biden administration’s border crisis, the Migration Policy Institute estimated about 105,000 illegal immigrants lived in the state as of 2023. The estimate is based on U.S. Census Bureau data from the pooled 2019–2023 American Community Survey (ACS) and other federal surveys.

“All of us deserve to feel safe and secure in our homes and communities,” Democrat Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said in January, reaffirming the state’s stance. “Our immigrant communities are Oregon communities.”

Arrests of illegal immigrants in Oregon have surged in recent months, jumping roughly 550% in October alone, accordingto OPB who cited data from the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition (PIRC).

The PIRC group, which tracks ICE activity across the state, reported 329 arrests in October. That number marks a steep jump from the combined monthly average of 237 arrests across Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska between January and July, based on data from the Deportation Data Project, OPB reported.

But not every lawmaker in Oregon agrees with the state’s open-door policies. In a statement to the DCNF, Republican State Rep. Dwayne Yunker said the laws have not only tied officers’ hands, but turned the state into “a haven for crime and chaos.”

“Oregon’s sanctuary laws have turned our state into a haven for crime and chaos,” Yunker said. “Tying the hands of our officers and blocking cooperation with ICE and assistance from the National Guard makes enforcement more dangerous for the men and women who risk their lives to keep us safe. Look at Portland’s South Waterfront neighborhood.”

“Families, schools, and small businesses are being driven out by the Antifa mobs and the defund-the-police Democrats. Ordinary Oregonians are the real victims of this lawless experiment,” Yunker said.

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While Democrats continue to defend the policies as claims of compassion for doing so, agents on the ground told a different story. To them, those same protections are what keep repeat offenders in Oregon, with illegal migrants who’ve already faced deportation but slip back in. Some eventually end up committing new crimes under the state’s protection.

One of them was Mexican national Sergio Martinez-Mendoza, who was sentenced to 92 months in federal prison for illegal reentry in 2018. He was deported from the U.S. 11 times before that year. After his eleventh illegal reentry, Martinez-Mendoza was convicted of violent sexual assault against two women in Portland, according to the Department of Homeland.

At the time, then-U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon Billy J. Williams argued that notifying ICE of Martinez-Mendoza’s custody status under state law could have prevented those crimes.

“Effective communication between federal and state law enforcement is imperative to ensure dangerous illegal aliens are identified and deported according to law,” Williams said in a 2018 press release.

More recently, in June, a Portland federal jury found Mexican national Nelson Pablo-Morales guilty of illegally reentering and residing in the state. ICE first learned of Pablo-Morales in 2015 after his arrest for reckless driving and driving under the influence. He was deported in 2017 — only to be arrested again in February.

With Oregon’s laws essentially tying the hands of local police, Hermosillo said she knows most officers want to cooperate but are legally prohibited from doing so.

“Our law enforcement want to help us, right? Our law enforcement partners want to be there to protect the communities, and we are part of the community. They’re just not allowed to,” Hermosillo told the DCNF.

UNDER SIEGE IN PORTLAND

Beyond the political roadblocks, Portland’s ICE facility faces relentless near-daily protests and riots. The chaos quickly spiraled in June when rioters damaged federal property, with far-left agitators and Antifa protesters gathering outside the site for months.

Due to the escalating violence, President Donald Trump announced plans in late September to deploy the National Guard to protect ICE agents and secure the facility. The move was delayed, however, after the state filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

Turning the conversation to the stalled National Guard deployment, Hermosillo didn’t hesitate to tell the DCNF that any reinforcement would make a difference for the agents as they would take “all the help” they can get.

“I mean, we’ve been getting attacked for almost a year now, right? Our officers, our agents, our law enforcement partners that are here supporting us, they’re being followed. They’re being doxed. They’re being cornered in, stopped, and assaulted on a regular basis,” Hermosillo said. “So, no it has not stopped.”

After a three-day trial, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut ruled on Nov. 8 the National Guard would be permanently blocked from deployment in the state, acknowledging that while “violent protests did occur,” law enforcement was able to address the situation.

“As someone with extensive military training, I know the difference between lawful protest and coordinated disruption,” Yunker said in a public statement. “What’s been happening in Portland is a calculated campaign to destabilize and bait law enforcement.”

“After President Trump announced his decision last month to deploy the National Guard, agitators and their funders pivoted from riots and violence to inflatable costumes and propaganda in an attempt to whitewash months of destruction,” Yunker added. “I stand with President Trump on deploying the National Guard to restore order. And I support using the RICO Act to go after the funders who are bankrolling this chaos.”

For ICE agents in Portland and many throughout the U.S., the threats don’t end when the arrests do. Since the Trump administration renewed its crackdown on illegal immigration, officers and their families are facing a massive increase in death threats and doxxing.

According to a Department of Homeland Security press release on Oct. 30, the department revealed the threats have surged by more than 8,000%, jumping 7,000% since their last statement in September.

“The safety of our officers is very important to us,” Hermosillo said. “We want to make sure that everybody comes home at the end of the day.”

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