Fourth work session.

Before we begin tonight's session, I want to thank everyone who is joining us here in person and online.

To me, that is an indicator of how deeply we all care about Hillsboro.

So again, thank you for being here.

The session tonight, the work session will go from 6 p.m.

until 6 50.

We'll break and go into city council session, which work which starts at 7 p.m.

Should we need to continue the work session after 6 50?

We will do so after the city council meeting.

Right now we'll be starting the work session, and the topic of the work session is the recent ICE activity in Hillsborough.

The purpose of this work session is to receive briefings from staff from city staff and community organizations who are working with community members who are either directly or indirectly impacted by ICE activity.

It's also for the council to ask questions of those organizations and staff and to discuss possible responses and possible response options.

To set some expectations during the work session, it is time for city council to listen and learn from staff and community organizations and again to discuss possible courses of action for response.

Please know that some actions are already in process.

I ask that you do your best to listen during the work session so we can all hear what is being said.

Know that public comment does not occur during work session, but it does occur during the city council meeting, which starts at 7 p.m.

If you would like to make public comment during the city council session, please fill out a yellow card which you can find to the back of the room to your right, my left.

Fill out the yellow card and you can give it to the deputy city recorder right there, and she will have it for the city council session, and you can have testimony during that city council session.

I'll now turn it over to our city manager Robbie Hammond.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, everyone.

So before we get into the PowerPoint point, we can have that pulled up.

First of all, just want to recognize the immense amount of stress that our community is under right now.

Hillsboro is a wonderfully diverse community.

It's one of our greatest strengths, and our employees take a lot of pride in serving everyone in our community.

We are hearing from many people about how we can help right now.

And tonight we want to share what we are doing, and we look forward to having a more discussion about what we can do in the future as well.

So with that, um, we'll start with the PowerPoint.

If you go to the next slide, I'll go through the agenda really quickly.

Uh we're gonna just uh quickly talk about some of our shared values and goals.

Uh assistant city manager Simone Brooks is going to be talking about current communications that we're that we're having, um the importance of promoting accurate information and understanding our impact of communities' needs.

We have our city attorney Chad Jacobs that's going to talk through some legal considerations.

We have police chief Jim Coleman that's going to provide uh the police HPD perspective on this.

I'll talk a little bit about city staff and what we've done with city staff to try to prepare them.

And then we're going to hear from some of our partners at the Latino Policy Council and also the Washington County Chamber of Commerce, Latino Business Advisory Council.

Once that's done, we'll open it up for discussions and questions from council.

Um, as Mayor Pace mentioned at five, excuse me, 6 50, we will break, go into the chamber for the regular meeting.

We have purposefully left that meeting very brief in terms of items so that we can hear more time for public comments, and then we'll come back into work session if that's necessary.

Um, so just I wanted to start by talking about a few areas that there are shared values.

So the city council over the past several years has used guiding principles to guide what they do and to really determine what their goals are.

Um, I'm not going to put them all on the slide because there's a lot of them.

There's the the equity statement alone, is multiple paragraphs, but I would encourage you to go and look at our website and see what it is that the council really has declared already.

And uh it's important to recognize that our council is united in wanting to help.

Uh, we have city values and goals in our strategic plan, the same thing that really show us how we are supposed to serve our community.

I I know that the council is united in their desire to support our community that's impacted by ICE right now.

And um, one other goal that the council has specifically this year is the importance of promoting accurate information.

So that's what we're gonna try to do tonight is make sure that we're sharing as much as we can, be transparent and share accurate information with the community.

So, with that, I'm gonna turn the time over to uh city manager Seymour Brooks.

Hello, council, good evening.

Um, so I'm gonna take us through uh quite a bit of information.

I'm gonna go pretty quickly because we want to make sure our community partners have time to speak.

Um, I know you all will have plenty to discuss as well, but I'm just gonna go through this.

So, in terms of our current communications, um, what we've worked on thus far is um some know your rights information at this at this year's council retreat.

Council directed staff to establish a know your rights webinar.

We worked with our community partner sour immigration legal services as the lead partner to develop that webinar, which is linked on our website.

The actual videos themselves that are in multiple languages are available on Source website, and they took the lead in terms of communicating out to other partners and community the availability of those, and then we promoted their postings.

We also have know your rights information posted at city facilities.

In terms of staff education and training, we established a ICE and federal immigration guidance for interactions.

So that was done back in February.

We are in the process of updating that now, but it is in English and Spanish, and departments have worked with their frontline staff to make sure that they understand the guidance and know how to act on it should there be an interaction, which we are not aware of any interactions directly with staff at this time.

In terms of communications, we've been trying to be very clear about our role as a sanctuary city.

So that information is also on our website.

The video with Mayor Pace and Chief Coleman was published on our website through happening in Hillsborough and on various social media channels, and I have information should you be curious later on how much traction that has gotten tens of thousands of views, which is real growth for us.

And then that particular video was focused on knowing your rights, knowing when to call the PERC hotline and Curtis Portland, Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition hotline in case you want to report ICE activity.

And so that was really that focus, and then we've also were very focused on making sure that this work session was heavily noticed.

And so this work session started to be in development last week.

And once it was come into finalization, we started getting information out, especially to make sure that people understood when they could provide public comment because we were concerned that there was some confusion about when that could take place.

So in terms of our communications approaches, there have been some questions about how do we go about getting information out.

So in Spanish, we have social media and Facebook and Instagram.

Connected A Hillsborough is our engagement channel, and then Christian Go Jutos is our email newsletter.

So those are our kind of four main methods in Spanish.

In English, we have happening in Hillsboro.

We have social media there as well, and then we have a number of cities, department specific channels as well.

Police is often able to promote information that is unique to their department, but that complements the main city channels.

And then we have just created a new dedicated webpage for immigration resources, which can be found.

We'll put the information out, but it's on our website, Hillsborough Hyphen Oregon.gov/slash community resources, which has know your rights as well as other information and connects to our community resources page, which talks about kind of food, mental health resources, etc.

So that is now developed and can be translated.

In terms of promoting accurate information, so Robbie mentioned that promoting accurate information is a council goal, and so that council goal was framed up as educating our community on city programs, projects, and initiatives with a focus on promoting accurate information.

So when we look at like what are the goals of that, what does that mean?

Accurate information pretty straightforward, which is why I put it another time, even though right above it it says promote accurate information.

But when we think about that in this context, it means to understand what it means to be a sanctuary city, and which includes the limited scope of authority that we have.

It also means making it clear to community members that we value and are prioritizing their safety.

Again, these have these are complex and overlap, and there'll be more information shared by our city attorney as well as chief to date into these, but I'm just covering it at accurate information level.

Also promoting resources, trying to be responsive.

We're trying to move away from being reactive to those things that are happening on the ground and trying to be more responsive to situations so we can be thoughtful and planful.

And so those are directions with moving moving in the direction this is a little is more of a long haul than a short sprint.

Translation has also been a priority for us.

We recognize that there's a desire to have the translation specifically in English and Spanish.

We cannot always accomplish that concurrently, but it is a goal.

When we can't do it at the same time, we work to make sure that those translations happen quickly or that they are on the web page in such a way that they can be easily translated through Google Translate, which is has its failings, but but it at least gets the information out.

And then there's collaboration, which is collaborating with partners to try to better understand how our messages can complement each other.

Do we want to promote someone else's posts?

Is does that fall within our criteria?

Do they want to promote something that we've posted?

And so those are some ongoing conversations that we'll be having.

In terms of audiences, I I wanted to call this out for council because I think there's probably an awareness of these audiences, but particularly as we get down to community, I think there could be people that we've missed, right?

These are audiences that staff have identified as people who are stakeholders who who are going to want the information that the city has, and we need to make sure that they get that information.

It doesn't necessarily mean that we're best positioned to get the information to them, which is the importance of communicating with partners.

But we also just have an internal group that we have to make sure is informed, which is obviously you as city council, our leadership team.

So that's the executive leadership team as well as department directors because we have so many unique functions within the city as a full service city, and of course, frontline staff so that they are equipped to do their jobs in as safe and as well equipped way as they possibly can.

Finally, on audiences, we have our institutional partners, so public safety that can include the DA's office, that could include the sheriff's office, the Hillsborough School District, obviously, is a partner, and then the state, Washington County, and regional partners and region by regional partners, we generally think of other cities.

We try to stay in connection with them so that where we can amplify each other's messages, we can, or when we can get clarity, and maybe somebody else is just saying it better than we are, and so we can learn from it.

And these are our opportunities in terms of promoting accurate information.

So we we started the immigration resources web page.

I think I think our web team would say you had us do a lot very quickly, and we know we can do better.

We have an extremely talented team, but this is something that we're going to continue to learn from our partners and from community members.

What are we missing?

We put the information on that we are aware of, we know that can be better.

And so this is just going to be an evolving process.

Um, Spanish language media, so TV Jams, who we have worked with previously, um, and then Telugundo Portland additional translation.

So we have safe harbor languages, so Vietnamese, Chinese, and Hindi are additional languages that we um I when we have vital documents, should be translating into as much as possible, and so that's also going to be a push for us is trying to make sure that we get that translation.

Um, and then again, I just can't say enough.

Collaborating with partners is going to be essential in getting information out and to get information back so that we can improve our processes.

And then understanding needs.

So obviously, tonight, as a council work session, this is a a it is actually not the starting point, but it is a starting point.

Um, so we do have our two community partners that will be here tonight.

I'm sure we have some who are in the room or who will be providing public comment.

So we will ask staff certainly be listening to that and and taking notes.

Um, so the work session is important, obviously, as well to hear from you council participation in CBO convene listing sessions, those actually started as early as December of 2024.

So that while this isn't new, there's obviously um heightened awareness that these relationships are just something we need to continue to build upon.

That's going to be really essential to have these partnerships.

Um, in terms of our community services grants, um, when we talk about understanding needs, we every year we have a community service grants process that uh awards two thousand two thousand that is not two thousand, two hundred thousand dollars for uh at twenty thousand dollars is the maximum per awardee, but just to give you a sense of uh some of the awards types, culturally responsive mental health outreach, after school care and essential resources, advocacy for children and foster care, housing stability, those are all things that are increasingly going to be of importance within even this context.

Um, and so that that just knowing those applications and those CBOs helps inform next steps.

We have ongoing engagement with um the Avenida Diaz work that we're doing, uh the police community engagement team does a lot of work and is out in community, and then we just have some ongoing kind of one-offs that um for an example.

We recently did a community-based organization fundraising survey, and we just we sponsored Gala's, we do sponsorships and we just put out to CBOs who have who's ever received funding.

We do sponsorships and we just put out to CBOs who have who's ever received funding.

We didn't know if anybody would ever answer.

91 organizations responded to that survey.

And so when you think about the number of organizations you may even just be aware of in Washington County, you might not have thought of 90.

So there's clearly some need out there.

And then yeah, I'll cover that and then I'll hand it over to Chad.

Tell me whenever you need that to move.

Really quick on that last slide, if we could go back just on the proposed section.

Thank you.

Yeah, if you want to cover that as well.

I do.

Sorry about that.

So there, this is actually a really important section that I just skipped right over, so I apologize for that.

So proposed, we have some initial thoughts, including a low barrier request for funding.

So we've identified 200,000.

There are options for disbursement.

Obviously, there are methods to identify what needs are and perhaps prioritize needs and advance, which is what we do with the community services grant.

We have some priorities and their scoring based on that.

There could be an accelerated process.

We already have a draft application, so we're we're trying to keep that ball moving so that we can be prepared to be responsive to you.

And then convening community-based organizations to um again, I kind of I'm harping on this a little bit, is just to gather information from CEOs who are right on the ground and can tell us what their needs are, um, both in understanding both the magnitude as well as the um the broad nature of those needs.

And then what will be helpful hearing from you is also other forms or opportunities for addressing um for addressing and understanding needs, under understanding needs in particular.

I did want to question well, hang on one second, counselor.

Do you want to hold questions to the end, or would you answer them now?

No, yeah, all right.

Um counselor Sogato was first and then counselor all care.

Yeah, thank you for the input on the proposed session.

Is this a proposal that the staff is bringing forward, or is it a proposal that the council is proposing?

Where does that proposal come from?

Um, this proposal the these are very much proposals for understanding the needs as opposed to proposal for related proposals for next action.

So, for instance, the low barrier request for funding.

If we were to do an initial round of funding, it would be a way to get essentially solicitations from proposals from organizations that would help us understand.

So that's just one of clarification.

I did you didn't?

Yeah, and I was working with Robbie on it.

Okay, thank you.

Councilor Alcair.

Yes.

So one comment that I have is good work on the engaging.

Um to provide the resources that we have on our site and for networking and collaborating, most of all listening um to what um Latino leaders are doing and what they would like for the community and um what's helpful.

Um the other thing I want to say is um for the for people to understand.

You mentioned a couple, but can you give examples of uh another partnership and a regional partnership so that these people can understand who we're talking about?

Is that any any type of partnership?

Um in terms of funding or related to city engagement.

Let's do that.

Okay, so for instance, we have worked with Unite Oregon, um, which I both if I remember correctly, and I because I don't want to misquote, but I believe it is um they are organizing with Adelante Mohevis as well as Centro as part of Oregon for All.

We actually entered into a relationship with them as they did some work with Bag and Baggage initially, and then we also funded them for um a leadership program as part of our community-based organization, community engagement capacity building grants.

So our community engagement manager works really closely, particularly with those grant awardees to continue to build capacity in community to do the engagement that people may not trust us to do, and so those relationships are really important.

Thanks.

And I just want to acknowledge that some of those folks might be here in the room with us.

So thank you.

Thank you, Robbie.

Yeah, good.

Good evening, Council uh Mayor Chad Jacobs from the City Attorney's Office.

So I'm going to try to provide a bit of a 10,000 foot overview of some of these legal concerns.

Um, we've got a lot of information to provide to you tonight.

We've got community organizations who want to save some time for.

And certainly after the council meeting, if you reconvene or later date, we can dive into these issues more deeply as necessary.

But there are a couple of issues that I just definitely want to touch on at that 10,000 foot level.

The first is, and Simone sort of alluded to this, is what it means and doesn't mean to be a sanctuary jurisdiction.

Because that term sanctuary is a bit of a misnomer.

And historically, we think about sanctuary as providing protection.

And the sanctuary laws in the state, and since 2017, Hill Crow has uh publicly announced that it would be a sanctuary jurisdiction, even though under state law we are automatically a sanctuary jurisdiction.

We took the additional step to say the council did through a resolution saying we want to be a sanctuary jurisdiction and recognize ourselves as that.

And so the council did that in 2017.

But what that means is just that we're going to comply with state law.

And what state law says is that we cannot use city resources to support immigration enforcement.

We don't use staff time, we don't use city property, we don't use other city resources, we don't share information with ICE.

And so that's what it means to be a sanctuary jurisdiction in Oregon.

It doesn't mean that we can actually provide protection for individuals, and nor does it mean that we can actually stop federal agents or ICE agents from coming into Oregon or coming into Hillsborough and taking actions.

And the reason that we can't do that, and it goes to the second point is our limited skill of authority for actions taken by the federal government is something called the supremacy clause.

And so in the United States Constitution, there's a supremacy clause, which basically says that to the extent that there is a conflict between federal law and state or local law, federal law prevails, which means basically that to the extent that the federal law is saying you as a no individual may interfere with a federal agent conducting their duties, and there is a law that says that, and it's a criminal law.

Um, we can't then therefore come in and say ICE, you can't do these things because that would be interfering and violate federal law.

And so the supremacy cause basically precludes us from taking those sorts of actions.

So what we sort of need to do is walk this fine line of balancing between we're not going to share any information, we're not going to support NICE, but at the same time, we cannot affirmatively interfere or stop them from doing their jobs because that would violate federal law.

And so that's sort of some of the restrictions that we have.

But I think it's really important to make sure that the public understands, and Simone has been doing this since I believe last November when we met with the school district, uh, to explain to uh individuals that you know we have limited authority here, and we really being a sanctuary jurisdiction doesn't mean that we can provide protection to people, and we just don't want people to think about that misnomer and think that you know, oh, if I come to City Hall, I'm safe, you know, that's a safe environment, it's a safe place.

We wish we could do that, but we just can't provide that protection, and so therefore we just want to make that very clear to the public as we have these conversations that there are limits on our authority and what we can actually do.

Um, other things I just want to touch on real quickly is that there's a lot of ideas floating around, and there's a lot of really good ideas and a lot of good ideas that I think people really want to support, but at the same time, as a city, we need to think about things in this sort of a larger perspective and what it means, you know, from the city to be able to do things and sort of legal limitations or legal liabilities that they may create for the city.

So, to the extent that there are situations where staff is saying we need some more time to look at that and need some more time to think about that and get back to you.

It's not because we're not supportive of the ideas, it's not because we don't think that they're good ideas, it's because that we really need to think about the various legal issues that come into play with that, as well as the political issues and economic issues that are associated with that.

So please don't, you know, whether it's member of the public or members of the council, don't think that because we're saying let us think about that come back to you, that it's not that we're not being supportive of the idea, it's just that we do need to do some additional analysis, and we need to think about these things in the broader context of what that means for the city and its and legal liabilities associated with what the city can do and can't do.

Um along those same lines, it's important that we think about our duty not to create legal liability for our employees.

So, to the extent that we are asking our employees to engage in certain actions or not engage in certain actions, we need to make sure that we're not asking them to do something that could potentially create legal liability for them.

And I would normally say that that is not a huge concern.

Historically, you know, uh public employees they act in the best interest of the community, they're doing their jobs, we're not really worried about them being arrested.

But with this current presidential administration, they have on numerous occasions threatened to arrest and prosecute uh local officials and uh local employees who engage in certain actions, especially actions that may interfere with ICE agents.

I don't know if anyone saw the New York Times article that was out today about the city of Durango and some issues going on there.

Um, very similar situation where the first response from the federal government was if anyone tries to prosecute an ICE agent, we're gonna turn around and prosecute them.

And that's the situation that we're dealing with.

And so while I may be comfortable as an individual taking on that potential liability, it's very difficult for the city in a management position to tell us employees, you have to go do that as part of your official capacity and take on that potential legal or criminal liability.

So we need to be careful on that regard and thinking about what we're doing for our staff and what sort of position we're placing them in.

It doesn't mean that people can't do that in their individual capacities on our free time.

It doesn't mean that you know I may choose to do something like that, and that's absolutely fine.

But as sort of management and giving staff direction, we need to be careful in sort of what we're telling staff that they need to do or can't do to make sure that we're not putting them in a perilous position.

Hold up, Chad.

Yep, Councilor Salgado.

So can you elaborate a little bit more?

You shared one idea of or one example of a proposal or an idea that might not be within the legal limits of the city.

Are there other examples that you could share for everybody else to know about so that you know they can avoid sending in those requests?

Um, I mean, I guess I would say I wouldn't discourage anyone from sending in any request because every request is worth looking at.

Um, you know, and but you highlight sorry.

No, but you highlighted that there's proposals being sent that are not in the scope of the city.

So I would like to hear what those examples are and what have you heard so far that are outside of what the city can do or that would put the city at risk.

Yeah, like you had just mentioned.

Yeah, I guess I don't, I I apologize if I if I made it sound like I was saying that we had looked at specific proposals.

What I was was what I was attempting to convey was that as proposals come in, if our response is we need some more time to look at that, it's not that we're saying it's not that our initial reaction is no, that's a bad idea.

It's just that we need time to sort of analyze these things.

And that's all I was saying.

It's not a specific proposal.

So to this point, you haven't received a proposal from the city council or from the public that has made you react in that way to the proposal.

No, I mean, there's I you know, I guess specific proposals, I would say no.

Um, you know, there's there's lots of chatter and and discussions, and you know, Chief Coleman will be able to speak to this a little bit as well.

But you know, what can the police do as far as coming in and intervening and stepping in between an ICE agent and someone else?

And how, you know, can the police protect the community in that way?

Okay.

And that's a specific situation where the answer is likely no.

In most situations, we cannot do that because the federal government has laws that preclude us from interfering with ICE agents doing their jobs.

And if we tell an officer to go ahead and do that, that's placing them in the line of criminal prosecution and liability from the federal government.

Yeah, can I just ask if when you get those proposals and if you get them, can you share them with the rest of the council so that we're aware of those of those requests that are being made?

