Portland: On May 1st, #BlockTheWall, Again

A May Day call to #BlocktheWall in Portland, Oregon. To see a roundup of events and actions happening across so-called North America, go here.

On June 17th, 2018, there was a rally against ICE’s practices of indefinite family separation and detention held next to Portland’s ICE facility. After the rally, about a dozen activists lingered in the ICE facility driveway, until one of them got up and shared the idea of staging a continuous vigil and occupation at the building, everyone set a time to come back to the building with sleeping bags and not much else, we had about 5-7 activists sleeping on the concrete that night, and before we knew it our occupation had turned into full on mass movement that sparked occupations around the country, and shut down our local facility for 2 weeks.

More flyers up in Downtown!
May 1st, 1pm, Elizabeth Caruthers Park. #BlockTheWall #OccupyICEPDX #AbolishICE #EndFamilySeparation pic.twitter.com/niucx5oZYp

— OCCUPY ICE PDX (@OccupyICEPDX) April 29, 2019

The goal of last years occupation, and the current goal of our collective is to fully stop ICE operations in Portland, you might think it would be easy to get a so-called “progressive” mayor and city council like our own to actually put in some effort to end the operations of a organization that as I’m typing is terrorizing refugees and migrant families in Portland, but sadly that isn’t the case, many anti-ICE activists like ourselves have gotten lots of support from members of the Portland City Council, backed up with zero action, that’s why we’re once again calling on the the people of Portland who stand against this modern gestapo like agency that we call the Immigration And Customs Enforcement, to demand that the Portland City Council takes action to end all I.C.E operations in our city.

On May 1st, we #BlockTheWall!

#OccupyICEPDX and other grassroots organizations are calling all anti-racist, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist and allies to join us in taking to the streets to oppose the inhumane detention of the migrant community, separation of families and to #BlockTheWall. There has been a national call to action by the #BlockTheWall network:

“Disrupt the operation of detention centers in your community. Adults are imprisoned in over 200 centers across the US. There are also over 100 “shelters” holding children captive, often in residential neighborhoods, and often unlabeled. Find a center near you and fight for its closure, hold solidarity demos outside, hold those who profit from this machine accountable. Together we can show that migrants are welcomed.”

The protest will start at 1pm, at Elizabeth Caruthers Park, we’ll be standing alongside Portland student activists who have planned to walkout of class and join us, along with various local activist and community organizations, we believe it’s time for the Rose City to yet again make it clear that we have no tolerance for an agency that’s only agenda is to tear apart asylum seeking families, if you believe that too, then we want you to take this stand with us.

#BlockTheWall #AbolishICE #OccupyICEPDX