She Brought 19,000 Signatures. They Brought Police: How Portland Is Handling ICE Opposition
A Portland activist delivered a petition with 19,000+ signatures demanding the city revoke the ICE permit. The city had her arrested. Days later, a councilor proposed allowing council members to openly carry firearms while conducting city business.
Community members forced their demands into public view Wednesday inside Portland City Hall, confronting city leaders over months of inaction on calls to revoke the permit allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to operate at their facility in Portland.
Roughly 40 people attended the council meeting to demand emergency action to shut down the facility. Organizers say the action followed months of ignored testimony, repeated attempts to deliver petitions, and what they describe as a pattern of the city delaying or shifting meetings online when protests emerge.
Ahead of the meeting, organizers with Revoke the ICE Permit rallied outside, demanding the mayor and city council revoke the permit and shut down the facility. During the meeting, protesters interrupted proceedings with chants calling on council members to act. Organizers say four protesters were arrested and that security forced demonstrators out of City Hall, part of what they describe as ongoing suppression of constitutionally protected protest and petition rights.
At the center of Wednesday’s confrontation was Susan Anglada Bartley, who says she has spent months attempting to deliver a petition signed by 19,000 people from the Portland community demanding the ICE permit be revoked.
On Wednesday, she brought the signatures bound into a book and moved through the public testimony area to deliver it directly to council members.
“I at no time jumped the table or screamed in her face,” Anglada Bartley said. “There was an ample walkway and no signage saying I couldn’t deliver my petition. Petitioning the government for redress of grievances is my constitutional right.”
Anglada Bartley said she believed she was moving during a break in proceedings and remained peaceful when she went through the public testimony table and stood in front of the council, holding up the petition. She says security then placed her in a chokehold and pushed her toward the council dais. Videos circulating online all support her account of what had transpired.
Police escalation followed quickly. Twenty-six officers responded to the scene. Anglada Bartley was later arrested by the Portland Police Bureau and charged with trespassing, turning an attempted petition delivery into a criminal charge.
“They are getting more aggressive… they yelled at me ‘Do your job Councilor Smith.’"
Councilor Loretta Smith later described the protest on social media as a “mini insurrection,” claiming a protester jumped the testifying table and screamed in her face. Video footage and witness accounts from the meeting appear to contradict that characterization. Even the video’s she posted showed no such thing, and in two of the pictures she attached, Anglada Bartley is clearly holding up the petition while a security guards arm is around her neck.
“The only person who actually experienced violence was me and some of my comrades,” Anglada Bartley said, describing encounters with security, police and far right agitators and propagandists who showed up.
She also criticized media coverage that repeated official narratives while downplaying months of nonviolent civic engagement.
“The Constitution guarantees the right to petition the government for redress of wrongs,” she said. “I did exactly that, and was put in a chokehold after months of trying to get them to acknowledge the petition.”
City Council Wants to Open Carry in Response to Protests
In the days following the protest, Smith drafted an ordinance that would allow councilors to openly carry firearms while conducting city business, framing the move as a defensive measure and deterrent against confrontation. In an interview with OPB, Smith said that “It’s a defensive mechanism, if people know that you’re a serious person and you’re going to protect yourself they’re not going to be as quick to mess with you.”
In that same interview, Smith claims that these protesters are “not peaceful” and that they have become aggressive, stating “they yelled at me ‘Do your job Councilor Smith.’”
The confrontation at City Hall did not happen in isolation. The fight over the ICE facility has been building for months.
In December, city council passed an “impact fee” targeting private property owners leasing buildings for use as detention centers. On February 13, the city upheld its land use violation against the building owner after federal records showed ICE violated rules prohibiting overnight detention or holding people longer than 12 hours at least 25 times between October 2024 and July 2025.
For these protesters, the contradiction is stark: the city has acknowledged violations tied to federal detention operations, but enforcement has instead focused on the residents demanding action and accountability.
Wednesday’s protest delayed the meeting by roughly 40 minutes before officials canceled the in-person session and moved online — continuing a pattern. A January council meeting was also moved online after similar protests over the ICE permit.
For community members fighting to shut down the facility, the message remains consistent: if the city acknowledges violations but allows detention operations to continue, enforcement becomes symbolic and residents are left to seek accountability themselves.
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Alissa Azar