Sure, yeah.

And and uh again, I didn't mean to convey that we've already gotten those kinds of proposals.

It was is more in line of our discussion later this evening and things that may come up during public comment or things that you all may be proposing.

And if we sort of say, okay, let's look at that and come back to you.

It's not that we're trying to say no, it's that we're trying to say we just need to like analyze that in more detail.

Yeah, thank you for the questions.

Sorry I wasn't clear in the first place.

Counselor Alcare.

Yeah, I just want to caution that um we can go ahead and put out there what it is that we we think we would like to hear from public, but we cannot limit what public wants to say less.

And I believe that we should listen to what it is that they want to say.

I think that what you're recommending is just in the future if a potential proposal comes up, that we need to be uh mindful and planful about that.

You said that much better than I did.

Thank you.

Um yeah, absolutely.

You know, as I said to Congress Salgado, I think everyone should propose whatever they want to propose.

And my point is just being that if they're the reaction saying we want some more time to be mindful of that and think about that, that's not should not be taken as a react as a negative reaction.

It's just you know, we need to be mindful, just as you said.

So uh, real quickly, the last two points I want to just briefly mention is that there have been some discussions about emergency declarations.

I know that the county has an emergency declaration.

So I just want everyone to be on the same page about what is an emergency declaration.

And so emergency declarations historically are situations that mostly arise out of um, you know, physical danger, uh, property damage, you know, earthquakes, natural disasters, public riots, and those situations where there's a need to take immediate action to respond to the incident that's going on.

And the legal effect of the emergency declaration is that it frees you up from some of the typical processes that the city has to use, such as public contracting.

So, for example, if we have an emergency declaration in place, that allows us then to ignore, temporarily ignore our public contracting rules and then allows us to enter into contracts to get goods or services or whatever we need to address the emergency at hand.

In addition, when you have an emergency declaration, it also frees you up from some of the budgetary processes that we have to follow.

So for example, and I haven't spoken to anyone at the county, but in looking at the county's emergency declaration, the way I read that is that they're looking at an emergency declaration to be able to free up some money immediately without having to go through their normal budgetary processes.

We don't need to do that in Hillsborough because we already have some money that's available to be able to expend or appropriate for these purposes without having to go through the emergency process.

So if the council wants to do some sort of public statement or passive resolution, talking about what's going on in the community, our support for the community, condemning ICE's actions, whatever you want to do, you can certainly do that.

And you can say that there's an emergency situation going on.

But I just want to clarify, you know, that that sort of uh nomenclature that we're using as an emergency declaration isn't necessarily, I think what people are proposing isn't necessarily what that would normally be for the city.

And so when you look at our city code and emergency process and what all that means, we wouldn't necessarily need to be following that if you wanted to sort of make some sort of public statement.

If there's some reason you feel that we need to have emerging declaration, that we need to be taking some action that we couldn't otherwise take, let us know and we can look at that.

If we need an emergency declaration, we can certainly bring that back to you.

But as right now, um, based on the flexibility that staff has created, we don't know that there's actually a need for an emergency declaration.

We think we can do everything that we're talking about doing without actually having to pass an emergency declaration.

There's a couple questions.

Counselor Sinclair.

Yeah, Councillor Harris.

Thank you so much for thank you.

Um addressing emergency declaration.

I think it's important, as we've learned over this past week, through the numerous conversations, uh inquiries councils had that we create a process and understanding what that is for a special meeting and versus an emergency meeting and what that process is.

Because I think it's important when as a body that we know uh if if a counselor submits whether it be a suggestion and they feel what they're seeing as an emergency or means to call for a special meeting, we need to have that process in place, understanding that the city recorder can share that request from our council as to not uh breaking OGEC rules and all um members of the body have awareness of what that counselor is requesting so that we can make a decision as a whole.

Sure.

Counselor Harris.

Thank you.

Question, Chad, on the emergency um declaration and the benefits that would be there.

I understand the money is there, the 200,000 that's been year marked is available.

We don't need the emergency declaration.

We all talk about contract public contracting laws.

And the question for you is if there's no emergency and rebound by public contracting laws of that 200,000, are we limited to how much we can give to any one individual?

No, grants are not subject to the public contracting laws.

Okay, thank you.

Yep.

Great.

Keep rolling.

Oh, Councillor Avery.

Um, so for the emergency declaration, could could you maybe offline send what is what it enables this the city of Hillsborough to do.

I understand about procurement and the budget free, but I there if there are other things I would like to understand.

Sure.

Yep.

No problem.

Okay, then the last thing is considerations about reporting.

And I'll just touch on this very briefly because I know that the Chief Cola may get into this a little bit more.

But um, you know, one of the things that we've been talking to staff about and just the general community about is you know, people have a constitutional right to record police officers engaged in their official duties in public.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, and everyone absolutely has a constitutional right to do that.

Uh, we just want to make sure that people are safe in doing that and making sure that they're aware of these other restrictions, such as the criminal interfering with ICE agents, because we just really don't want whether it's staff or members of the community uh to be put putting themselves in situations where they're either being arrested by ICE agents, uh, having excessive use of force against them by ICE agents or otherwise subjecting themselves to criminal liability.

There's been reports all over the country of um, you know, car accidents and shootings and other situations related to ICE agents.

The situation I mentioned in the New York Times today with the City of Durango was a situation where someone basically got thrown down a hill by an ICE agent.

So there's a lot of safety concerns there.

And so um, you know, to the extent that there's any sort of trepidation from city staff about advising people about recording or doing those situations, it's not because we don't think that there's a lawful or legal right to do so.

We absolutely support that.

It's just because we want to make sure that people are doing it safely and being considerate of um them not putting themselves in dangerous way.

And so, you know, I know the chief has some additional thoughts about that, so I won't go into too much more detail about that.

But that's really just sort of the information that we've been providing.

Um, and then from a legal perspective, the city just also wants to be careful about sort of the direction it's giving to the public because if we're telling people, oh yes, go out, go over here and engage in these actions, and then they get hurt doing that, then that creates legal liability for the city.

So you know that's that's the lawyer being the back eye, and I apologize for that, but yeah, that's what you pay me to do is look out, look out for the city's legal interest.

So with that, I will be done.

I'm gonna call a little bit of an audible.

Um, just based on the time, I want to make sure that we hear from our two uh uh CBOs that are here today, uh, both the Latino Policy Council and the Latino uh Business Advisory Council from the Chamber before the the end of this part of the meeting.

So why don't we go ahead and move to that section first and then Chief Coleman, if there's time um for the regular meeting, we can do that, or otherwise we'll we'll have you share your presentation uh after.

So if we can have the uh Latino uh business uh policy council uh representatives come up and they uh want to give them some time come on up.

Good evening, members of the council, uh staff members.

Um thank you for inviting me here today.

My name is Oliver Cunha, and I am president of Latino Policy Council.

Uh just a uh brief on who we are.

Uh Latino Policy Council is a network of uh experienced uh professional Latino community leaders that uh work together to um interrupt systems of injustice and racism, uh, so that all members of our community can uh feel safe and have access to uh resources and can thrive.

So that is who we are in a nutshell.

Um I am here to share some uh um provide an update in terms of what we have been hearing from our community um often on, and uh these are very busy times for us all.

Um I understand, so um I can speak for hours, but I will be brief.

So um, as you all know, um, the increased presence of ICE in our community is alarming.

Um we uh are growing very concerned as a Latino Policy Council uh that members of our community are reporting that um the increased um iCE activity is uh causing uh terrorizing people, is causing a lot of fear, agents are detaining people, uh, even people that have legal status, and some cases citizens, um they are uh taking IDs and documentation and not and sometimes not returning them to uh people.

Um we feel that uh as a Latino Policy Council, we don't we understand uh law and uh we understand that our uh police officers do not collaborate with uh with uh with iCE, but that something needs to be done.

We feel that state and local police should respond to calls when people are reporting abductions or arrests without warrants or when excessive force is being used.

Um iCE agents are showing up in our community in plain clothing, unmarked cars, refusing to identify or to present a warrant, and they are terrorizing our community.

We would like to propose that police, if police cannot interfere with ICE at a minimum that they should be documenting every incident that they become aware of.

How do we require our police officers to do that?

Do we need to consider a local ordinance?

Something to think about.

Like I said, is growing increasingly concerned about the safety of our community, and we would like not just our elected official officials but our leaders to take action and to respond to incidents.

We are not asking for saviors, we are asking for an orderly society where the dignity of every individual is respected.

And that is all that I have for the thank you.

Thank you all for sharing that.

Um, we also have uh Joanna Para from the Latino Business Advisory Committee from the Chamber if she wants to come up.

Just press the button in the middle when the light turns red, you are alive.

Uh good evening, Mayor Pace, City Council members, city staff, and amazing community.

Thanks for being here tonight.

My name is Fernando Lida, and I have the honor of serving as chair of the Latino Business Advisory Council in partnership with the Washington County Chamber of Commerce.

I'm here tonight as both a community member and a representative of our local small business community, people who are the heartbeat of our neighborhoods and our local economy.

Last week, our council hosted a community list listening session at MM Marketplace, where more than 60 Hispanic small business owners gathered to share how current immigration related related fears are affecting their livelihoods and well-being.

What we heard was deeply human and deeply concerning.

Many told us they are afraid to leave their businesses, not only because of potential immigration enforcement and deportation fears, but also because of a broader concern about safety, income loss, and a growing sense of community mistrust.

The atmosphere of uncertainty has led to fewer customers, interrupted operations, and a constant state of anxiety that weighs heavily on both business owners and their families.

These stories reflect a community understream, but also one rooted in resilience and determination.

And this matters to all of us.

That's why the Latino Business Advisory Council in partnership with the Washington County Chamber of Commerce is working to foster ongoing listening sessions, trust building initiatives, and safe business campaigns to rebuild confidence and community unity.

But we cannot do this alone.

We recognize and we deeply appreciate the city's ongoing efforts to support small businesses and to foster inclusion and safety for all residents.

Building on that foundation, we invite everyone, city leaders, organizations, CBOs, neighbors alike to continue standing together.

Let's strengthen the partnerships that we build trust, ensure that clear bilingual communication and nurture spaces where people feel heard, supported, and safe, especially during these moments of uncertainty and fear.

When we choose unity over fear and compassion over silence, we not only protect our local businesses, we strengthen the very foundation of who we are as a community.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Fernando.

Joanna.

Hi, good evening, Mayor Pace and Council members, city staff.

We thank you for your time and for your ongoing efforts of partnership and collaboration this evening.

We're here, the chamber has stood hand in hand with our Latino Business Advisory Council as well as uh we the chamber having a director of Latino Business Development Engagement and Outreach for over 20 years.

So the chamber has been very involved within the Latino community and Latino businesses in Hillsborough.

Um building trust through connection is what we do is wanting to bring unity and collaboration.

And with that, we partner with LBAC to create this space because a lot of businesses what they want is to see trust, right?

During these times, we start losing the trust within maybe organizations, the trust within maybe leadership.

And we know that this or this community has built a very great trust within the police department, the work that has been done there with outreach within the city, the work that has been done within different departments of the city.

And to build that trust, it begins when people want to feel seen and heard.

And through that, we've um made time to get with businesses and hear from them and hear their stories.

However, a lot of the feedback that initially, and we just opened up space.

And to be honest with you, we went in thinking initially it was all going to be yes, the fear is there on immigration.

That I'm not going to take away from that alone.

But a lot of the feedback that came from the vendors is they want to be here.

They want to have their businesses be opened.

They want to continue to work.

They want to see people.

However, right now, with such fear that their biggest community of support and vendors and customers are Latino-based.

What their biggest ask right now is come support, come support, shop local, support the community.

And with that, right now is the chamber.

Which we thank you, Mayor Pace for coming in and speaking on behalf of the city with what's going on and where city stands and all of that information, which will be out.

We're also doing helping a lot of businesses with their marketing component, you know, instead of pushing out marketing to other communities, you know, not everybody in our community obviously speaks Spanish, but letting everybody know what businesses we have, all the small markets, all the vendors, all the artisans, all of that.

So we're um launching a campaign to um where we it's about shop small and stand together and collaboration with other entrepreneurs.

But one of the biggest feedback that I'm gonna be honest with that was heard is a lot of the fear mongering, to be honest.

Did their feedback was yes, a lot of it is done in good faith to help others.

Hey, immigration is here, this is where they're at, but a lot of the thing is misinformation and miscommunication that is going out on social media by others that is creating people to stay home, and you know, not all Latinos are undocumented.

There's many layers to this.

There are those that are undocumented, there are those that are creating a lot of fear.

So, within that, it's to that we all need to stand in unity and solidarity, right?

There's so many layers to this going on in our community, and aside from immigration, the SNAP benefits and all of that.

And what we want to do is come together and bring unity and collaboration amongst everybody else.

We don't want to um duplicate efforts in any way.

What we want to do is bring unity amongst other organizations and collaborate within the chamber.

We have our partners, we have a lot of our members that are wanting and willing to help, and with the work that we do, and alongside with the Latino, the director of Latino Business Engagement.

Um, we want to hear from our vendors and be there to support them.

Um bringing in this report, we do want to thank you overall for your time and for allowing us here to speak.

And um, we do want to know that we are there to help and support in any way that we can with um outreach efforts in regards to the community.

Thank you, Joanna.

I have a bit of a comment.

Councilor.

Um, thank you for that report.

I want to say that it's good that the businesses are connecting with you and having an opportunity to let you know what they're feeling.

I also want to acknowledge the work of Nancy Lopez, who's way back there in the room, who's been doing a lot of work with businesses as well.

And she has been working to also up with their voice and to this council for our awareness.

So I want to acknowledge that.

One last thing I want to say, and I'm sure I'm gonna get a lot of flack for it.

Since April, I have not been encouraging gatherings of my community because I don't want them to take a risk showing up for something that we create that they may get detained at.

There's no way to guarantee people's safety.

And um, I know that's sounding like I want people to hide.

I don't want people to be seen.

I'm on the board of being a star.

Those families are scared, those staff are scared.

People are afraid to come out of their house.

They're afraid to go to the store, they're afraid to go to work.

And ICE has been at their apartment sites.

They've broken windows.

They tried to run down one of our citizens who was documenting what they were doing.

So people are terrified.

And so whether or not they want to take that risk is up to them.

I'm saying I'm not encouraging it.

Please be mindful about that.

And if you're gonna do it, please collaborate with Centro Culteral and with Adelante Mujeres when you decide to do that.

Thanks.

Christian from the also from the chamber.

I'm sorry, one moment.

Sorry to interrupt.

I do want to add to that, and I understand Counselor I don't care.

However, I do want to be mindful too of those that have businesses that aren't seeing the other the other part.

When events do get counsel, and we're not allowed having events right now, but when they get canceled they call us the businesses, that their income is based on what they make at an event, their income and they want to attend.

And I feel that yes, it is very important to have the awareness.

We all know immigration is here, and for those to make a call based on their own individual um situations and circumstances, but also counseling things, we are also hurting that income base and economy of those small businesses that are dependent about you know that being at that event, or right now what I'm speaking of is these that have front that have a business.

We can't ask them to close.

They don't want to close their business.

A lot of them are even sleeping in their businesses because of fear of leaving and and yeah, being stopped by immigration, but they just cannot afford to close down their business.

And so they have to work and they need an income.

And what they need right now is they're not even asking for funding, they're asking for customers, they're asking for the support of customers.

So asking the community not to, what we're asking right now is for the community that can show up, that can shop, that can be out, go out and support those small businesses that need to stay open, that need to survive to stay open, even though they're Latino-owned businesses, but they need those customers.

So the call out and the call to action is for all of those that can be out, go out and support, shop local, stand with our community in solidarity and purchase instead of going to Safeway and Albertans, go to Sucasa, go to the market across from Sugasa, shop from there.

Um instead of buying gifts at the mall, maybe this holiday, go to Eminem Marketplace or by Sinos and Buy Giftos.

That is the call to action because that is also money that is staying within our city and within our economy and helping those businesses stay alive and open and allowing them, those families to stop putting their own personal income to just stay afloat.

That is the difference of what we're asking in a call to action.

Thank you, Joanna.

Uh, in the interest of time, um Christian, how much how many how much time?

Okay, go for it.

Alrighty.

So um, good evening, uh, major um council members.

My name is Christian Javier Vázquez Rivera, as you all know.

Uh I serve as the director of Latino Business Business Development and Engagement for the Washington Academy Chamber of Commerce.

Um, I'm just gonna uh echo uh some of the sentiment that Fernando and Joanna are bringing.

Um we have been uh engaged with the Latino community with the specifically with the Latino business community for a while now.

Um I believe our our our role has been um yeah, goes goes way back, and um very deeply uh when uh all this uh immigration uh rumors even started, we're going back at the beginning of the year.

Uh we weren't we're out there visiting, uh visiting, listening, uh and sometimes even sometimes even uh being present in some spaces that are like really scary or scary for some folks within our community, right?

Um the recent ICE activity has shaken a lot, shaken many, right?

Not only because of the enforcement concerns, but uh now I'm echoing what Joanna mentioned, but because it really disrust disrupted the trust, safety, and the sense of belonging that keeps our local economy vibrant.

Um last week uh or yeah, uh last week, uh us chamber and the Latino Business Advisory Council, we decided to go and do uh and create our community listening session.

And Olivia, to your point, um it's not it wasn't in a form of protest or a reaction, and we we saw it as a little bit uh as a pause, right?

Uh we created a space that uh with every as we could done like um with all the safety considerations, I guess.

Uh we we assume just like you we shared that uh the belief that if you're a risk of being picked up, like we we we truly don't want you to come and participate, right?

Like uh no don't want you to come in person, right?

Um, but we have created and opened different uh ways for folks to be able to share their words and elevate what they have to say because it's important uh for us to listen to those who are um affected or impacted, but uh are not willing or able right to show up because it's it's scary out there, right?

Um with that said, um a lot of the uh things that we heard were some of it was uh really sad, uh some of it's really scary, but uh for the most part, um the sentiment of the business owners is we need the customers.

We need that our community stand up now, and when they are talking about community, they're not referring to our Latino community.

We're 20, 18% of this of this city, right?

Um we we still have 70, how much?

Um something percent uh of folks in community that 24% is Latino.

Uh 24 of Hillsborough.

Oh, awesome.

Yeah, even better.

Um 76% 7% uh of our community is still uh able to show up and in support, and I guess like that's the claim that we have uh from the business community uh to our city and uh our folks here.

Uh the other thing is the call for unity.

Like uh there's there's a lot of um different approaches of a lot of organizations doing really awesome work in community, uh work that some organizations are not equipped to do.

We're not equipped to do all the work that's going on out there.

Um we don't we can, it's not our lane, right?

Um, but definitely um we want to create or understand what's how our other organizations are supporting, because we get a lot of folks walking to the chamber.

We get uh we are in a lot of spaces that we hear, and um and people come and and and talk to us about like different needs and and opportunities and stuff that they really want to get uh they really want to see happening in our commun in in community or specific needs that they have, and uh it will be really awesome to be in uh in collaboration with these organizations that we can just send them, right?

Um we still we we're also we also play the role of connector in community.

Um we cannot connect if we don't know what's going on.

And um we are we have really awesome relationships with a bunch of organizations, but there's others that are kind of like siloed on their work, and yeah, it's just a call for unity and and and yeah, just that.

And I don't want to take any more time.

I feel that um Joanna and Fernando have brought up uh really good points of like what we uh have seen and and heard in our community.

Um I don't know if we have already sent the report, but we'll be sending it.

If not, and uh thank you for having me and for listening.

Gracias, Christian.

Um it's uh 6.58 p.m.

And so we're going to now go into the auditorium.

So we're actually gonna physically get up and move into the Shirley Huffman Auditorium.

Mayor Pace, the auditorium is actually at Mac happening right now.

Okay, so you can stay in this room and listen and watch.

We've also plumps the audio out into the lobby.

So you're welcome to stand out there or pull your chair out there, and then if you sign up for public comment when the mayor calls your name, you will need to go over to the auditorium to provide your comment in there.

Thank you.

Thanks to all of you for joining us this evening.

For translation services, please use the QR code on the poster in the left side of the room or on the front page of the agenda.

So again, the QR code is over there uh on the left side of the room.

If you would like headphones for Spanish translation or any other translation or need assistance accessing translation services, please see the table in the lobby and staff are able to help.

