Reyna Lopez, President and Executive Director of PCUN, speaks at a press conference alongside Metro Councilor Juan Carlos González, center left, and President of the OregonAFL-CIO Graham Trainer, center right, in Portland, Ore., on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. Leaders gathered to denounce a surge in recent ICE arrests in the Willamette Valley farming community and residential areas, where hundreds of immigrants have been arrested in the last month.
Saskia Hatvany / OPB
Union and civic leaders from Washington County, Oregon, spoke out at a press conference Friday afternoon against recent mass arrests by the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Hundreds of immigrants have been arrested in Willamette Valley farming communities and residential areas over the last month, the local leaders said.
More than 30 were arrested on Thursday in Woodburn alone.
Supporters gather to call for the release of Hillsboro resident Victor Cruz on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025 in Hillsboro, Ore. Cruz was detained by ICE in early October during a surge in ICE arrests in the area.
Saskia Hatvany / OPB
Reyna Lopez is executive director of the farmworker union Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, which issued a statement condemning “ICE and their racist, violent and arbitrary enforcement in our neighborhoods.”
“These were mostly breadwinners,” Lopez said at the press conference Friday. “They are farmworkers, they’re landscapers, they’re contractors, they’re pineros, and overall Oregon’s economic engine.”
A coalition of over 100 organizations called Oregon for All is working for the state’s immigrant and refugee communities. Member groups include APANO, ACLU of Oregon, Innovation Law Lab, Oregon Food Bank, Oregon Just Transition Alliance, SEIU, PCUN and Unite Oregon.
“ICE and border patrol are recklessly and violently targeting Oregonians on their way to work in the fields, on their way to grocery stores, and on their way to school drop offs,” Lopez said. “We know that they’re targeting people based on the color of their skin or even just for speaking Spanish.”
Thursday’s arrests in Woodburn mark the continuation of a sharp increase in ICE activity.
Innovation Law Lab filed a lawsuit on Oct. 16 on behalf of free legal services group Clear Clinic and PCUN, alleging that ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have a practice of denying people in custody access to legal counsel before they’re transferred out of Oregon.
In a supplementary declaration filed on Oct. 22, Lopez said PCUN staff have had to stop working “almost entirely” on other programs since ICE ramped up immigration enforcement in Oregon.
Related: ‘This community is not the enemy’: Hillsboro teachers form neighborhood ICE watch
Washington County, one of Oregon’s most diverse counties, has been one of the hardest hit in Oregon in the past few weeks. Arrests have been documented in Hillsboro, Beaverton and Cornelius over the past several days.
The onslaught of immigration arrests prompted community members this week to ask county leaders to declare a state of emergency and codify the county’s status as a sanctuary jurisdiction.
The goal is to unlock emergency county funds to support community organizations and residents impacted by the surge in immigration activity.
At a meeting Tuesday, Washington County Commissioner Nafisa Fai said Los Angeles County in California had declared a state of emergency due to ICE activity. She suggested Washington County do the same.
Related: ‘I will fight for my father’: Family of Hillsboro man arrested by ICE push for his release
Commissioner Jason Snider said he thought it would be best to continue supporting community-based organizations, rather than taking further action as a board.
Board Chair Kathryn Harrington noted how important the county’s federal funding was. Earlier this year the commission shifted the county’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies to avoid running afoul of new requirements from the Trump administration, so local governments could continue receiving federal funds.
Community members attend a meeting at the Washington County public services building in Hillsboro, Ore., on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. Community members made their case for the commission to declare a state of emergency over a recent increase in immigration enforcement in the area.
Holly Bartholomew / OPB
At the Washington County meeting, 13 community members voiced their concerns during the public comment period and calling for a state of emergency.
Residents told the commission their friends and neighbors were afraid to leave their houses for work, school, the grocery store or doctor’s office.
“When a significant portion of our population is afraid to participate in daily life, that becomes a public safety emergency,” said county equity board member Barry Johnson-Smith.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
But the White House has maintained that people living unlawfully within the U.S. present significant threats to national security and public safety.
Related: US citizen to file suit after targeted ICE arrest in Portland
And when previously asked to confirm whether ICE was making arrests at or near Oregon schools and to explain the reasoning behind the approach, an agency spokesperson wrote back to OPB:
“ICE is safeguarding schools and places of worship by preventing criminal aliens and gang members from exploiting them as safe havens, a practice previously restricted under the Biden Administration. DHS now allows its law enforcement agencies to act with supervisory approval, ensuring such actions remain rare and discretionary.”