To ensure all audience members can hear the council discussion, I'm asking that bullhorns and other sound amplification devices that disrupt the meeting are not allowed.

So please don't use them.

We want everyone to be heard.

To ensure all audience members can see the council discussion, signage with sticks or polls will not be allowed.

So please don't hold up your sign and block the view of any other audience member.

Anyone who disrupts the meeting, including cheers or boos or chants or physical disturbances, will be asked to stop their activity.

And in the event of continued disruptions, we'll be asked to leave the meeting.

To begin this meeting, I invite you to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the United States to the Republic, which is under God with liberty and justice.

Okay.

Aubrey, may we have a roll call.

Mayor Pace?

Here.

Counselor Alcair.

Councilor Sinclair?

Here.

Councillor Case?

Here.

Councillor Harris.

Here.

Councillor Anvery?

Here.

Counselor Salgado.

Here.

Moving to item.

Thank you very much.

Moving to item two proclamations or presentations and appointments, we have a proclamation for Veterans Day, which is coming up on November 11th.

I'd like to call up the Veterans EAG, the employee uh assistance group, uh Leanne Babcock for the Veterans EAG.

Is she Leanne, you here?

Come on up.

Any and Leon, come on up.

Okay.

So at the City of Hillsborough, we have a ployee affinity groups or EAGs, and they represent different organizations or different people in all their walks of life and how they represent.

Right now we have Leanne and Leon, they lead the Veterans EAG here at the city.

I'll read the proclamation and then I'll present the proclamation to you.

And if you have any words you'd like to say, you're welcome to do that afterwards.

Whereas on the 11th month, 11th month of the 11th day at the 11th hour, we celebrate Veterans Day to recognize the service and sacrifice of our military personnel.

Whereas the United States of America has been involved in multiple military conflicts and campaigns impacting every generation of veteran, and whereas those veterans who served on active duty in the Guard and Reserve made significant contributions toward the preservation of this nation.

And whereas the sacrifice performed by these millions of brave Americans have demonstrated the deepest sense of service, and whereas the City of Hillsboro is thankful to have a working group comprised of organizations who help plan and will execute Veterans Day celebrations this year.

And whereas we celebrate veterans from every branch of the military in Hillsboro and Washington County who are nominated as honored veterans.

And whereas Veterans Day has become a significant part of our American heritage as we recognize military personnel, and whereas the nation and the free world are eternally grateful for the contributions of all American veterans to advancing the cause of an honorable world peace.

Now, therefore, I beach Pace, Mayor of the City of Hillsborough, to hereby proclaim November 11th, 2025 as Veterans Day, and encourage the public to honor those who have served and those currently serving to preserve the principles of justice, freedom, and democracy.

Thank you so much, Lucius.

Thank you.

Well, thank you, Mayor Pace.

I really appreciate this, and for all the veterans and family members of veterans and those that you know that are veterans.

This is a really, really cool thing.

On Veterans Day this year at the Veterans Memorial over where the Washington County fairgrounds are, we are having a Veterans Day celebration.

So want to invite everybody to come over there and show some support and just celebrate Veterans Day with us.

Really appreciate this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Leon, and thank you, Major Babcock, Leanne Babcock for being here and for representing the Veterans EAG.

The next item on the agenda is public comment.

If you are here in person and wish to speak, please fill out a yellow card and hand it to the Deputy City Recorder.

The yellow cards can be found on the left hand side of the room.

When I call on you, please join us here at the table and speak into the microphone so those on Zoom can also hear your comments.

Because of the translation tool, community members can speak in their language of choice, and the city recorder can display the translation on the screen.

We have 11 persons registered to speak virtually, and the deadline to register has now passed.

If you are unable to sign up to speak prior to the deadline, you are always welcome to email your comments to the City Council at any time of day.

We've also received several pieces of written testimony from community members who are not able to attend this evening.

You should also know that the amount of public comment cards that we've received tonight will be over three hours of public comment.

I've spoken with the entire city council and we are here for it.

We want to hear from you.

We are on Zoom and uh you can get that information from our Deputy City Recorder or online on our website.

If you can't stay and you want to go home but you still want to listen.

This is called public comment because it's time dedicated for you to inform the City Council about your views.

It is not public debate or discussion.

And so what that means is we will not be entering into a dialogue with you.

You will have three minutes to speak, we will listen, and then the next person will speak.

We ask that everyone show respect for all the speakers, and that is being quiet, not yelling, et cetera.

So we can all hear each other.

That's the purpose of this civic auditorium.

The council will not be entering into a dialogue during this time.

However, the city manager may direct staff to follow up with you regarding your comments or questions.

You should also know that if you have a public comment and somebody says the exact same thing you wanted to say, you can say pass.

You don't need to repeat it.

But if you want to come up and say it again, you are more than welcome to do so.

We share the uh you should know that we share community updates in our happening in Hillsborough email newsletter and our Creciendo Juntos Spanish language email newsletter.

You are welcome to sign up to receive those updates.

In the next email newsletters, we plan to share some of the questions that we will receive tonight as well as the answers to those questions.

In addition, on the city website, you will find a resource to help you know your rights and what it means to be a sanctuary city.

You should also know if you just came for the meeting.

And you may be asking questions that have already been answered in that work session.

We will do our best to have a city staff tell you what the answer was, or you can go on our website and listen to the work session after this meeting.

You should know that comments are going to be limited and have always been limited to three minutes.

I'm a stickler on that, so at three minutes, I will stop you so the next person can go.

Before we begin, on behalf of the city council, I wanted to thank everyone who has taken the time to attend, to sign up for public comment, or submit written testimony.

We appreciate your willingness to participate and share your thoughts.

So we'll begin hearing from our virtual commenters.

So they will not be here in person, they will be online and it will only be audio, no video.

Then afterwards, we will start with the in-person comments.

Again, this is the stack.

They are in the order in which they were received.

Virtual commenters, uh, we will start with Andrew Spencer.

Mayor Pace, I do not see an Andrew Spencer on Zoom, so we can go to the next person.

Moving to Pratik Ves Vasudev.

I also do not see pratique.

Moving to Mary.

I have when they registered, I don't have a last name, but I believe it's Mary Lucy.

So if you're Mary Lucy, I'll allow your you to talk now.

Okay, moving to Elizabeth.

Abolish ICE.

That's her full name.

So that was the name given.

We we might we're doing online.

Yeah, we're doing it.

We're doing online comments first.

Yeah, we're doing online.

Yeah, thank you.

All right, so no Elizabeth.

I have a number of Elizabeths online, but I do not have an a specifically Elizabeth Abolish ICE.

Okay, well, let's move to the first Elizabeth online.

There's like eight of them.

Just go for it.

Okay.

Counselor Case is feeling special.

Okay.

Oh.

Uh one of the Elizabeths just raised their hand, so I am assuming that is Elizabeth Abolish Ice.

Okay.

Yes.

Am I on now?

You are on, Elizabeth, and you have three minutes.

At three minutes, I will stop you, and the next person will go.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Um hi, I'm Elizabeth.

I'm a proud Neuroday Burger immigrant rights activist, born in the US and raised in both the U.S.

and Bolivian culture.

I'm here today to encourage you to step up for our immigrant brothers and sisters.

Because like all of us in Hillsborough, they are a very important part of our community, both economically and culturally.

After all, they make up 24% of the city's population.

And yet many of them cannot safely participate in our beloved community.

It breaks my heart to see how many people are terrified of leaving their home.

Because they feel that they may not return to the family.

On a daily basis, children and humans fly awake, trembling in fear, with tears in their eyes and they may never see each other again.

This can sometimes mean that children are not going to school, nor are not able to do their job because ice is a constant threat.

Support the economy or gag in community because of ice being there.

Ice covering up the faces in order to kidnap people and ice going into sanctuary that churches and hospitals.

Do not call 911.

And a market is out of pure fear of being kidnapped.

This very much said it is not good for the economy of Hillsborough.

As people are tied in their homes, trapped like mice, not able to leave.

Especially BIPOC community owned businesses, and it's not good for the economy of Hillsborough because people are not able to go to school, which is basically meant right.

And then there was no one left to protest.

And that is why I'm here to set up for the immigrants.

The last thing I want to um remind you of is that there was a group.

Let me look it up.

I think they'll call.

Yes.

And I want to encourage you to call them if you see ice.

They will create a rapid response to that location.

And um will come and try to help immigrants.

That number is 888.

622510.

Again, 888, 622, what five one zero.

Thank you very much, Elizabeth.

Thank you very much.

I'm gonna stop you there.

Okay.

Next person is Ryan Bozarth.

Ryan Bozarth passes.

Thank you for yelling that out loud.

If you'd wish to pass, yelling it out loud is very helpful and allows us to move to the next speaker.

Next speaker, Stephanie Adam Santos.

I do not have a Stephanie Adam Santos now.

Moving to Rob Rogers.

I do have Rob Rogers.

Can you hear me?

We can.

You have three minutes.

Hi.

I you know, I listened to the meeting earlier, and uh that combined with the statement that uh Mayor Pace and HPD put out.

I I'm hearing too much of what the city can't do and is unwilling to do and is afraid to do.

Uh and I think so much of this is coming from the city operating under the idea that this is normal times.

The federal government is not uh abiding by the law.

A year ago, if I put a mask on and kidnap somebody, the police would do something about that.

If I do that now, the police are saying that they won't do anything.

We have unmarked cars, uh unmarked masked men kidnapping and assaulting our community members, my neighbors, and the HPD is just standing by while they miss teenagers in their parking lot are allowing them to uh terrorize schools and hospitals.

I I think it's absolutely unconscionable that uh the city of Hillsborough is trying to hide behind legality when the federal government is not in any way.

Uh this is the first year of this administration.

This is gonna get worse, and this community is terrified, and the community is gonna start feeling like they have to protect themselves if the city cannot, and that is not what we want.

It is gonna lead to a lot of people getting hurt, and the the HPD needs to manage the situation.

They need to be a front line to at the very least identify federal agents, seek warrants, and make sure that the people that they're taking uh at the very least makes sense.

Uh you know, they're taking people that have their documentation in hand, they're throwing it on the ground and taking these people across state lines in any other circumstance that would be uh absolutely insane, and it is right now, and you need to do more, and you need to do it soon before this gets even more out of control.

Thank you for the time.

Katie Katie Zinno.

We have can you hear me?

There we go.

Hi.

Hey Katie, we can hear you.

You have three minutes.

Perfect.

Um, hi, I'm a community member, and I also um happen to work with a large neurodivergent population.

Um a swim school, and some of the stories I'm hearing from families is that they're basically having to go into hiding.

Um I don't even know what world it is that we live in right now, but I I grew up in Oregon most of my life, and what's happening today is terrifying.

You know, um people are afraid to go to church, they're afraid to go get groceries, they are scared to drop their kids off at daycare.

Um they're not going to doctor's appointments.

I mean, it's it's gotten so bad so fast, and as a community, we we feel like sitting ducks, we don't know how to help each other, and I feel like the council, the city, and the state need to do a lot more.

You know, how do we protect ourselves?

I understand that there are laws and regulations that we must follow, but this is a completely unprecedented time.

Um I mean there I I heard a story recently about a preschool class that has to have a backup evacuation plan.

Preschoolers.

I I can't even fathom it.

And w we're here, it's happening, and I commend you for all coming together and and even talking about it because I think it's so important that we talk about it.

But we need we need actionable steps right now.

Um I've been following pretty closely online.

Um to a lot of the local groups, and in the past few days, the increase of violence, um, assaults on anybody.

I mean, it's not just illegal immigrants, but it's people that are bystanders, it's neighbors that are being attacked.

And I don't, in what world has this ever been an instance where you walk down the street, see someone getting attacked, and nothing happens.

We just let it happen.

I watched a woman, a video of a woman that was her running in, her car was run into by an officer, and then they went and dragged her out by her feet down the street, kicking and screaming, and then turned around and charged her with assaulting an officer.

This is we have to do more.

I mean, and not only in what's happening right now, but the level of trauma that we're embedding in the youth and the next generation.

This is this is gonna take generations to unbeat.

Um I hope that we can come to some quick resolution at the very least learning some key skills, teaching some co-regulation skills and um de-escalation techniques for community members as we go through this.

Um thank you for your time.

Next up, we have Shirley Ariza Santella.

Hi, can you hear me?

We can hear you, Shirley, and you have three minutes.

Thank you.

Um good evening.

My name is Shirley and I sushi and was born and raised in Hillsboro.

My family, like many others here, are immigrants who have helped uh the city grow into the vibrant and diverse community that it is today.

I am a community member and a former YATS student speaking in support of a declaration of a state of emergency.

Pillsboro is facing a crisis many black and brown people foresaw but are now living with no indication of an end in sight.

Immigration enforcement has terrorized our community, not only immigrants, but even U.S.

citizens.

We have now seen the violence of ice agents and the traumas resulting from kidnappings on children, families, and neighbors.

Glass windows broken by ice off 10th Avenue, abandoned cars running idle at the scenes of abductions.

These only offer peak into the trauma of fear and the loss of a loved one.

Many in this community in our region are living right now.

Even if we can look past the cruelty and inhumanity, there is no denying the economic effects that is happening on our minority-owned businesses and households where a parent has been kidnapped.

Our small business economy is beginning to crumble as patrons decide to stay home for safety, and we know all of the economic ripples that follow.

I've been lucky enough to work with motivated individuals and what started as a small group of neighbors, which has emerged into a full-fledged rapid response network to deliver what is essentially ad hoc humanitarian aid in the absence of appropriate government response.

We are delivering boxes of food and essentials for those who have had a loved one in detention or who are afraid to even leave their house.

This kindness is one that has been remarkable.

We know our neighborhood mutual aid group is not meeting the vaccine of the community, which is increasing as ice rates continue, and the absence of a source of income for families grows with every day.

We know kids that are too afraid to go to school and families who have not stepped foot outside of their homes since the start of this crisis.

The humanity and dignity of the emigrant community is being tested each day, and this crisis is only grown as SNAP benefits have lapsed.

I want to be clear that the kindness and generosity of our community to come together has been an incredible thing to witness.

It's admirable and a beacon of hope of our resilience, but it is unreasonable to think that systemically we can be the long-term solution to the challenges facing our neighbors.

This is a moment in our history where we as a democracy are being tested, where the federalist separation of local and state government is being put to the test.

I know that the city of Hillsboro has a very difficult decision to make.

Now is a time where you can place teeth on those values.

Will you all take action and stand up for what you believe in?

Ask for these two things for the state of an emergency and to bring much needed resources to our neighbors.

And I thank you so much for your time today.

I have the consulate of Mexico in here.

Yes, that one.

Thank you, Mayor.

Can you listen to me?

We can hear you and you have three minutes.

Good night, Mayor.

Uh good night city council, staff, and community member.

My name is Sofia Ariola.

I'm the council for protection on legal affairs, and I come here tonight to speak on behalf of the Council of Mexico and a head council Carlos Gesna.

I deeply appreciate the space and the time.

And I just want to comment about an important tool the government of Mexico has.

My comment is in regard, obviously, of what has been shared previously.

The important tool I want to share with you tonight is the 24-7.

365 days, uh specialized call center.

The government of Mexico can offer to all the community of Mexicans here in the United States.

Please use this important tool.

This important tool can allow us to do a follow-up of all the cases.

Anyone who is a Mexican can call to this phone number no mattering the day, no mattering the hour.

And the important thing is that whenever they call, the call center will give us a report of the call, and we will be able to do a follow-up with the family.

Uh that is here in the United States or in Mexico.

That is all my message.

Thank you, and I really appreciate the time.

Dr.

Lynn Jacobs.

Dr.

Lynn Jacobs.

Hi there, can you hear me?

We can hear you.

You have three minutes.

Great.

Hi, Mayor Pace, counselors.

Thank you for that for allowing me to speak to you all tonight.

I um see that I don't have to tell you where I live.

I live in Hillsborough.

Um, I have been here in Washington County for 27 years and all of those years working at Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center.

Although I speak, I work for them, I'm not speaking for them or um as any official capacity.

I um I'm a board certified family physician, and I care for people from birth to grave.

I've lived and worked serving the most needy and vulnerable members of our community for all those 27 years.

Um I've worked at Virginia Garcia during stressful times, 9-11, the Trump, the first Trump administration, the COVID pandemic, and I have seen our community, our patients, our staff with whom I work shoulder um uncertainty.

But I have never experienced anything like what we have gone through since January of this year, and nothing compared to what we've gone through in the last few weeks as the onslaught of ice has descended on our community.

Um, the recent stepping up of immigration enforcement activity in Hillsborough, Beaverton, Cornelius, and Forest Grove have utterly halted our community.

We are switching visits in person to telemedicine.

We are having increasing no-shows.

People are going without their medicines without food, without access to health care because they are fearful of leaving their homes.

Every single day I speak to patients and I see them and I cry with them in the office about the stress that they are under, the stress of their family members, not only because they are fearful of ice, but also because they have no access to food, they can't go to work, they can't go to the grocery store, um, and they feel completely locked in.

Um I'm seeing the effect on their health from uh many illnesses that many of my patients suffer from, including diabetes, hypertension, depression, and other mental illness skyrocket.

Um, the controlled um those people that were controlled in the past are unable to control those things because they aren't able to leave their homes and the added stress that they're experiencing is greatly affecting affecting them.

Um the other day we had uh ice peering through the windows of our Hillsborough location.

Our entire organization in Washington County basically came to a halt.

We were frozen and unable to attend to our patients as we scramble to try and figure out how to keep ice out of a sensitive location.

And I tell you, the the level of stress on our employees on our staff and patients is palpable and untenable and intolerable.

And I really call on all of you to do whatever is within your power to help us as a community fight back against a federal government that is not following laws.

Thank you so much for your time.

Okay, that's all the comment we have virtually, and now we will go to the public comment cards that have been turned in today.

So I will call you up.

Um the first couple I'll call you up together.

So Rhett An Ansley and Dina Felds.

So please come up and take a seat.

So Rhett, you are first, so you go first, and then Dina, you go second.

There is a button in the middle of the console in front of you.

When you depress that button, the light turns green, and you know you are alive to not only the people in the room, but the people on Zoom.

You'll have three minutes to speak, and then we'll go immediately to the next person.

And when you're done, Rhett, I will call the next person up who is going to be Ryan Bozarth.

And so we'll just keep it moving as fast as we can.

I also ask a group.

I appreciate you are passionate.

Um, but when we're doing three hours of testimony, if we could not clap because that interrupts people, let's do snaps.

And that way we can all hear the speakers continue, and we can get to the next speaker as well.

Rhett, go for it.

You have three minutes.

Good evening, Mayor and Counselors.

My name is Reverend Rhett Ansley.

I'm here because I'm the pastor at Hillsborough United Methodist Church, and our neighbors are experiencing an emergency.

This isn't only about ICE abducting people, but an even larger hostility against the most vulnerable among us the unhoused, the immigrant, the poor.

The Oregon Food Bank reports that one in eight people and one in six children face food insecurity.

Families in Hillsborough are choosing between rent, medicine, and groceries, and this is not abstract.

This is our neighbor, these are our neighbors, our co-workers, their parents at our schools.

SNAP benefits are shrinking for many and ending entirely for some of the most vulnerable.

The Oregon Department of Human Services estimates at least 3,000 Oregonians will lose eligibility under these changes, with thousands more seeing reductions or terminations at review.

That means more empty pantries and more families turning to city resources and nonprofits to bridge the gap.

In our neighborhoods, fear has become a daily companion for far too many.

Parents are afraid to take their kids to the park or even drive to work.

Children worry that someone they love might not be home when they come home from school.

Workers stay silent while they're mistreated because speaking up might draw attention.

People skip medical appointments and community events because they don't feel safe being seen.

This kind of fear tears at the fabric of trust that holds a city together.

It isolates families, it silences voices and keeps good people from reaching the help that is meant for them.

So many are asking what we can do to help.

We've seen so many groups in the community come to the aid of their neighbors.

I understand my responsibility to those in the congregation I serve, and I know that you're aware too that you have a responsibility to your constituents.

So tonight, my ask is this.

I am a third generation biracial Latina woman.

I am also a mother of six adult brown children and a grandmother of four brown, beautiful grandbabies.

I want that to just sit in for a minute, and I want you to think about the ripple effect that's happening before our eyes.

We have 31 locations in the Tri-County area, and some of those are residing in Hillsborough.

We are serving the most vulnerable populations, including our BIPOC community.

Today I'm here to share the experience we are having as a collective, the trauma that is being induced by the fear we live in today.

As our government officials stand by, we are looking over our shoulders, wondering when we are next.

We are impacted in a way that will impact generations to come.

Yesterday, two adults directly connected to us were picked up and detained while their children were in school.

Family members went and picked them up to tell them that their parents were not coming home.

This morning, when I walked out of my home, ICE pulled up to the curb and parked two houses down from my home.

I had the opportunity to remind Homeland Security in our neighborhood.

These are not criminals that are being detained.

These are hardworking providers who have contributed to our county for decades upon decades.

Today I have to look around the room and wonder who can I trust.

How do we move forward from this terror, this nightmare of a societal trauma that will leave its footprint on any humane individual?

Thank you for allowing me to share and offer my support in the community.

Thank you.

Next up is Andrea Camacho or Andrea Camacho.

Kathy, you have three minutes.

Thank you, and good evening, Mayor and Council.

Thank you for letting me speak.

I am supporting that Victor Cruz Gomez be released and returned to his family.

I have known the Gomez family for over a year.

They are very positive and respectful neighbors.

What has happened to this beautiful family is tragic, and what is going on in our legal system and our government is very concerning.

Why was an innocent man detained who had legal paperwork taken from his wife, children, and grandchild, home and business.

The cost of an attorney has been substantial for this family.

Then add $3,000 to pay for a bond that wouldn't be granted due to Victor being out of the jurisdiction where he was detained.

Yes, this family is doing whatever is needed to get their father back.

Victor has granted a bond in was granted a bond in Portland, but the judges in Tacoma are not granting bonds due to Victor being out of their jurisdiction.

To make the process even more difficult, no impossible.

The Trump administration is firing judges who do not rule in their favor.

I just don't understand.

Well, it is inhumane.

This must change.

Thank you for listening.

On deck, we have Robin Mann.

Andrea, go ahead.

You have three minutes.

Hi, my name is Andrea Camacho.

Thank you for your time and for being here today.

I am here to be a voice for those are for who for those who are too afraid to be heard.

I want to apologize in advance if I get too emotional.

These are just very heavy times for my community, and this is not easy to talk about.

Lately I've been noticing a change in these members, and I've noticed fear in their voices.

People who used to come in smiling, now quiet and nervous, looking over their shoulders.

I've seen families debating to go to work to take their kids to school or to even seek help all because they're scared.

While I understand that the city of Hillsboro has certain restrictions when it comes to helping these communities, I do want to remind you that these people who are coming into our city are coming with a we will mindset, regardless of what the laws are.

I am close to an individual who was stopped by ice, who has residency here.

She sought asylum in this state, who was told, how is it possible that you have residency with that horrible effing English?

Which is just heartbreaking that she left a traumatizing situation just to come back into this country and be traumatized all over again.

I'm not here.

Like I said, I understand restrictions, but these are people.

And while I appreciate the people who have mentioned the importance of these people in our economy, do remember that they are not just numbers either.

These are people, these are fathers, mothers who are all being affected.

In my community, there's a saying that says, and what this means is I've got your back and you've got my back tomorrow.

So please, any of these communities that have been in your life that have impacted you in one way or another, had your back at some point.

Please do the same and have their back.

I thank you so much for your time and for listening, and I hope this stays with you.

And thank you who ever to everybody here in this room who is using their privilege to speak up for those who cannot be heard right now.

Thank you.

On deck, we have Yadira Tayez or Tellez and Robin, you have three minutes.

Um, a few days ago in my neighborhood, just a few blocks from my home, which is just around the corner here from the uh civic center, a young man was abducted by masked men.

They pulled up in unmarked cars and were simply wearing vests that said police.

They showed no ID, no warrants, nor any proof of authority or government agency affiliation.

I ask, how is this okay with anybody?

Why does this not strike fear and terror into the hearts of all of us, regardless of one's ethnicity or background?

Additionally, in response to the abduction in our community of Victor Cruz, I'd like to go on the record as an advocate.

Our family knows Victor and considers him a friend.

He has worked for us for several years.

He's been in my home many times.

He's a respected member of our community and deserves far, far better at the hands of our government.

Lastly, I just want to echo the commenter who earlier said that telling us what the city cannot do is just not good enough.

On deck is Dirk Knutson and Yadira, you have three minutes.

Hi.

Rob Harris, you don't know me, but I went to school with your daughters.

And even though we went to the same school, we live completely different worlds.

I've lived in this county all of my life, and this is the first time that I've ever been fearful of living here.

It's not because of homeless people, it's because of the lack of action that our government officials have done to protect the city.

You guys have allowed people to come in and terrorize the city.

They are harassing people for for recording them.

They are intimidating people, they are that they are detaining, and it's more of a sport instead of an order.

It's a human response to avoid what makes people uncomfortable.

And that is sadly what's happening right now.

Why?

Because it doesn't affect affect you guys.

And I ask, think about if it were your family.

How fearful, because you would you would be acting.

Even though it shatters me, I have to watch those videos every single day.

It reminds me of what is happening in this city.

These are people's family, and these are people that that will have to live through this trauma.

A lot of us have trauma and we have access to mental health.

Not everybody does.

I am a nurse, and I'm the only Latina that works in my department.

I'm the only one that has to prepare themselves before they have a mental breakdown and then go back to work.

My co-worker who is married to a Mexican man, she told me how last month she went to Home Depot, and a stranger that parked next to them looks at them and does this as if pointing the gun.

It is now people are okay with being racist simply for somebody who exists.

They use the term illegal for somebody that is a human being, not the act of committing a crime.

And we have and and another thing is it's the community members that have come together.

They're the ones that are self-funding to protect their communities.

They are the ones recording, they are the ones telling the people about their rights.

And with all due respect to the lawyers, you guys talked about legal limitations and legal liability.

It is my experience that lawyers find legal loopholes, they find those same clauses to win their cases.

This is your case.

Protect your community.

It protect your community, everybody.

What I haven't seen done is how can you educate everybody when you're being detained?

The power of knowing your rights and being silent until you are able to get a lawyer.

The power of having access to mental health, the power of funding, the power of safety and security.

I haven't seen any of that from most of you.

So with all due respect, there is way more that you can do.

Your lack of action by our elected officials speaks louder than anything you do or say.

This is happening again.

And it's happening.

Thank you.

On deck is Red Wortham and Dirk, you have three minutes.

Thank you.

Let's be clear.

We are in a state of emergency.

We don't have to talk about it anymore.

It's here.

What's happening to this town and our communities is far worse than anything we face with COVID.

In fact, there's no time in history that something like this ever happened, except in the early 1940s when our Japanese families, the handful that we had, were ripped away from our Hillsborough community.

And I can tell you the leaders back then reacted in a much stronger way.

And I know you guys are in a terrible position.

So the time for action is now.

No disrespect to Chad, but the time for litigation and laws and codes is still here, but the time for the people is also here.

I'm gonna read you a quote.

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation.

We must always take sides.

Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.

Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

Sometimes we must interfere.

When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become very irrelevant.

Where wherever men are w and wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must at that moment become the center of the universe.

And so this matter in our town for all of our people who are suffering so many is now here.

Here we are at the center of the universe.

On a technical matter, I wish Chief Coleman would have spoken.

I appreciated the chamber being allowed to speak, but that was somewhat inappropriate to give them that much time when we need to hear from our police chief who is capable of great things, as is HPD, as is all our view.

I have a technical question on the flock camera system.

Five thousand cities in this country have flock cameras that ICE has a back door to.

I am asking them to do appropriate actions and draw the line at interference where they have to do that.

Sometimes people are going to have to be put in a difficult position.

As a journalist, I could tell you I have no less than 10 death threats.

I now have a gun by my bed, which I don't like doing.

But I am here for everybody in the community, like all of the next person.

Next person up is Red.

So on deck, we have Jackie Nelson.

And Red, you have three minutes.

Hello.

I've been closely following the actions and more importantly, inactions of many of our elected officials.

I was extremely disappointed by the joint statement of Beech and Jim, making it clear to the people they serve that protection and service were not part of their plan.

Parroting what they cannot do, what they will not do, and what they are unwilling to do.

To be clear, I very much understand the supremacy clause, the laws, the ordinances, the rules, the policies, and risk.

I served this county for over 20 years as a sheriff's deputy.

I stood up against a sheriff who routinely violated Oregon sanctuary laws, forcing notable changes within our community.

In the work session earlier today, Mr.

Jacobs oversimplified these laws to merely not allowing public collaboration or information sharing.

There is more to these laws.

Passing an ordinance or resolution prohibiting federal authorities from using our public properties to include parks and schools for their command centers and staging for incidents that are not normal intended use of our property.

Public facilities that are not to be used in the state of Oregon for federal action.

Two, pass an ordinance or resolution to promote, encourage, and support private businesses in prohibiting ice on their private property.

Include a toolkit with recommended signage, trespass forms, and education on how to enforce these.

Number three, pass an ordinance or resolution requiring ICE to wear visible marked uniforms, uncover faces, and ID upon request.

Number four, follow this up by requiring Hillsborough Police Department to respond to all emergency calls where unmarked, plain clothes strangers, are assaulting, kidnapping, and destroying property.

If those unmarked people subsequently ID themselves as ICE to HPD, then they can clear the incident with by report and document the incident and subjects involved.

We know that HPD cannot jump on our ICE authorities, cannot prevent them from doing things, but they can set a standard, they can document it, and they can support the idea that follow-up will occur later when the time comes.

It is a significant failure of our law enforcement to ignore calls for terrifying, dangerous armed takeovers of cars, businesses, and people by seemingly private armed thugs in masks.

I have seen many with green vests and vague markings, but I've also seen many with a black poncho with blue jeans, a plain black cap, a blue jacket, and jeans.

Not a single marking at all.

I do not expect law enforcement to try to enforce these laws or ordinances and ICE conduct, but I do expect them to be sure our public resources and public safety are their number one priority.

We will be using our voices and voting to ensure that our public servants keep their promises.

On deck is Vera Pursley and Jackie Nelson.

You have three minutes.

Even we as citizens are living daily in fear of what can happen.

We have an amazing toddler who loves to go on runs with her papa, ride her bike with her papa, and go to the park with him.

What will happen to her if her father is stopped by mass men when she is with him?

Well, she'll be taken a loan away from him if he is detained.

We know that these men and women are not following the laws or upholding people's rights.

I am angry and appalled that everyone on this council, including Mayor Pace, should have had the forethought to know that this would be coming to our community.

We have seen what is happening in Chicago and surrounding areas for months, but that you are just holding this meeting now to address this issue.

This should have happened way sooner.

Mayor Pace, I voted for you in confidence that you would be able to represent our community with all I have seen.

I need less talk and more action.

Counselor case.

Your silence regarding what is happening to the families and the community that you serve speaks volume.

Children in our community are being directly impacted.

Teens at my son's high school are being chased by ice vehicles while driving their own cars to and from school.

Children are having barriers with attending school because of what is happening.

And we all know the impact right now is greater than ever before because of the current food and security with SNAP benefits being canceled.

I expect you all to do something.

I can't help but think about how many people have or will be taken by people impersonating these masked men because you guys are not doing enough.

Do the job that you were elected to do.

I should not have to remind my husband to take his driver's license with him when he goes to check the mail or take out the trash.

Do something.

On deck is Bridget Cook and Vern, not Vera Vern, sorry about that.

You have three minutes.

Good evening.

Hey Vern.

Aver and press that button in the middle when the green light turns on.

Try it again.

Okay.

Good evening.

Oh, there you go.

Okay.

Good evening, City Council and Mayor Pace.

Thank you for allowing our freedom of speech this evening.

Born here in Hillsborough, 1958.

From day one, everyone knew the DC regime would want to move the goalposts, including stifling freedom of speech.

Every day, ICE is flouting the laws across the country, showing disdain to fellow human beings.

Having Hillswell PD officers standing as spectators watching teen girls getting maced as they were exercising their First Amendment rights is reprehensible.

Silence from the city demonstrates complicity.

Oregon revised statutes 181.820 section two essentially says that those poor Hillsborough PD officers are allowed to be standing there as paid spectators while federal officers are doing anything related to immigration enforcement.

Related to this from Hillsborough's own PD policy, which is available to us, the public 24-7 on the HPD public portal in section 409.6.1 is states any request from federal immigration officials for assistance related to immigration enforcement shall be directed to a watch commander.

The Hillswell PD watch commander will decline the request and the communication or request be documented.

The documentation shall be routed through the chain of command to the chief of police or the authorized designee.

This means if your police officers were requested to be there, even for a civil standby, they are supposed to decline the request.

And the request will be documented.

I hope there is a paper trail for this ever since I set up camp in our city.

Violation of the HBD's own policy along with the Oregon revised statutes could greatly undermine the city's ability to defend itself in civil action against the feds when HBD is enjoying in any civil actions.

History has shown us it will not be kind to perpetrators of mass lawlessness, those that stood by and showed complicity to lawlessness, and those that ignore the established rules of law and codes of moral conduct.

If our better angels prevail, this federally funded source of mayhem will be removed from our towns and order restored soon.

But it will take the places like our city of Hills Road to do an about face and draw a line in the sand.

Thank you again for allowing my freedom of speech this evening.

Another call for Bridget Cook.

Oh, there you are, Bridget.

Okay.

Next up is Dr.

Ted Moffitt.

Ted, you're on deck.

Bridget, you have three minutes.

Uh yeah, push that button in the middle there.

There we go.

There we go.

You're all set.

Go ahead, Bridget.

Wonderful.

Um, I want to thank all of you, elected officials as well as the city staff for making this opportunity for the community.

And also want to thank uh the community that is organized to bring this to the fore to call for this emergency because these are, as we all know, and as we've been hearing dire times.

Um, while families are breaking down emotionally and economically, ICE is breaking laws.

Um, and I just want to mention five.

There's some debate about is ICE really breaking laws.

It's pretty clear the violence, the not identifying who they are, the tricking uh our immigrant community with false statements, confiscating IDs, and um denying uh access to legal counsel.

Um I want to just take a minute to note that um Centro Cultural and Adelante Mujeres are part of the Oregon for All uh statewide coalition, and we have been designated the rapid response coordinators in Washington County.

Um of course we don't do this alone, we do this with the full community, and there are multiple people out there who are organizing.

Um, but just know that you can reach out to Centro and to Adelante Mujeres to help coordinate.

We there are very limited resources, and so we are dividing and conquering in a sense, and Adelante Mujeres is managing the piece of prevention, so that's training of know your rights, um, Migro watch, uh family preparation for um filling out the family plan packets.

Centro is really taking on that incident response, um being on the ground, uh tracking tracking those signal chats.

And then together we are sharing the work of post-detention, which includes uh for families, uh resources, mental health support, as well as legal aid.

So just wanted to share that.

Um just by end by saying that this these are not normal times, and in abnormal times, abnormal times, uh, we have to create a new rule book.

And so I think that's what we're inviting the the city to take seriously to think about what does that new rule book look like?

We don't have the answers, but I think together we can come up with those answers.

So thank you.

On deck we have Marcel Kale Ikini and Dr.

Moffitt, you have three minutes.

Did you get my two pages that I had passed the director distributed?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Beyond?

Yeah.

Okay, now for something completely different.

I'm here to talk about the Planning Commission.

I am a member of the community and living here in Hillsborough for many decades, but I'm also a member of St.

John the Baptist Church, which has a development application before the uh planning commission review authority.

The reason I'm here for over a year, I've been trying there's a standard in the development code, which I believe we qualify under, and there's an interpretation difference that I have with the development code.

What you have before you is two statements.

One is the the code of the of uh what's written in the code for that exception, and the other statement there is what is being enforced by the planning commission.

I have exhausted all the remedies within the code to seek remedy for this misclarification.

The planning director has not responded to any of my inquiries.

He has remained silent on this matter.

Merely he's deferred the this thing to one of the planning commission members, who has now responded to me clearly and unequivocally, that really I ask for your clarification.

Are lots developed below the minimum FAR non-residential FAR standard may redevelop?

Is that the same as non-residential lots developed below the minimum FAR standard?

That change of one adjective and where it's placed is a huge difference.

And it's forcing us to spend tens of thousands of dollars on consulting fees to try try to meet a code standard that's not applicable to our development.

I have been voicing this since last December.

I finally got in writing a week and a half ago from the Commission why they're denying that we're not exempt from this standard.

This is unacceptable.

It's far easier to correct a wrong before the harm has been caused.

Please speak to the planning commission, clarify for them, because I don't believe the planning commissioner is going to come to seek to you as he's requested to do under the code to seek clarification when there's any ambiguity about the interpretation of the code.

Tens of thousands of dollars, six months plus of work is a redesigner thing.

Because the planning commission says, hey, we have to get exhaustive relief because we don't want to build 100,000 square feet of building.

We merely want to build 30,000 square feet of building.

That's what this is over.

Therefore, they proposed to us to build for the city a trail which would cost us on the roll between 30 and 60,000 as compensation for public benefit to meet a beta standard that we're not obligated to meet under the code.

Thank you.

Next up, Barbara Nelson and Marshall.

Am I saying that correctly?

You are, thank you.

Uh you have three minutes.

Thanks.

Mayor Pace and Hillsborough City Councillors.

My name is Marshall Kalecini.

I am a mother, a daughter, and I'm here to speak not just for myself, but the children in our communities who are scared that they will come home from school to the to their family deported.

Every parent and neighbor in our community posting on our neighborhood alert, the sightings of ICE in our community, and every soul being hunted by a system that has forgotten what it means to be American.

I'm raising two children here in Hillsborough, and they are growing up in a city and state that claims to be a sanctuary.

But sanctuary is not a hashtag or a press release or a performative tweet.

Sanctuary is action, it is policy, it is protection even when the cameras are off and no one is watching.

I am a from a family of immigrants.

Not one, not two, but three.

My family, my father's family came to Hawaii from the Philippines, where the Marcos name still echoes with the weight of dictatorship, of silence and stolen features.

My mother's father came from Ukraine, a land now under siege but never broken.

And my grandmother's family came from Okinawa, a people who know what it means to be erased, to be misnamed, and to be told they are something they are not.

We are a mixed plate, not just of food, but of history of struggle of resilience.

We are the children of people who crossed oceans, not for comfort, but for courage.

They came to build something better, not just for themselves, but for us, for our children, and for our future.

And now our neighbors are being kidnapped from their homes on their way to picking up their children from childcare, not because they broke the law or because they are even criminals, but because they look different, because our skin is darker, because our names don't roll roll off the tongue of someone who has never left their zip code because their accents don't match the narrow manufactured idea of what American is supposed to sound or look like.

ICE is not here to enforce immigration law.

If it were, they'd be in courtrooms, not doorsteps.

They'd be following due process, not dragging people from home and kidnapping our neighbors.

This is not immigration enforcement.

This is racial terror.

This is state-sanctioned violence.

This is the face of fascism, not in some far-off land, but in our backyard.

This is un-American and unconstitutional, so we are here to demand more.

We demand courage, we demand that you use your privilege, your position, your power to protect the people you were elected to serve.

So the actions that I suggest is to codify our sanctuary city status into law.

No more empty promises or loopholes.

And I never thought I would say this, but work with the Washington County Sheriff and local police so they know their role to ensure they are protecting our residents, not partnering with ICE to deport them.

Unlock funding for impacted families, real sustained resources for legal defense, for housing, for food, for mental health, especially as Trump continues to target our nonprofit organizations.

And our city attorney talked about limits, and we need to be real and recognize that this administration does not care about limits.

We don't have limits, we have ineffective, outdated policy, and it's and if this is our framework, we will continue to leave.

Thank you.

On deck, we have Alan Guthrie and Barbara Nelson.

You have three minutes.

Good evening, and thank you for being here, and thank you for taking the time to listen to all of us.

Or I guess it's known as ALRP, automated license plate recognition video surveillance system.

I understand they do use that in the city of Hillsborough and in Washington County.

Are you aware that they are partnering with the Department of Homeland Security to track license plates?

Um can you assure the citizens in in the city that you are not partnering with them?

Um can you assure that just like the city um in Auburn, Washington, that found out it was unknowing this was happening, and they shut that system down.

So I want assurance from the city that they're going to do the same thing.

Furthermore, our Latino and immigrant community does not feel safe to shop.

We all know that.

You've heard testimony tonight.

They're not eating at restaurants.

They're empty.

They aren't taking their kids to school.

I walked to Minterbridge the other day, and they're afraid.

I talked to people standing on the corner.

The sporting events are being canceled.

They just canceled soccer games over the weekend.

You call it a sanctuary city.

The very definition of sanctuary is a refuge or safety.

No one here feels safe.

I am a middle class white woman with privilege in this city, a business person, and I've been trying to help the Latino community.

And I've been trying to find out where these people are staying.

I called a Marriott Hotel today, and I want to tell you what I was told.

Okay.

When I called, I was put on hold.

When they finally came back, they said, I can't believe you waited on hold for this when I asked them if they were housing ice in their hotel.

They said, I can't believe you waited on hold for this.

And we take numbers, and when you're on hold, I hope you know that your number can be traced.

I see that as a direct threat.

And I called my representatives.

I didn't call the police department because frankly I don't trust them.

I called my representative, I called my two senators, and I called the mayor of Beaverton.

Now you need to do better.

What I see right now is window dressing and a lot of talk.

And I know each one of you.

I've lived in this community for many years, and I've interacted with each and every one of you.

Enough is enough.

These people out here need to feel safe.

The businesses need to see economic growth.

And I don't care if you take that 200,000 and you disperse it between the Latino businesses, you do something.

I've had it, and there needs to be action.

Thank you.

Thank you.

On deck, we have Ingrid Solaris.

Ingrid Solatis is on deck.

And Alan, you have three minutes.

Good evening.

I've lived in Hillsborough my whole life.

I'm seven years old.

I remember please uh be closer to the mic, sir.

Sorry.

Thank you.

I remember a lot as a child uh when, because it's not too long after World War II.

I've seen plenty of videos about Hitler, and I know how they take over.

And they don't take over from the top down.

Or we don't solve that from the top down.

We solve it from the bottom up.

We have got to go up against all of this.

I'm at the point, I live out in the country.

You know, I'm scared.

I'm scared for other people as well.

Uh if ice comes to me and wants to take me away, I'll kill them.

And I'm in it, and that's because you know what?

They're trying to abduct me.

And I have the right to protect myself.

And if they come to my house and they want to do that, fine.

You know what?

I'll meet them with a shotgun.

And that's just how I feel about it right now.

And if you guys don't support this community that I have lived in for 70 years by bucking up and doing the right thing, which is going up against this monster who was taken apart our democracy.

And just right in your face it is.

Not even, you know, all these people, they need to go, you know.

And if you gotta get the guts to stand up against them, and if you don't, then the set of civilians will.

I'll go freaking mark march on Washington if I have to.

And this time it will be for a good reason.

Not just because I'm upset with some of the policies.

He doesn't have he is a he is a child and he and he just does things because he's vindictive and evil.

And if you can't see that, boy, you better start learning something because you know I've seen it.

I have seen I've seen African Americans being hosed off by high pressure hoses, you know.

I am sick of it.

I am sick of the racism and sick of people that won't do anything about it.

And that's just about how mad I am, you know.

And I am I have never see this black eye.

That wasn't from a fight.

It's from Choppin' Wood.

I have never hurt anybody in my life.

But I tell you, when a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand soldiers have died for this country, I'll be right there.

You know.

I never joined the military, I never had to, but boy, I'll tell you, this is it right here.

And I've got to do something.

And if I have to organize people to go freaking mark what march on Washington, or hey, how about us abduct these guys?

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Ellen.

Next, next up, we have CJ Carver.

So on deck, we have CJ Carver.

Pass?

Okay.

Next up, we have Daniela Gregorio.

Uh Ingrid, you have three minutes.

Yes, please.

Good evening, Mayor Pace and Council members.

My name is Ingrid Solares.

I live in Hillsborough and work at Adelante Moorez as program director of health equity programs.

That includes Clínica Esperanza down the street.

I'm here tonight as a community member and as somebody who has lived through the fear that many of our immigrant families are facing today.

I was born in Guatemala during a time of political crisis.

I remember the day when soldiers, people who we were taught to trust, turn their weapons on its own people.

I remember the fear that took hold of our community, how it silenced laughter, how it made people disappear into their homes.

That kind of fear doesn't fade.

It stays in your bones.

Today I see the same fear reservacing right here.

Families in our community are living in constant anxiety about immigration enforcement.

Many of our participants are afraid to leave their home, afraid to take their children to school, go to work, or even seek much needed care.

The fear of being separated from their loved ones is overshadowing everything else.

And this fear doesn't stop with the people we serve.

It also impacts our staff, many of whom are part of mixed American mixed status families.

We come to work carrying the same worry that our participants do.

It's hard to concentrate on day-to-day tasks when your heart is heavy with questions like, will my family be safe today?

Or what will happen if somebody that I love doesn't come home?

This constant state of fear takes a toll.

It affects our ability to focus, to feel safe, to fully participate in the life of our city.

But even through that fear, we continue to show up because we believe in our community and in the power of compassion and connection.

I share the story not to bring despair, but to remind us of our shared responsibility.

Fear divides, compassion restores.

We are the kind of city that protects families that ensures every child feels safe in their classroom and that reminds parents that they are valued and seen.

I ask this council to continue standing with immigrant families and to support family uh to support policies that keep people safe, that protect access to essential services regardless of immigration status, and that build trust rather than fear.

Thank you.

On deck on deck, we have Kayla Garcia Morales and Daniela, you have three minutes.

Good evening.

I want to start off by saying that I am no public speaker, but unlike many others, I can't afford to stay silent.

What is happening around our city and many others should not be normalized.

We are witnessing firsthand the 1940s all over again.

Families are being torn apart.

Our neighbors are too scared to go outside to buy groceries, pick up their child from school, and even go to work.

We shouldn't have to hide to live our lives.

Getting racially profiled in the streets is becoming more and more common that children fear to go outside or fear what will happen to their parents.

No child at any age should be scared to leave their home or worry about what might happen with their siblings if their parents were to be detained.

We are ripping away their childhood, their innocent for an issue that could have been preventable if you council members and mayor would have done would have taken action sooner.

These ICE agents are kidnapping and injuring us.

They are seen carrying weapons, mace, and tactical gear for these so-called criminals.

But they are targeting innocent workers, pedestrians, and families.

As many of you have seen, they are using excessive force when they make these arrests as well.

How many more stories, more videos, more pictures do you need to finally do what's right and call for a state of emergency?

We are human beings like everybody else, no less than any other person in this country, but we are being stripped away from our rights, from our humanity daily, and no one seems to blink an eye, not even the officers that have sworn to protect us.

Our Hillsborough police department has shown nothing but disgrace to our community.

They know we are being harassed, physically and verbally, yet they refuse to do their jobs.

We wouldn't have to be more brave.

We shouldn't have to be more brave than our trained officers.

If they aren't defending us, who will?

Who can we call and get help if not the ones who chose to be officers who chose to protect their community and to stand up for justice?

I should not even have to be here and tell you guys to stand up for us.

To have compassion and empathy towards other human beings.

How can you be a proud?

How can you be proud to be an officer when you have let these agents come into our streets thinking that they are above the law, that they will have no consequences, consequences for their actions.

I plead that you will now call for a state of emergency to protect the Latino community from these atrocities and to demand the Hillsborough Police Department to do something rather than just be bystanders.

We will not be silenced.

We will not be silenced nor intimidated, and neither should our police department.

To my community, remember we are stronger united and can overcome anything when we set our minds to it.

Para mi gente, no tengan miedo, no son intimidados por estos cobardes, que ni pueden mostrar su cara.

Nosotros passado por mucho más.

Más que ellos se podían imaginar.

On deck we have Hannah Gregorio and Kayla.

You have three minutes.

Okay.

First of all, uh, I want to say that I do apologize if I do stutter.

I am very nervous.

As many of you have seen the video of two young girls getting maced by three unidentified ICE agents.

We want to clarify these two girls aren't minors, but they are my family.

On Wednesday, October 29th, my cousins and I had seen a post on Facebook that some suspicious activity was going on in our community.

We want to help keep our community safe and aware, so we headed out around 6 30 a.m.

to our local Latino community.

We drove around for a bit, checking local parking lots and gas stations.

We spotted them in the parking lot at the Forest Grove Dollar Tree.

We parked in front of the vehicle, and shortly after a different one showed up.

They flashed their high beams at us and did a hand signal for us to move on.

They both exited the parking lot not much later.

As we were on our way down to Portland, we took the same route as one of the vehicles.

We were alerting the people around us by honking and yelling.

At Scotch Church Road, we were going to take the roundabout and exit through Jackson School Road and then go on to the highway.

We noticed the vehicle speeding and going onto the sidewalk.

It also did two illegal rounds on this roundabout.

Um the vehicle exited through Jackson School Road, and so did we.

We took the highway and their driver would break check us, swerve into other lanes, and be reckless.

We exited through Brookwood and we kept alerting the people of their behavior.

We met them down to the Hillsborough police department.

This is when a police vehicle came out, and so we moved along to park our car.

As these situations are new and scary to us, we got off our vehicle yelling and screaming the traffic violations we had witnessed.

The officer told us to go to our car and he would talk to us there.

He told the ICE agents, and I quote, take off and meet me somewhere else.

Walgreens here or something.

We expressed our concern to the officers again, and as the vehicle was leaving, the backseat passengers rolled down their windows and mocked us.

Not knowing what else to do, I recorded the incident where my two cousins got maced by an unidentified ICE agent and who left the parking lot shortly after, and as the officer stood by and did nothing.

Later on the same day at 9:30 a.m., I would go back to the H the HPD to ask for the names and badge numbers of the officers present.

When I walked in and asked for the names, the receptionist stated that it would be easier for me to write it down on my phone as printing them would be too time consuming.

He gave me four names of the officers that were supposedly there.

Later when I checked, they were incorrect.

Due to due to their lack of professionalism, this caused them misinformation to spread, and we only got one out of the four cops present.

From a young age, my parents taught me that standing up for others is the right thing to do.

And today I stand with the Latino community and want to speak out of the injustice that is happening here.

I want to say that we are not criminals, but we are workers, parents, neighbors.

We are people who care deeply and give selflessly.

All we ask is to be treated with the same compassion and respect we give every single day.

The same system that depends on people like us is tearing our families apart.

Ice raids, unjust attentions, and deportations are breaking the very communities that keep this country running.

Because of immigration status, families are being separated and targeted.

So tonight I'm speaking as a proud daughter of two immigrants.

Tonight I have the privilege and I have the voice to stand up when others can't be can't.

We demand a state of emergency for these so-called agents to be identified, to remove the masks they wear, and for them to drive vehicles with proper proper identification.

And I want to say this to my Latino community and to the people present here.

They are afraid of us because we are not afraid of them.

Thank you.

Next up, Luz Gutierrez and Hannah, you have three minutes.

Is it on?

I'm here today to ask you for a state of emergency.

We all knew these ice agents would eventually come to your city and state, yet we did nothing to prepare.

Lately we have seen how these agents have been coming and terrorizing our communities, damaging properties, and violating traffic laws.

These agents stay in parking lot surveilling the area for long periods of time.

They have been misidentifying innocent civilians, and they have been seen arresting people coming out of church.

We understand that the Hillsborough Police Department cannot intervene during an arrest.

But now they can't intervene when these agents trespass stock or even when they use excessive force with these arrests with to the point of hospitalization.

The HPD has made it very clear that they will not and cannot protect their residents, and their lack of professionalism has shown us that they also can't be trusted.

Now I ask you, what will you do when they start bounty hunting us?

When they get comfortable enough to start kidnapping American citizens due to legal racial profiling.

Like myself, many many immigrants have worked taking care of your grandparents.

We work blue collar jobs, and some of us are business owners, and we pick the food that you eat.

We are being persecuted, and you're telling me the best we can do now is to record in hopes that one day justice will come.

We demand that you start doing your job in protecting our sanctuary city to make sure that these agents are getting away with breaking the law.

We asked for a state of emergency that has been delayed far too long because you refuse to see us as human.

I should not have to plead for you to stand up for us for this is the job you have signed up for.

You are watching them.

Oh my god.

I should not have to plead for you to stand up first.

This is your job.

This is the job you signed up for.

You're watching them violate our constitutional rights.

These agents have the ability to do their job lawful and in a lawful and civil manner, yet they choose not to.

We have seen the aggressive behavior, intimidation tactics, and the and have seen the damage they have done to our country.

I demand that the silver city of Hillsborough stand up to what is right.

Have these agents remove their mask, identify themselves, and drive proper vehicles that show who they work for.

If you have been turning a blind eye to this, shame on you to my fellow peers.

We are the American people.

We make this country run.

We demand a state of emergency.

Are you here?

Okay.

Moving on to Michael Johnson.

Michael Johnson, you are on deck.

Is Michael here?

Okay.

Luz Gutierrez, you have three minutes.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

Good evening, everybody.

I'm gonna be speaking in Spanish if it's okay with you.

So representing organization.

That's fine.

I'm so sorry to interrupt and we'll restart the timer for you.

Okay.

Alright, so are we good, Aurie?

All right, Luz, you can go ahead in Spanish.

Thank you.

El restaurante del Chinos, el restaurante Don Pedro's, la tender de San Alejandro and Cornelius, Latina San Juan andas particulares.

Personas embarazadas canon receiving assistance del governdo.

El Departamento de Policía no está haciendo nada, solamente un mensaje in English and Espanyol, porque yo les llamé les exigiles pedir que dieron un mensaje de lo que podemos hacer.

No solamente se están vulnerando los derechos de Nas Familia Latinas for su inactividad van a llevar a la ruina a nuestro stado de Oregon.

Porque esta communidad isla que nuestro Stado de Oregon crescta economicamente hablando, levantando las industrias de la production, levantando las industrias de la comida, levantando las industrias de construction, del ice keeping and thought last industrias que se encuentran in Oregon.

Esta ora is Oregon.

Actune.

Are su trabajo.

Ponganse in action.

Necesitamos un plan de action strategico e immediato and urgente.

Stoy aquí, take 35 anos, igual que la Doctor Jacobs.

He had a lot of men for the community portable.

Necessitamos que ustedes are gang su trabajo.

Nosotros estamos haciendo nuestro.

Gracias.

Okay, so we're backing up.

We're gonna have Yvonne Staller come up.

You're on deck.

And Mr.

Johnson, you uh Michael, you have three minutes.

Thank you.

Um I'm here as a representative from uh the indivisible chapter in Forest Grove.

And uh like you, we're seeing a lot of the same kind of things happening out there.

And I so I suppose the first thing that I ought to ask for from you is cooperation and liaison between all of the communities in Washington County that are going through this hell.

Um I understand that the situation for elected officials is particularly difficult, and for law enforcement, local law enforcement is particularly difficult because you can't interfere with federal law enforcement.

On the other hand, um the simple fact remains that we're dealing with the federal administration that is lawless and corrupt to its core.

And that has filtered down like a malignancy all the way down to the people who are exercising that authority here locally.

I'm talking, of course, about ice, uh homeland security, uh CPB, uh that cast of characters.

And I do mean characters.

Uh when you look at some of the people that they have recruited, it's terrifying.

Uh these are a bunch of goons who are frankly uh living out macho military fantasies in their tactical gear, and yet we know they're cowards because they cover their faces.

And I would like them to feel some of the fear that we are experiencing, especially those of us who are not like I am, white and with white privilege.

Um, and so what I would ask for from this uh council and indeed from this community is that you explore every possible legal means that you have to deal with these people who are denying constitutional rights, which by the way are available for non-citizens as well as citizens.

And do something about these arrests and detentions that are happening without a warrant, with no probable cause.

The only possible explanation then is racial profiling, and that's obvious.

Use every civil and criminal device at your disposal to make life difficult for them.

I know that a police officer cannot interfere with ICE.

I got that.

But they can document the hell out of what they see.

They can use the body cams that they have as documentation, and we can all help by making sure that we use our cell phones to do the same thing.

I am part of MiraWatch.

Yes.

Some of you should probably join them.

Okay, thank you, Michael.

Thank you, Michael.

Probably do it.

Thank you.

On deck, we have Beth Jenley and Yvonne.

You have three minutes, but hold up just real quick.

Um we are going to take after uh Beth's testimony.

We're gonna take a little break so we can have a little bio break and take a minute since we've been going for over an hour and a half.

Okay?

Just as a heads up to all of you there.

Okay.

So, Yvonne, you have three minutes, and then Beth will go, and then we're gonna take a little break, and then we'll come back to testimony.

Okay, go ahead, Yvonne.

Three minutes.

My name is Yvonne Stottler, and I have lived in Hillsborough my entire life.

Twenty years ago, I was a student of Miss Olga Acunia.

I have been volunteering my time to help support our community with multiple organizations, and this past week we may have seen a few dozen of us protesting on TV Highway near Dairy Queen.

I want to encourage us to look at resources we already have in place differently to help our undocumented neighbors.

First, I want to remind workers of their rights and resources.

Those whose mental health is impacted due to the presence of ICE should consider tapping into the Family Medical Leave Act, FMLA, so they can take time away from work to care for themselves and their families.

Twelve weeks of unpaid or paid time off in Oregon for all eligible undocumented workers to stay home and stay safe.

Community members are using social media to mobilize and support one another, but many have expressed concerns of being able to trust these helpers.

If someone knows my address to drop off grow go groceries, can I trust that ICE will not come along with them?

We have no way to vet and confirm helpers as true supporters.

We need a pathway to do so.

Expansion of 311.

311 already exists, and we should maximize its impact during this emergency.

If there is a lack of funds, we must vet and allow community members to donate and volunteer to fulfill needs.

People are wanting to help, and we need to give them structured ways to do so.

I suggest initiating a highly public food drive with vetted volunteers delivering to vulnerable members.

We need a City of Hillsborough sponsored whistle and resource distribution campaign.

Can we use available funds to mail ICE emergency packs to households?

We can include PIRC literature as well as other supportive organizations and whistles for entire families.

A hundred loud metal whistles is only $30 on Amazon.

And community members are already working to fund and distribute.

Hillsboro needs to fund and initiate a campaign of its own.

Expansion to ride to care.

Is ride to care an option for those afraid to go to imported uh important medical uh appointments?

Can this be mobilized and promoted?

I want to remind us to not just save the PIRC phone number, but to make it a favorite or put it on speed dial.

I encourage others to look into training with and volunteering with PRRC as meager watch.

Action items I'm proposing.

Figure out a pathway to vet community helpers.

Two, can 311 be expanded and used to mobilize and help our undocumented neighbors?

Can Hillsborough do a whistle campaign?

Four, can it we must encourage undocumented workers whose mental health is deteriorating to file for FMLA and take advantage of 12 weeks paid time off at home caring for themselves and their families?

It exists for a reason and we need to use it.

PRC, put it on speed dial.

Do it right now while you're listening to me.

You don't want to fumble through your phone when you're looking for this.

And lastly, community, I want to encourage you to think creatively on how we can help our neighbors while our lawmakers sit around and waste valuable time talking about everything they can't do.

Thank you, Yvonne.

Next up is Beth.

Um, you have three minutes, and then we're gonna take a break and we'll come back to public testimony.

Beth, you have three minutes.

Go ahead.

I am Beth Genley with Indivisible Forest Grove.

Many Forest Grove residents work and shop in Hillsborough, and vice versa.

For our October 18th No Kings event, Indivisible Forest Grove welcomed more than 800 people out at the big flagpole.

There, many of us protested ICE's continual flouting of the law of constitutional rights and protections.

Please, everyone, stop saying that ICE and associated agencies are performing immigration enforcement.

When they ignor probable cause and due process, electronically surveil our phones, kidnap undocumented but law-abiding people who have been contributing to the community for 30 years and lock them in gulags, zip tie legal residents and American citizens, and manhandled children.

They are not enforcing the law.

They are bringing terror and grief to peaceful communities, disrupting our economy and frightening children.

We call on our elected officials to let ICE and associated agencies know they are not welcome here, both verbally and with signage everywhere.

We call on all our elected officials to continually remind our police forces of their required behavior under Oregon sanctuary law.

We applaud the Washington County commissioners for passing this morning and funding SNAP and community support emergency declarations, even as they also noted that their funds alone cannot meet the need.

So we call on all our elected officials to do the same.

Declare a state of emergency to step up to feed hungry residents and support and protect families from ICE's predatory actions.

For the many local Latine-led agencies who are mounting relief operations for families living in terror and need, who are also documenting ICE abuses and sharing know your rights trainings.

Please offer or increase funding to them and assist in coordinating and publicizing their efforts.

Finally, Indivisible Forest Grove invites all of you to bring your signs, lanterns, fairy lights, and glow sticks to shine the light on freedom this Friday the 7th, and join us at the flagpole from 4 30 to 6 to rally in protest of this terrible Trump administration.

The protest will include a food drive.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll take a short recess, and Council, I ask you to come back at 9.05.

Nunez Smith.

We're gonna get started.

If we could have Sandra Nunez Smith come up.

And somebody Jacobo or Jacobo.

So we have Sandra Nunez Smith.

And Jacobo Medells.

Oh, great.

Thank you.

And on deck, we have Erica Zacharius.

So Erica, you'll be up next after one of these folks is done.

And Sandra, why don't you go first?

You have three minutes.

Thank you.

Um first I want to say thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Uh my mother is a small business owner and she has been in business in Hillsborough for over 20 years.

She's been greatly impacted by the ICE activity in our community.

She's barely making enough to pay the wages of one employee.

Um I'm here for her today and for other small businesses own business owners like her who are afraid.

I'm also here for my brother, who was detained by ICE last week.

He had just gotten into his car, and his six-year-old stepson was barely getting into the back of the car when he was pushed out of the way by an ICE agent or bounty hunter, so they could get to my brother.

He was wrongfully taken due to a paperwork error at the county clerk's office.

He was not giving his rights or due process, and no effort was made to investigate the current status of his case.

Sorry.

You're doing fine.

Take your time.

In moments like this, I am reminded of Matthew 8, when Jesus and his disciples were caught in a storm.

The waves were crashing, the winds were howling, and the disciples were terrified.

But Jesus stood and he calmed the storm.

Like those disciples in our community is also facing a storm of fear, uncertainty, and injustice.

Yeah, I believe the same calm, the same faith can carry us through.

We may feel shaken, but we are not alone.

I'm here to show my solidarity with all immigrants, even though I too am scared and felt the need to carry my passport here today.

But I have faith that this community will continue to strive for equity and justice for all Americans because peace and justice must prevail even in the storm.

Thank you.

Sondra, I'm sorry to hear about your brother.

Thank you for sharing.

And Jacobo, you have three minutes.

I'm very affected by this.

I would like to read something as a public servant out of our Hillsborough page.

Community safety is everyone's responsibility.

Be alert to your surroundings.

And if you see something that doesn't seem right to be sure to report information to police, letting us know if you become a victim of crime, also helps promote the safety of your family, neighbors, entire community.

My community is in trouble.

I feel like the police is not responding to my cry.

They have standby and look the other way.

Especially Hispanic members of the of the police looking away, it just breaks my heart.

For we are one on all times.

As a community business owner, I mean our businesses are going downhill.

For there's not enough people to come and buy from us.

So I had to close down for the past couple weeks.

And I have to be a little nervous about that.

And as a community member, I tell my Hispanic community do not engage in anything, for they just want us to look like bad hombres, and we're not.

We are good citizens.

We fight for our people.

We fight for this country.

And I I ask that if you are doing things for the community, make sure that you address the most affected.

And times like this, people take advantage of the good people out there.

And I and I know that if you've never been undocumented, you know that you're not gonna go outright and come for help.

So those people are probably gonna fall in the cracks and not get the the help that is being needed.

And I ask the community, the police, please let those in need get the help that is provided and not take advantage just because it's out there.

That's all I want to say.

Thank you.

So another call for Erica Zacharias.

Okay.

I'll call up Jorge Cisneros and Miguel, Rochnin.

Jorge Cisneros and Miguel.

That one, Mike?

Be fine.

Hello again.

Thank you.

Already?

Microphone is on and you have three minutes.

Well, thank you.

Thank you everybody for taking the time and to with us.

And it looks like everybody mentioned what I was gonna say, so I have to write my notes all over and all over the world.

But uh I just want to mention um the people that are not mentioned here, the kids and the older people.

Uh we had a problem prior to the pandemic and after the post-pandemic with our older folks uh uh having difficult just to fill their their food supplies, whether you're Hispanic or your white or any race, you want to mention it.

We have a problem with uh the uh with the kids, uh the toll that the pandemic took on schools, their childhood, their psychological thinking.

Now with this is getting worse.

Uh what worries me, it's uh the future.

Uh how much time are we putting into uh the human capital, which is the kids.

It is a good way for them to invest in them based on the situation.

And there's more to it.

I mean, like I said, everybody just mentioned that.

Also concerned about the economy, like I said, we are the service laborer.

And any economy needs a service labor.

Why?

Because we have cheap labor.

They mentioned everybody, we clean the yard, with everybody relies on that labor.

Uh, through the pandemic, based on the numbers, it was like a war.

A lot of people die.

In the United States, everybody, every time they jump into a war, World War I, World War II, the Braceos program, the Mexican workers come and help every service sectors.

That was worrying me.

Maybe the problem is not with us with the Panish population.

Maybe the federal government has a problem with you, with the state.

Why?

You let me know.

Washington is the second economy from what I heard on the state.

How can I break you?

I'm gonna break your economy.

Maybe the issues with you, as much as you love the LGBT community.

You should have the question.

Are we in a war with our federal government?

I see terrorists, I see terrorizing our homes.

I said people hiding their faces.

I don't call them eyes.

I call them terrorists.

And as long as you start changing the vocabulary, then you gotta do something.

But at this stage, based on the atrocities in the history of turtle colonies, you ended up with all this territory.

They have a systematic genocide system to exterminate people.

We can extend this, but I just want to leave it like that.

I thought there was gonna be more people and more people that coming.

Thank you, Jorge.

Um deck we have Barry Johnson Smith.

Is Barry here?

Okay.

And Miguel, you have three minutes.

Thank you, uh, mayor, thank you, city councillors.

Before we saw the grilling, right?

You've been grilled this whole night.

I would just want to acknowledge that you guys are thank you for your time.

Thank you for deciding purposefully, right, to become elected officials to represent the city of Hillsbury and its residents.

Thank you so much.

But with that said, I also need to acknowledge, right?

And I'm just gonna talk about uh some numbers.

According to school district website, uh the student body population of Hillsbury is about 41.8% is the majority.

When we're talking about students, we're also talking about families.

Families with mixed status, families that uh many of them are business owners, families that many of them are actually working within the city uh or are carrying out different jobs, right?

That uh we need.

Uh it also I'm also here to share a little bit uh of uh uh testimony about my personal story, right?

This whole thing with the rates has directly impacted me, right?

And my uh younger brothers.

My dad was picked up by uh ICE uh a day ago, right?

Unlowingly, uh my younger brother had already decided to enlist in the military.

So our hearts are breaking or aching because my brother took this life-changing decision to serve the country that is directly targeting our dad, right?

It is conflicting, it is uh uh we have uh um conflicting feelings about how to go about this, but uh not not only that, right?

With those kind of effects or rhamification of these type of behaviors in our community of this law enforcement in our community, that also comes every family that is going through this are having hefty, hefty financial burdens, right?

With the hiring of attorneys, they are not cheap.

Uh we just got uh told today it's gonna take about 30 to 35,000 for the case to move forward, right?

And we need to mobilize rapidly because just just like we know, the there are uh when somebody's in proceedings, they're moving fast and they're uh applying different tactics that will increase the amount of money that you're gonna need if you want your loved ones to stay here with your family.

So I think that uh and you're probably gonna hear a lot of these stories more frequently by people you know, people you've worked with, people that you uh all you also um want to represent or are supposed to represent.

I think uh uh as much as I I I acknowledge the hard work that it is to be a city council and a mayor.

I think there also needs to be acknowledgement that there is an issue here that needs to be addressed uh systematically, right?

And uh as much as we would love to say that everything will be better, will be uh okay.

It isn't do anything.

Thank you, Miguel.

Thank you.

On deck we have Ignacio Sanchez, Ignacio Sanchez.

After Ignacio, we have Juan Pedro Morena Almeida.

Um but Barry, you have three minutes.

Who?

Uh good evening.

My name is Barry John Smith.

I'm a resident of Washington County, uh 2022 Hillsborough Civic Leadership Academy member and a former member of the Hillsborough Arsenal Culture Council.

I come here today, like everyone else today, about the recent ICE activity.

I've been evolving the past several uh couple weeks with mutual and indirect action groups affecting those affected by the ICE activity.

Um I want to say these groups are doing amazing job helping uh meet community urgent needs, but the situation remains deeply concerning.

As you know, mayor counselors, people are afraid.

Many residents don't feel safe to go to leaving their homes, going to work, or even taking the children to school.

We have been managing multiple requests for people delivering groceries to them because they're afraid to go to the grocery store.

Um and it's just a daily life so much that people just for the atmosphere of fear among our community.

As I told the Washington County Commissioners, when a significant portion of our community feels unsafe, participating in everyday life, that becomes a public safety emergency.

I urge you to make it a priority to address the this crisis using every tool and resource available.

I understand that certain limits uh there's certain legal limits exist under the supremacy clause, but that shouldn't stop us from helping those in me need.

There are still meaningful ways to act through communication, coordination, and compassion.

You know, engage with affected families, community groups, and city staff to better understand what's happening and explore creative local solutions.

You don't have to solve this alone.

I enjoyed the conversation today as a great first step and solving addressing community concerns.

Um I want to do share a quote I want everyone everyone here to think about this evening.

The ultimate measure of a man is not when he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but when he stands at times of challenge and controversy by Martin Luther King Jr.

It's easy to speak about diversity, inclusion, and fairness when times are calm.

But our true character is revealed in moments like this.

I've been hearing so many people were about the law and following the law, but I'd be thinking, well, Jim Crow was a law.

Separate but equal was a law, and they use that as a way to enslave and discriminate against my people.

I think about what if I came here today talking about my community members' needs and what they went through at that time.

Would you have the same hesitation about oh we can't with the law, even though it's unjust and unfair?

All these community members are saying is nothing is no different than what my family told me who's still alive today, the scars they carry from the stuff they had to go through through the Jim Crow era.

And if we're talking about thinking about wow, we have these mass vigilantes coming around causing racial terrorists, putting people in a van.

I'm like, there we got the KKK running around the city.

What's going on here?

So I'm saying, like, and reflecting on this, I think about when I first moved here six years ago, and when I coming from Atlanta, I saw all these signs being like black lives matter, everybody with value here and things of that nature, and even coming from Atlanta, people talking about, oh, we love MLK, Marl uh John Lewis, good trouble.

And I'm like, it's good to say that when times are easy, when it's popular to talk about those things.

So I'm wondering in this moment when communities are asking for your help, are those signs that people told me was that what we were actually reflecting our values, or were people playing in my face?

So I'm asking today how you show up in this moment.

On deck, we have Juan Pedro Morena Almeida, and right now we have Ignacio Sanchez.

We're actually gonna flip-flop, but I'm gonna go first.

My name is Juan Pedro Moreno Almeida.

You're Juan Pedro, okay.

Good evening, buenas noches.

Again, my name is Juan Pedro Moreno Almeida.

I am a lifelong resident of the city of Hillsborough.

I've lived here 28 years.

Um and yeah, I'm much more than just a resident, I'm a soccer coach, I'm a future business owner, I'm a community advocate.

Um and today I'm here to you know let you all know that many of us are living in fear, you know, many of us have lived our whole lives with the fear of knowing that you know our parents might someday be deported, you know.

And you know, for a really long time, it felt like as long as we you know paid our taxes, followed the law and didn't bring too much attention to ourselves, that that'd be enough.

You know that we could live these quiet, you know, lives, you know, in an apartment and not ask for too much, right?

Um we now know that that's no longer true.

You know, we know that it's no longer enough because we've seen people with absolutely no criminal record be ripped out of their vehicles and away from their families.

Today I have seven of my soccer players with me who attend Hillsborough High School, and I'd ask I'd like to ask them to stand up right now if they can.

So we recently had one of our teammates lose uh of uh father and two of their uncles and another teammate lose you know their older brother as well, they were taken by ice, and for the last week, you know, we've been doing everything that we can just like the rest of our community members.

We've been going door to door to raise you know funds for the Go Can Me campaigns because they're you know it's just like Miguel said it's super expensive.

By the way, Miguel was my soccer coach about ten years ago as well.

Um so what I want to continue to say is that you know as these this children of immigrants, right?

We always have this thought in the back of our head that someday we're gonna have to be the financial pillar for our home.

And you know, for all the city council members and mayor pace as well, right?

I want you to look at these kids and think about all the sacrifices that they would have to go through to become that financial pillar for their household, right?

They would might they would have to maybe you know stop going to school.

They would have to give up on soccer for sure.

They would have to find jobs in order to become that pillar for their household.

We're all trying to do something, right?

Like I just got this whistle, right?

Which is really awesome.

We're all going door knocking.

Our community is, you know, I'm so happy that we can rely on each other and you know can be there for one another, especially in times like this.

Um but I really want to you know just ask for more.

Um, we need to protect our community members and especially our youth.

You know, it takes generations to overcome this trauma, you know.

Um and I think our as our representatives I really would like to see more action.

Um part of the reason why I'm here today is because of an investment in leadership development, right?

Please continue to invest in leadership development.

If it wasn't for leadership development programs, I wouldn't have the confidence to be here today or to organize with my soccer kids.

So super important investment, and thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Pass.

Okay.

Um the next up we have Miguel.

We have Miguel here.

Okay, next up we have uh Lucia Vigencio.

Is Lucia here?

She is okay, great.

All right.

Ignacio, you have three minutes.

Hello, my name is Ignacio Sanchez.

On October 26th, my father and my two uncles were taken by ice on their way to work.

He left not because he wanted to, but because the system decided he didn't belong here.

I'm sharing this today, not to ask for simp sympathy, but to ask for a change.

Families shouldn't have to not have to live in fear of being separated.

I am normally not a big fan of public speaking, but for my dad I would do anything because I know that he would do the same.

Thank you for your time.

Ignacio, thank you for sharing, and I'm sorry to hear about your father and your uncles.

Um next up we have on deck we have Lupe Medell.

Okay, and Lucia.

You have three minutes.

Thank you.

Necessito hablar in Espagnol por todo.

Okay, un momento por favor.

Can you get the translation set up?

Lamentablemente.

La palabra is look at the persona.

In cambio, ustedes can dando la cara for las personas que no pueden estar instead in este lugar.

On deck we have Maria Lennell.

Or Maria Len.

Do we have a Maria?

Oh she is okay, great.

Lupe?

Yes.

Okay, you have thanks for being here.

You have three minutes.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, City Council for the opportunity.

I'm tired.

I'm tired.

I'm here as a mother and I'm here as a citizen.

I've been in this city for 28 years.

And I'm tired.

And like I told some of the city councils earlier.

I'm tired of being profiled.

And I'm tired of being told there's nothing we can do.

Really?

There's nothing we can do.

How do I explain my kids every single day they get home from school?

That civil rights don't apply to every single one of us because of our skin color or our color of our hair.

I have to carry my passport with me because it's a matter of when.

Not if I get stopped.

So my civil rights don't apply because I'm Hispanic.

So it depends on the situation or the circumstances, right?

So right now there's no civil rights for any of us.

For my community.

For my Latinos.

I am tired.

I have kids in second grade, coming home from school every day.

Instead of telling me about their academic improvements, they're telling me about the stores from classmates.

My daughter being a witness of eyes or terrorists, whatever they call it, asking them for legal studies.

Just because of the way they look.

Just because we don't fit the profile.

No, like I said earlier.

I don't disagree with deportations.

The ones are being deported are only work in class.

That their only crime was to fight for a future for their families.

Okay.

We were meant.

Okay.

Do we have to go back to that community?

Let's use face mask.

Are we okay with face mask?

Do not be profile, to not have a phone in our faces every single day, to scan us on the database to make sure we're not criminals.

I mean you tell me, because I'm tired and I don't have an explanation for my kids.

What do I tell my kids?

Even though you're born here, civil rights don't apply to you because you're Latino because you have uh Spanish in your blood, because your hair is black.

Because I'm running out of excuses.

Or when I drive them up to school every single day, I don't have nothing to say to them.

Oh look, they're picking up somebody else.

Oh is that Maria?

On deck we have Lisa Unger.

Is that you?

Great.

Okay, great.

After Lisa, we have Concepcion from Paisano's Plaza.

So just so Concepcion, so you know.

Are you ready?

Okay.

Maria Stamosle.

Okay.

Next up we have Concepcion Soto from Paisano's Plaza.

Is Concepcion here?

Okay, next up we have Jessica N.

Okay.

Jessica, you're on deck.

And Lisa?

Yes.

You have three minutes.

Thank you.

Yes.

Good evening, Mayor Pace and City Council.

Thank you for engaging with everyone who has spoken.

I have noticed you have all looked.

You haven't shied away.

I respect that and I appreciate that.

My name is Lisa Unger, and I married into the beautiful countryside of Hillsborough.

I am a foster mom and I have adopted my three children from foster care.

We talk with our kids on how to stand up to bullies, to look out for the underdog, to respect our leaders and uphold the laws.

When I talk about ice agents raiding or picking up farm employees, and my kids ask simple questions.

Why?

Are they bad?

Do they have kids?

What happens to their cars?

Who will take care of their kids?

What are we teaching our children?

I wonder, will we see an abduction happen right in front of our eyes with no warrant?

I teach my kids that the law is there to protect us.

And yet, this does not feel like protection.

As a foster parent, I already know that there aren't enough foster homes.

My question to you all, and I wish I could ask the Trump administration and every ICE agent.

Are you willing to be a foster parent?

Because I would say majority of ICE agents would not be willing.

Are they willing to cradle the children as they cry for their parents?

What legacy are we leaving for our kids?

What trauma are we allowing to be passed on to the next generation?

So I ask, well, will you look out for the underdog?

Thank you.

On deck we have April Davis and Jessica and you have three minutes.

I was born here in Hillsboro, um, born and raised um during Trump's first term when he was elected.

I was in, I was a kid, and I was afraid.

I had uh I had a meltdown in class because I was afraid of what could have been happened to my family now as an adult.

And him being elected for a second term.

I feel like I've gone back to that little girl in class, afraid that one day I'm gonna go home and I wouldn't see my parents again.

I am the oldest of four.

And not a five.

And these I shouldn't be afraid to be separated from my family.

No one should be afraid to be separated from their family.

It's unfair that that this is what's happening now, and that you who we elected to be to help us in our community are just saying things but not doing.

I hope that further along you guys will be able to do something about all of this because I don't want to live in fear.

No one should live in fear.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jessica.

Um, next up uh on deck we have Serenne Truer.

Saren.

Saren.

Saren, you're on deck.

You can sit in that chair right there.

And April, you have three minutes.

Okay, thank you.

Um the fear and the anger and the just feeling in this room is palpable.

It's I don't come from this community.

I don't see a lot of things that that are happening.

Um I can feel it in this room that there's stuff that's going on that's just not right.

Um I think the one thing that brought me up here today was as I was listening.

A little background.

My father was born in Nazi Germany.

In nine in the 1940s.

My grandparents lived in Nazi Germany.

My grandfather was tortured in Nazi Germany.

I have heard references to Nazi Germany.

And I sure and I hope we're not there yet.

And I don't think we are.

I don't think we are as a country.

I don't think we are as a city.

Um, I see hope.

I see a lot of community members that care about one another.

And I hope that can just resonate here in Hillsboro.

Um, I also heard a story about Jesus Christ and how he can bring peace.

Peace to our hearts, even if things are going wild around us.

I love this city.

I've lived here for over 30 years.

I've lived in Washington County all my life.

I'm hoping that things can calm down.

Thank you.

We have on deck Yvette Zabak.

Yvette.

Okay, you can have a seat right on that chair.

And Sharon, you have three minutes.

I messed it up, sorry.

I did not intend to speak tonight, which is why this is on my phone.

Thank you so much for hearing all of us tonight for staying so late to let all of us have a chance to participate in our government.

I've lived in Hillsborough for more than 17 years.

My kids go to Hillsborough Public Schools, where many of their friends are children of immigrants.

I'm not here to ask you to declare a state of emergency.

The emergency is upon us, and your declarations are empty if they are not followed by meaningful action.

Legally, you cannot impede federal operatives in the execution of their duty.

The Constitution forbids it.

What is being done in our community has nothing to do with legality.

It is history repeating itself.

It is an evil man using racial scapegoats to inflame his supporters and consolidate power for himself and his party.

This is Germany in 1933, the time before most Americans actually remember it.

It started much earlier and it started much quieter.

The horrors are happening.

They are happening here and they are happening now.

Our president and his cabinet have abandoned legality wholesale because they believe that we will not have any recourse to challenge them.

They can control Congress.

Much worse, they control the courts.

Keep our people safe by any means necessary.

Because we are inclusive and welcoming and celebrate diversity.

They think that it makes us weak.

Show them how it makes us strong.

Good evening.

My name is Yvette Savala, and I do want to thank you guys for giving us the constituents and residents of Washington County the opportunity, especially in the city of Hillsboro to have this opportunity to share our feelings, our thoughts, ideas, and to collaborate with you guys as our representatives for the city of Hillsboro because other cities, quite frankly, have not stepped up to say anything on social media, to make any press releases, or to even entertain us in this way and the way that you guys have.

So I do want to acknowledge that, and I do appreciate that you guys have done that.

With that said, when I was eight years old, I did witness somebody that I love get kidnapped.

Thankfully that person is still alive and is still here today.

But when I became a mother, I never thought that in this county that my son, who is a student at the Hillsboro School District, would be at risk of seeing something similar to I did.

I am 36 years old.

I can still remember that day like it was yesterday.

When people come up here and talk to you about trauma, that's what they're talking about.

That is a trauma that I will live with for the rest of my life.

Again, I'm 36 years old.

That was three decades ago.

I am just one person, right?

When we talk about how ICE has been picking up people outside of our school zones, in our schools, at preschools and daycares, you are inflicting that trauma on hundreds of children, their families, the parents, the school admin, people who have to go in and out of these properties.

So to say that we can't do anything as a parent, that concerns me.

I'm an American citizen, and I don't care if I have paperwork, I'm legal, or if I was born here, because of the fact that I was, I am using my privilege to speak up as a parent for other parents who do not have the opportunity to be here because they are just as scared.

How do I explain, like somebody else said in this audience to my child what is happening?

How do I console my child who is going to experience witnessing something as traumatic as something that I saw when I was eight years old, and he is gonna have to live with that for the rest of his life?

That is what you guys are saying that we are okay with inflicting on our community in this city and in this county, when you sit there and you say there is nothing you can do because of legalities.

As I said earlier today, when you guys started the work session, this situation is an extraordinary moment and extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary resolutions.

We have to show up for our community.

Some way, somehow, I don't think anybody here is angry enough.

And you guys are asking us to play it safe while these agents are playing in our face.

I'm sorry, but safety is gonna go out the window when you guys are saying you guys want to protect us, but we're not seeing anybody protect us.

We are going to stand up, we are going to fight, and we are going to respond, and you have to pick a side.

And you are either going to side with the administration because you're scared of them, or you're going to end up having to deal with the violence that we're seeing, and it's going to show up in your guys' space.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Manny.

Hey Manny, you have three minutes.

Um I just wanted to tell you guys and say that I really hope you guys do side with us and you guys really do hear what we're saying for you guys because all of us here are actually trying to fight for what's right and fight for our rights.

And I just want to tell you guys that I'm scared for my parents to walk out there to walk out their house because I might not be able to say goodbye to them if they go to work.

I might not ever be able to say bye or see them again if you guys don't side with us.

And I'm scared because of it because they fought so hard to come here and choose a life for their kids.

And I really hope you guys do hear what everyone in this room has been saying, and I hope you guys do side with us because we are fighting for our rights, and we are getting treated like animals because people judge us by the color of our skin and the way that we talk.

And we have a president that acts like a child and doesn't side with us because of the way he thinks about us.

And we have a police department that doesn't do anything about us, and that we are here fighting more than they are.

So I hope that you guys actually do hear what everyone in this in this center is hearing or talking about, so you guys can side with us and listen to what everyone's saying because everyone is scared.

I'm scared that I'm never gonna be able to see all my friends again.

I'm scared that their parents are gonna be gone one day.

I'm scared that all of us are gonna have to fend for ourselves.

I'm scared that one day at school that I'm gonna get like held by people that I don't know, people that are covered, people that I can't identify because they wear masks and they don't properly ID themselves.

I'm scared that everyone that I love is not I'm not gonna be able to see them again because even though that they're US citizens, they don't care about us.

They treat us like dogs, they treat us like animals.

No one here.

No one here cares about us because the color of our skin.

So I'm asking you guys, every single one of you guys that are sitting up here to actually hear us and do something about it because I'm tired of it.

I'm tired of telling my mom and dad every day after school that have you seen the new video of ice pulling someone over because the color is kid.

I'm tired of everything.

And I hope you guys really do do something about it because I really do want something to change because I should not leave like this as a 16-year-old.

I shouldn't be scared.

I should be focusing on school when I can't even focus on school.

That was the last of our commenters tonight.

We appreciate all of you staying.

We appreciate all of you letting us know how you feel.

We appreciate hearing from you.

Thank you.

We're going to continue on with the agenda, which is gonna seem somewhat cold, but I want you to know that we've heard you, and we again we appreciate you coming in.

Moving to item four, the consent agenda.

The items on the consent agenda are normally considered in a single motion.

Any item may be removed for separate consideration upon request by any member of council.

Is there a request to remove any items for separate consideration?

I have a quick question.

Is there any way we could uh postpone the rest of this meeting?

I'd like to continue because we need to move forward with some of these actions so the staff can move forward.

There's only two items.

I have a question, Mayor.

Are we gonna continue the work session after this?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Um we can discuss that if you wanted, but I was planning on continuing on.

Yeah, I want to continue.

These people came for a reason.

So we need to continue until it's done.

Thank you.

Okay.

So it is there a request for it to remove any items for separate consideration.

All right.

Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved case.

Do I have a second?

Second Admiral.

Is there any discussion?

May I please have a roll call?

Counselor Abbey?

Uh, you have to turn, yeah, Mike, yeah.

All right.

Counselor Case?

Hi.

Counselor Angberry.

Hi.

Councillor Claire.

Hi.

Council Air.

Hi.

All right.

Motion passes.

There are no public hearings.

There's no unfinished business.

Or and moving to item number seven ordinances.

There's no first reading.

Moving to the second reading, item 7.2.

Community development code amendment zero zero two-two-four omnibus eight.

Consider the planning commission's recommendation to adopt an ordinance for community development code amendment to incorporate various policy neutral changes and conforming amendments to ensure consistency with state legislation to the Hillsborough Community Development Code.

Ordinance number six five zero eight is available.

Do I have a motion to adopt ordinance number six five zero eight?

So moved case.

Is there a second?

Second Annbury.

Is there any discussion?

May I please have a roll call?

Councillor Salgado.

Councilor Harris.

I Councillor Sinclair.

Aye.

Councilor Anbury.

Hi.

Councillor Case.

I counselor Alcare.

All right.

There's thank you.

There's no new business.

There is no new business items, and we'll skip the city manager report for this evening.

We will resume the work session back in conference room one thirteen BNC.

So if you want to continue to stay for the work session to hear from Chief Coleman, you can do that by moving into one thirteen BNC.

Or you can sit here in the auditorium and listen and hear our hear our conversation.

And council, uh, we're on break, and please join me in uh one thirteen BNC at 1010.

So you have seven minutes to move over and do whatever you need before you get there.

City Council regular session is adjourned and going back to work session.

Uh we weren't quite finished with everything that we wanted to go through on work session.

So we broke, did the city council meeting, and now we're here for the second half of the work session.

And we'll get to hear from um police chief Jim Coleman.

Uh is there anything else you wanted to add, Robbie?

Uh no, if we can just pull the PowerPoint back up and then Chief Coleman will take it from there.

Okay.

There you go.

Okay.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Yes.

Uh good evening, everyone.

Uh, mayor, uh members of the council.

Thank you for affording me this opportunity to update you on the police response in the um presence of very uh aggressive ICE enforcement in our community.

Uh, I want to say that I spent the last uh several hours with my staff listening to every speaker that spoke tonight.

We we were touched by many of them, uh, not in disagreement with anybody in particular.

Uh those are just personal experiences of what people are going through out there.

It very much helps ground us in what our responsibilities are to the community.

We are committed to protecting and serving uh the visitors, the workers, the people who live in the community at Hillsboro.

We do that by following Oregon state law and the guard trails that it sets up as we try and protect and serve.

We do that because we uh run quickly into trouble if any kind of personal belief or matter of expediency causes us to reconsider uh whether whether or not to follow the law.

We know that making an exception under any circumstances is just the beginning of stepping on a slippery slope of what would ultimately be many unintended consequences of that.

So uh it's it's difficult to hear uh that folks feel like we could be doing more.

I hope to help people understand what we are doing with those constraints in place.

And uh, if I can start by just going back a few months when we did a the police department work session, we did talk uh um uh for uh uh period of time about immigration enforcement, and we talked about how the police department realizing with the change of administrations and the signaling from the current administration that immigration enforcement would be uh one of their main focuses that uh we were going to retrain our folks who had uh spent uh four years without it being something that we encountered very often, uh, and then many people being hired in that interim who have never dealt with uh what Oregon state law has to say and um direct in regard to immigration enforcement.

We have we have been ready to more specifically address how uh we would interact with uh both immigration and persons that are being targeted by it.

And the time is came about uh a month or so where we we saw the patterns, we saw what we're experiencing in our community, and we want to get a little bit more specific with our officers as to how we would uh deal with that as we came in contact with it.

One thing that I want to make clear is we do not ever refuse to go to a call where immigration enforcement might be taking place.

We're not um of a mindset that that's not our business, we're gonna stay away from it.

We respond uh to all calls or incidents or circumstances of the city that are indicative of possibly being a crime or circumstances that threaten public safety or public peace.

Our core duties have not deviated from responding, assessing, formulating a plan, and taking uh action if necessary and legal.

We also document uh as appropriate in these circumstances that could take the form of written reports, it can take the form of entry into our computer aided dispatch system, it can take the form of recording events through our Barty Warren camera system, uh specifically in relation to immigration enforcement and this uh evolving of and being more specific specific about what we will do in Hillsborough uh because of what we see happening are uh first of all, we understand and expect our officers to know what the First Amendment means and uh to understand the lawful expression of it.

We use reasonable methods to verify suspect suspected apprehensions are not actually an abduction, a missing person or a criminal matter that needs further investigation.

We take reasonable steps to investigate suspicious vehicles and circumstances.

We use reasonable methods and availability of time and to secure or return personal property in the wake of an apprehension.

We make notifications to affected family members if that's practical.

We assist community stakeholders such as schools, businesses, public officials if they're impacted by an apprehension.

When possible, we de-escalate uh volatile encounters or situations where federal authorities and community members have become involved in something other than an apprehension.

Um as far as the de-escalation goes, which that is an example of, if a local or state law enforcement officer is in the um process of de-escalating something and they give a lawful order, which is not followed, we are prepared to make arrests.

Uh, this is to protect more and more third parties that are becoming more and more endangered.

I will uh talk about that towards the end.

Body worn camera footage is um always encouraged to be activated.

The policy doesn't always we don't when we respond to an immigration matter, the policy doesn't always dictate um the circumstances around that.

We don't have a specific policy that says record immigration matters, it's about how we interact with the community, what we think might be going on that prompts us to record, but most officers are in the habit of recording these because they know um it's important for the community to know what's going on there.

These recommendations are not intended to be all inclusive, they're consistent with how we normally police the city.

Um I want to talk about a couple of uh just make a couple of clarifications uh from topics that came up tonight in the uh in the meeting and from folks that were speaking.

Uh the Hillsborough Police Department does not and has not ever used Flock cameras, the flock camera system.

Uh we were approached by the vendor to use this as part of a grant.

Uh part of this grant is uh primarily focused towards uh addressing organized retail theft rings, and flock offered us uh this technology, we refused it.

Um, and I'm not here to disparage any company.

That's probably not something that the city attorney would want me to do.

Um it wasn't about their reputation.

We just as a police department and following the city's lead, do not passively collect information about the citizens of Hillsboro.

We do have two automated license plate readers that um are very visible, they're not secretive.

We deploy them on operations such as organized retail theft um uh task forces with other police agencies uh overseen by the district attorney's office, and we sometimes we have used them and they have been successful in more situations that I don't care to delve into, but helping us solve uh serious crimes such as homicides.

Uh many times they're used with a warrant in place.

Could I get a quick question on that, Chief?

Sorry, Audie, but before I forget this, on the license plate readers, do you share that information with Fusion Center, the Titan Fusion Center, any other federal agency, or are you only using it for your own internal purposes or prosecutions?

We share with other local and state law enforcement entities, uh, but uh we do not it is not shared currently with the federal with federal agencies.

You know whether any of your partners you share this with turnaround and share with the fusion center or Titan Center or any federal that I don't know, counselor, but we can certainly look into that.

Thank you.

Counselor Sinclair.

Thanks very much.

What uh President Harris was just asking.

Thank you, Mary.

Um do you know of any our government agreements with Washington County where Flock is used and where that would inadvertently?

Um, I I would have to look into that too.

It's a very good question.

Sometimes, you know, I I pay attention to my agency, I don't know every piece of equipment or every um vendor that the county works with, but it's a good it's a good um unintentional back door that we should check.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Uh one uh yeah.

All right.

One other thing uh that you know it is a matter of perception, so I don't want to say that it's not true, but we absolutely understand that um as we're trying to navigate Oregon state law and not interfere and not assist, which is at some times a very small um needle to thread, that it does appear as though uh Hillsburg police officers are disengaged, not uh doing uh the work of public safety.

Uh I I have um been briefed on and I've seen many incidences where officers have responded, they're not disengaged.

Uh many of them are recording what's going on, they're uh deciphering what's going on.

Uh many times we get there, we don't know if it is uh a warrant or if it's uh an arrest based on probable cause or if it's even immigration enforcement, because we are more and more running into situations where it is an immigration uh observer, and um and that uh tends to devolve into some sort of confrontation that actually isn't immigration enforcement, it's it turns into uh whether or not somebody has violated federal law and whether or not those agents are going to take action on that.

So um we're recording, we're we're trying to de-escalate without um, as uh the city attorney said, without physically getting in the middle, um, if if uh parties are engaged, and uh I would not expect one of my you know, certainly to save somebody's life, we might move in front of a moving vehicle, but when um we have situations where people are standing in front of cars and and blocking them, I you know, we we want our officers to protect their own personal safety as well and to not be in those situations, but we we are definitely not disengaged, uninterested.

We are trying to navigate the law um as we have been in uh both uh trained and are gaining more and more experience all the time.

Um the most recent, I want to just share some numbers with you over the most recent month, October and October.

Uh there were 26 incidents that generated a police report and or a dispatch incident number.

This does not include any call for service that did not include the word ICE.

So we generate tens of thousands of incident numbers and reports um over a year.

Uh so when we go back to look at those, we have to use keywords to search those.

And this and gate in getting this information, we use the keyword ice.

Um, Chief, you're saying there were 26 calls for service involving iCE.

26, where we either wrote a report or an incident number was generated through the dispatch there, and uh typically we will add notes to those incident numbers.

So it's uh it's something that slots in between writing a full police report and then not writing a report at all, if that makes sense.

Yes, okay.

Uh the log that we add notes to has everything from the the person that called to what the address is, time of day, what the uh initial reported facts or observations were so it's more than just a few words, it's uh it's very um detailed layout of what we were headed to, and our officers will typically uh talk about what they um observed when they got there, any actions they took, and and how it was resolved.

So uh a little bit short of a police report under those circumstances.

I have a quick question, counselor all care.

Are you I didn't think about this, but um if I was to perceive that one of your officers was helping, they could be arrested.

All right, by ICE if they were perceived as helping.

Helping a helping, yeah, helping somebody who doesn't want to get detained.

If police are perceived as that, then they can be arrested.

But the perception of whatever their actions are, can they be similar to what residents have been experiencing and doing, such as you mentioned getting in front of a car?

I hope I can I hope I can answer the question appropriately.

Nobody can interfere with a federal law enforcement agent while they're lawfully engaged in their duty, including police officers.

And have officers been asked by ICE to help them out.

They have.

And what how have our cops responded?

I do not know of every situation, the situation I'm aware of.

They have told them we cannot do that.

I appreciate you sharing that.

You have met with all of us over the past couple days, and you and I met today.

So I appreciated hearing that.

So I just wanted to make that comment.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, counselor.

Um I just quickly add that, yeah, the um the officers are um and this is not a plea for sympathy.

Um, it's just this is a fact.

The officers frequently find themselves um under harsh criticism from both sides.

That's what neutrality sometimes looks like.

Oh, okay.

Um as I uh kind of mentioned this this number does not involve many, many calls we get from community members asking about what to do if they see ICE activity uh about uh HPD's involvement and other informational inquiries.

We try and um message a lot through the community.

Um I've been in um with many of you at community events, uh I've been with the uh mayor at several community events.

We just continue to try to get that message out there.

We know it's hard to penetrate through a lot of the other information that's floating out there, and in some ways we are contributing to the information overload, but um we try and solve a lot of we will you know have brief conversations sometimes with folks about um information that we feel is important, but uh really the bulk of that goes to the dispatch center, and and that place is really uh geared towards working towards emergencies, and they really don't have the personnel and the time to answer a lot of those questions.

So, really our main way of answering those types of informational questions is to continue to uh push it out through our website.

Um independent interactions with our officers out in the field, those are probably innumerable.

Uh I couldn't even begin to tell you how many of those things probably happen on a daily basis where we're telling trying to explain to people what the law says and people who feel many different ways about uh immigration enforcement.

Um federal agents uh the 26 incidents range from federal agents temporarily detaining a vehicle and its occupants in a coffee business drive-through to vehicles left abandoned in roadways after an apprehension to missing person calls that are later confirmed as ICE detentions to reports from community members who believe they were being followed by ICE.

Uh importantly, there have been no verified incidents of persons posing as ICE agents in Hillsborough.

Uh and uh there have been no verified incidents of federal agents claiming to be Hillsborough police officers to date.

Uh Hillsborough police officers have begun multiple investigations to determine that persons were not the victims of a criminal act under Oregon state law, meaning they were apprehended by immigration enforcement when their family members or co-workers or are just uh citizens that witnessed an ICE apprehension have um have assumed that that's what it was.

We we'd still move forward uh investigating it as a possible crime until we can verify um that it was actually an immigration apprehension that can sometimes take several hours.

Uh we have numbers uh that sometimes work.

Uh we just have a number of ways to try and figure out who people are, but that none of them are direct informational um exchanges with ICE.

We provide them nothing.

Uh it's it's kind of uh working a case to figure out what exact exactly happened there.

Uh we've helped families, employers, local schools, and other officials verify whether a community member is in an ICE custody.

Uh we've requested non-emergency medical responses for persons after encounters with ICE agents.

Uh we've removed abandoned and damaged vehicles from roadways and sought to return them to their uh responsible parties and avoid impoundment fees, uh, return personal property to family members who have um ended up in ICE custody.

In one case, um we sheltered an abandoned pet at Bonnie Hayes after its owner was taken into custody, and the animal was left in a local Lowe's parking lot in the vehicle.

Um we uh so in just kind of uh wrapping up because I want to leave plenty of time uh for questions.

Uh not all of HPD's responses have been in the wake of a detention or apprehension.

The department has also responded to smaller number of incidents that involved attempts to impede federal agents or intervene on behalf of others while agents are trying to apprehend them.

More and more those attempts are endangering third parties who are not either trying to intervene or federal agents.

They um and that takes the form of um very aggressive um attempts to follow ICE officers to block them, uh to force them to drive off the roadway and over lawns and through shrubs, and and some of this is happening in an apartment building complexes, and it's um it's causing me and uh the rest of the police department a great deal of anxiety, knowing that um hopefully it's not just a matter of time that somehow we can de escalate and prevent somebody innocent from being seriously hurt or killed.

Um they're just um certainly we we understand and we will not interfere with people expressing lawful First Amendment their uh rights, but we have people that are going far beyond what the First Amendment rights um allow them to do.

We appeal to them again um to consider that uh when they do that, they face both uh personal and legal jeopardy, and they are putting their fate at times in the hands of another person in that person's judgment uh when they do these things.

We think it's dangerous.

It's not because we're trying to protect ICE agents, it's because we're trying to avoid a tragedy.

Um one last thing, uh the business end of things.

Uh we um we do not we have not put out special patrols for ICE.

We really don't have the resources for that.

It's probably not a good idea just from a um strategic standpoint.

What we when we respond to um an ICE incident, those are patrol officers responding to those incidences.

So, you know, there isn't a direct cost as far as um paying for extra patrol, so to speak, but there are absolutely indirect costs.

Um the least of which is the extra work I and the executive staff are doing uh in addressing counsel and and other questions.

Most importantly, um, these are usually multiple officer calls.

Yeah, they're a kidnapping, an abduction, a possible crime and progress is a lay is an officer-intensive response.

And um even getting a vehicle out of a travel lane on the road requires a minimum of three officers just to protect each other from being run over.

So every time we go, uh that is multiple officers who can't go to other calls for service, who can't serve the rest of the community.

That is not the community's fault.

That is a result of the enforcement tactics.

Um I believe that's um what I wanted to cover in the update and then leave plenty of time for follow-up questions.

Any questions for the chief?

Counselor O'Care.

Um I don't know if I have a question for you, but as much as I do want to share some things.

Um I've been on council since 2017.

And before that, I never had any relationship with HPD.

And I uh my life experience um taught me not to trust the police.

And since I've been on council, I've had opportunity to learn what HPD does.

I've gone on ride-alongs, um, met with you, appreciate the fact that you will go and um meet with people and sit down and listen to them, talk to you about things that are happening.

And that's businesses, and I've done that with you.

That's businesses.

You've been kind enough to go out to be in a star and talk with the staff and the management about what's happening on the properties and what ICE has done to them.

Um but I I'm I can't sit here and say that um that all cops are good.

I'm gonna say that cops are humans and they work in trauma based jobs, and that to me is in no way easy.

I've had cops talk to me about what the experience and that being a cop is the only job they could get coming out of the army or military because they've had that experience.

Um and I shared with you, I shared with you this today, and I'm I'm bringing this up because there are going to be people in the city who don't feel comfortable, who don't trust, and all they see is uniforms, and then um you have the difficult job of trying to bridge that gap and trying to help people understand.

And one thing I appreciated hearing from you today was the fact that ICE is also demanding you to do things, and that when you and your cops don't do what they want, it really makes them angry, and that you're uh you're not living up to the work that they do.

In my opinion, I do not believe that they've had the level of training that you have had and all of HPD to provide public safety in a manner that is safe and fair.

Um experience recently at Winco with a police officer.

I want to say this.

Um that I saw a bank of cars, iCE cars, some of them took off.

Motorical cop wrote up.

I said, Hey, hey, there's ice vehicles right there, and you know, and people were standing around, and he said, Well, what do you want me to do about it?

And I said, Excuse me, you what did you say?

And I said, You work for a sanctuary city, so you should have some sensitivity to the fact that ICE vehicles have been parked here and there are people shopping inside the store that might be freaking out, and as you say, might be acting in a way that's not gonna be uh the usual, right?

Um, we heard tonight from a lot of people who have been um have feelings about their experience with HPD, and we have new council, we have new staff.

Sanctuary city was in 2017, and people weren't here for what happened in that time and why we got Sanctuary City and how we came to that vote.

But um we need to really work hard with our community to bridge that gap if we are going to continue telling them not to respond.

That's gonna be really hard.

There's a lot of heartbreaking stories that we heard here today.

It's gonna be hard to bridge that gap somehow.

You're gonna have to do it, and I think that there needs to be retraining about what it means to work for a sanctuary city.

Thanks.

Yeah, counselor, thank you.

Uh, we did have a conversation.

I always appreciate your candor with me.

Uh I think I I just want to say um in the most um you know, time appropriate way.

Uh, when I when I say that we direct our officers to um help people get back in contact with their property, um help them with their pets, to let their their co-workers or family know that they're not the victim of a crime.

I I know some people feel it's crime, I'm just talking very um legally.

Um I didn't come up with those things, those are what the officers were doing already.

They were actually inspirational to uh my direction to the police officer.

So I'm very proud of uh the police officers at Hillsborough Police Department, wouldn't trade them for any others in the world, and uh thanks for your feedback.

And you're not all bad.

You're not all bad.

A lot of you have done a really a lot of good.

Um so you know, one A doesn't spoil a dozen.

Are there any other questions for Chief Coleman?

Counselor Sinclair.

Thank you, Mary.

Um Chief Cohen, I really appreciate that you're here putting yourself out here and advocating for the police department and also making yourself available to our questions.

Um tonight when we heard testimony from residents, I kept hearing like I'm tired of hearing what you can't do.

Can you share with us what we can do?

Um because when I look at like Oregon State statutes, um there's been rumors of extortion calls pertaining to ICE, things like that.

Can you reassure us as a community?

Like that is part of state statute.

Like we will respond to an extortion call.

Um, I just want to hear what we can do in association that's not directly with ice, but still has echo effects of impact due to ice.

Yeah, thank you, uh, counselor.

And I certainly won't be able to provide an exhaustive list.

There's more um, you know, thoughtful people than me that work at the police department and in the city that help us with these things.

Um, but you we luckily we have not uh seen a circumstance where um we saw a federal agent um acting in a way that we could um articulate was with criminal intent, and but if we and that is uh as um the city attorney explained earlier, the bar is incredibly high.

Um it's it's probably higher than most people realize to be able to say that's criminal.

But you know, um, if we saw somebody um you know, at the other end of a use of force, for instance, that um looked as if that person's life was in peril, I think we'd be hard pressed not to at least um you know, say, hey, do you see what's going on here?

I you know, you need to we we can say and suggest a lot of things without actually making physical contact, without breaking Oregon state law.

Uh we have not come close to that yet.

I know a lot of the things are very traumatic, but there is a very high bar there.

Um we um I had a high idea in my head and it disappeared as I would was speaking, but um yeah, we um I'm sure it will come back to me.

Um there are um yeah, uh if I can yeah, I'm I I will raise my hand again if uh if some of those ideas are.

No, and I'm sure we'll have other opportunities in the future as things evolve.

This is new for all of us.

This is unprecedented.

Um I do look forward to additional recessions in the future.

Um, and to see how we can all learn and grow from each other and hope for more educational opportunities for HPD with our community to continue to educate us on steps we can take.

Thank you, Counselor Environ or Counselor Sergio.

Oh, okay, great.

Okay.

Um so uh so you mentioned special patrols for ice, which uh which are not there.

Uh is that something that would be helpful in your opinion?

No, I I think for a number of reasons that's not um, you know, that I think we could be unintentionally encouraging people to um have a community um kind of situation here where you know we're trying to figure out where ice is and what they're doing, and um we really don't have the resources that we could afford to pull people away from um responding to injury traffic accidents, domestic violence calls, um, crimes in progress, things like that.

We just um it's if we um if we created a special patrol for that, for instance, we would have to run short and other very important areas of our uh ability to respond to uh 911 calls and uh crime prevention stuff.

So is it resource constraint?

Uh but the actual thing might be helpful.

I I um I I didn't mean to suggest that that was something that um we uh we had considered.

Uh I just I just want to make it clear to people that we respond um out of our patrol resources, and therefore it it makes it difficult.

We have to leave other calls holding.

It does that if that's helpful.

Yep.

Um, and then the other one, how how are um uh how are you coordinating or working with the other police departments?

Yeah, we share ideas, we share experiences.

Part of um, you know, not every all the um advice and direction we give our officers is from experiences in Hillsborough alone.

You know, we watch both locally and nationally.

It's it's one of my primary concerns is that you have a federal agency that's um boy.

Thank you, Simone, for getting me water.

I needed it.

Um we have the federal agency that is probably incorporating experiences from across the country and how they give their um agents direction, um, rules of engagement, if you will.

So um, I'm very mindful that um they may be responding in a way here in Hillsboro that um was precipitated by events somewhere else.

So we have to be cognizant of that, and and um so we look across the country locally.

Uh we have um boards and meetings in place where I meet with every other chief and um the district attorney and the sheriff.

Uh it's usually monthly, but it's quite often more frequently uh in times like this.

We meet next Thursday.

This will be a big topic there.

I also meet regionally and nationally with other law enforcement leaders, and um we we also frankly try and have relationships with our federal partners.

There are very important things that um uh we do with, for instance, with the FBI that help the citizens of Hillsborough, they solve violent crime and things like that, where we certainly don't engage with the FBI when they're asked to help with uh immigration enforcement, but in areas um where those those relationships are important when when times like this happen, so we can um maybe speak reason to each other, help each other explain um what direction we're coming from.

Yep, I have two questions, but first I just want to say, you know, after watching the video that you shared yesterday and just seeing how you know you mentioned earlier where you're playing a neutral part, you're getting chewed out by the ICE agents, and then you're getting called out by the public.

I just have a lot more empathy for the role that you're playing and that your officers are playing because it's not a it's not a good situation for anybody to be in, right?

And I know what considering what the community is dealing with, it's it's not as rough as what the general public's dealing with, but just in your role, it's rough, and then also for your Latino officers, right?

Because you know, being multicultural and bicultural, also each side wants to put us in a bucket, right?

We're expected to be perfect on one end, and on the other end, we're expected to do more because of our last name.

And so that also creates some internal conflict.

So I really hope that you have that support in place for those officers, because that's that's even an extra uh issue that they have to deal with, right?

They're out there, you know.

I saw how the people going in the store were interacting with them, they were smiling when they were approaching them, right?

But then they're also getting called out for being a police officer and being Latino, and so it's just there's a lot going on there.

So I really hope that you know we have the support in place for those officers, uh, because it is not a it's not a safe situation mentally for them to be in.

So I just commend them and commend the work that you all are doing.

Um my questions are can you confirm that if somebody's pulled over by somebody wearing a mask and an unidentified uniform and they call 911 that you are able to respond and confirm the identity of the officers?

Can you just confirm that that is a call that you would respond to?

Yeah, we we would respond to any 911 call.

Okay.

Um, but when we talk about confirming the identity, um, you know, that means like if they're still there, they don't have to wait for us.

You can't you um it's not advisable to um uh so have happened at this point.

Yeah, but what um uh when we do respond, I mean we we can't demand a warrant.

We uh can't demand their identification that if they make uh reasonably um obvious to us that they are federal immigration enforcement, then uh we're right back in that zone of neutrality, yeah.

So that we will respond to any call.

Yeah, yeah.

So let me just share a scenario and let me know what the likelihood is.

So you know, we heard that from a lot of people today that they're scared just to be out in public, right?

And we hear it they're multiple channels, not just so now we've been hearing it for months.

And so let's say, you know, one of there's a Latina woman in a car and she's getting pulled over, and she's like, Well, I don't I can't see any badge or identifier um and calls 911 and you know you get there in time in that situation.

Um, and calls 911.

And you know, you get there in time in that situation.

How do you engage?

Are you saying that you can't confirm that they're agents or not?

Or no, we how would that play out if that was a likely scenario?

It's it's probably understandably way easier for us to determine if somebody's law enforcement or not.

We we know what to look for.

We um so we would probably we have not struggled to identify iCE officers if they're out on foot.

It is enormously difficult to know if a vehicle is actually an ICE vehicle or not.

Um there are a lot of people driving cars with blacked out windows that are not ICE agents.

Yeah, uh, we don't know that all ICE agents drive cars with blacked out windows.

We just don't know.

A lot of some of them are rentals, they don't all have emergency equipment, they don't have special license plates.

Vehicles are difficult, yeah.

On foot, we can usually very quickly, and we have been able to very quickly identify that they are federal federal agents.

They're not all ICE agents, I think most people know that, but that they're federal law enforcement.

Federal law enforcement, yeah, yeah.

I just want the politics here that that is something that we will support that community if there's concerns that you know they're not federal law enforcement.

So thank you for doing that.

You know what?

You just reminded me when I wanted to tell uh counselor sincle.

Um it dovetails with that.

We will vigorously pursue and strenuously encourage prosecution of anybody that tries to take advantage of the trauma that our community is going through now by posing as a law enforcement officer or official uh to extort or to cause fear or anything.

Um if you impersonate a federal law enforcement officer to do those things, we will be after you.

Counselor Case and then Councillor Emory.

Uh Counselor Salgado asked uh a good part of my first question about um, you know, what can we expect?

Uh I mean, can we can we ask for if you're if there's an incident involving ICE, can you ask for badge and identification information that we can keep on hand?

Um is that a I mean, I know you you can recognize who they are.

Is that is that a possibility?

And I know we talked earlier today, and so a lot of questions you and I talked about uh earlier today that I yeah, so yeah, we can ask that one.

Yeah, we can ask, but if we have if there's any reasonable belief that they are in fact law enforcement, we can't stop them from doing what they're doing.

We can we can absolutely ask, but we can't cause the we can't impede or interfere with them if they refuse to do it.

Okay, as it's unless we can articulate that we are uh we have a reasonable fear that they are not federal law enforcement.

Yeah, okay.

Um thank you.

And then uh another quick question, which may be more for the guys on the left here.

Um, but if we did a like a state of emergency was declared, would there be we I mean would HP to be working uh against ICE?

Would they would we maintain what that state of emergency kind of I mean there's a bunch of different things in that yeah?

I'll take a crack and then I'll turn it over to Chad.

Um declaring a state of emergency uh based on the things we're talking about wouldn't have any effect.

It doesn't mean the council can't do it, just to be clear.

If the council wants to do that, we certainly can't.

I just want to be very transparent with the community and with the council.

It doesn't change anything that we're doing.

The funding that we're talking about doing, we can do that already.

Um I don't believe it would change anything that the way that police um is already um protecting the community.

So uh so it's it's more semantics, um, and it wouldn't really change anything that we're talking about doing.

Yeah, um Chad and Robbie are the guys that ask, but I I hey I'm not I'm not a legislator or sit or a council person or anything like that.

I don't, you know, just knowing that if it doesn't comport with Oregon state law, it's not gonna, we're not gonna you can't uh um imbue us with any power that that um it's contrary to that.

Counselor Anvary and then counselor sinclair.

Thank you.

So uh uh kind of going going going uh uh containing with that.

So why can't why can't you so you said so what what is uh stopping the police from demanding IDs?

Demanding is the keyword there.

Um I didn't know you demand and you use both.

We can request, yeah.

Uh it depends on what you mean by demand.

I mean, demand to in my mind, I'm sorry, just means that like uh show it to me or else uh which is not a position we are in.

Right, and why is that?

What is that important?

Because we're subject to the same laws as everybody else when it comes to a federal law enforcement agent, we can't impede or interfere with their lawful, but they've the supremacy act, but we but we don't know if they're federal or not.

Yeah, that's we we have to do both.

I mean, we we're if yeah, they um they often do where I am not defending the way they dress in any way, but we our officers typically can identify a badge quickly, and whether it's embroidered on top of a load bearing vest or or it's on their belt or something.

I mean, those are the things our officers are looking for as they're pulling up, as they're getting out of their cars.

Um, they are doing that.

They're they're they're typically not gonna ask for uh could credentials when they're engaged with somebody, um, because they're just you know it's it's dangerous, we don't know who they're talking to.

It could be a very dangerous person.

So we're not gonna say, hell hold it, everybody stop, show us your credentials.

I the officers are just navigating these situations, and if they can, if like uh there's an opportunity to say, hey, you know what what agency are you with, what's your name?

Um they can certainly ask that.

There's nothing stopping us from doing it, but we have no way to compel um federal agents.

Okay, and that that is because of no that's not because of Oregon law, that's just because of federal law.

Because the federal and Chad can probably speak that, but it's very broad, it's very broad.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

So I I think the the more direct answer to your question, counselor, is that under federal law, as the chief was saying, um, any person is prohibited from impeding or interfering with a federal agent doing official duties.

Um, in order to actually demand and interference that you can't move forward unless you provide me with evidence of who you are, the officers are gonna have to be able to articulate a reason why they don't believe that this is a federal agent.

So there's gonna have to be a valid basis to say we don't believe you're a federal agent, so you know we think this is a possible kidnapping, we're gonna investigate this kidnapping and we're gonna stop you from moving forward to be able to demonstrate that we weren't actually interfering with them.

If if there's evidence that those are federal agents and all those things that the chief was just describing about those, you know, the the badges or other sorts of things that the the officers are trained to recognize, and then we can't articulate that we had a reasonable belief that they weren't federal agents, then that's gonna put the officers in jeopardy of violating that federal law.

And so that's the sort of fine line that they're walking to say, hey, can I articulate a valid reason why I don't believe that these people are federal agents, in which case then I can maybe take more strict action here, or if I can't, then I have to sort of back off a little bit because then I would violate federal law.

Is that good?

Summary, Chief.

Yeah, I it's super helpful, Chad.

I think I think there's we're kind of maybe in uh unintentionally talking about two different directions here.

Chad's talking about if we have reason to believe that they may not be federal officers, but if it's I I think sometimes people are also asking us, we want you to ask their credentials so we know which federal officers were doing what that's where it's completely voluntary on their part, and we can't articulate like well, you know, we were we were told by you know, forgive me for saying uh our city council that we need to get your name, they don't have to comply with that.

Because of the supremacy clause, uh yeah, it's correct.

If I may I I just one quick question associated with that, and it's is it then I'm so sorry, president um here's okay.

So but is visible identification required on city controlled public premises well, yeah.

I mean they would have to um they would either have to have permission or warrant to enter city control to be in public places, no, but uh city premises, right?

Yeah, that had that meets all the standards of not being open to the public again.

We're getting an attorney speak here, but um, yeah, they um you know I it's always when we talk about public spaces and public premises that are city owned, it's a little bit dicey because um they they are two different things.

But Chad, if we had made an if we made uh if we codified, I'm asking, and I'm not trying to gotcha because I feel like a really bad counselor.

We just went through so many hours of testimony from our public who are scared and rightfully so.

And if there is like some sliver of something that pushes the dial to be actionable, I think it's worth it.

But I mean, I'm just generally talking right now.

What I'm asking is if we codify jurisdiction on city-owned uh controlled premises.

Does that at least it doesn't protect people from ICE, but does it require ICE to be accountable for identifying themselves?

So I I want to sort of try to explain a little bit what Chief was saying, just so that we're all talking about the same thing, we're all on the same page.

So when we talk about city-owned premises or city controlled premises, that's a lot of different areas.

Those are areas that are generally open to the public, you know, our parks, parking lots where anyone can go at any point in time, and we're not restricting people necessarily from being there, anyone from the general public, versus areas such as Robbie's office or you know, other areas of the city where the public isn't generally allowed to go.

And so, under state law already, um, and under federal law, if uh ICE agent or any other federal agent wants to go into an area for immigration purposes that is not generally open to the public, so like Robbie's office, they would either have to get consent from the city, which state law already prohibits us from providing.

We're not allowed to provide consent for them to go into that area, or they would have to have a warrant um to be able to go in there and show us the actual warrant to be able to go in.

So in that situation, we would be able to verify that they are federal agents because they would have a judicial warrant with them to be able to go into those areas.

So that's that's one bucket of city owned property.

And so in that situation, it's already state law already sort of provides that.

There's nothing that precludes us from doing something, you know, to mirror state law and saying the same sort of thing.

Like if you want to go into these areas, you know, we won't provide consent and you have to have a warrant.

But just so the public and everyone on council is aware, that's already the state of the law right now.

And and one of the, you know, one of the commenters was exactly right.

You know, I told you at the very beginning of my presentation, I was just giving a 10,000 foot um overview of of these issues.

Um, but the the state laws, the state sanctuary laws do provide for a lot of different things than what I talked about earlier, and this is one of those things about that consent.

So then the other bucket is the area of city-owned premises that are open to the public generally.

And in those situations, um we can't have we don't have the authority to tell ICE that they're not allowed to go there, that um they're allowed to be there just like any other member of the public, and we can't necessarily preclude them from being there.

However, under state law, as we've talked about, we're not allowed to use city resources for immigration enforcement purposes.

So we can certainly put up signs and do other sorts of things like they're doing in Chicago to sort of say, you know, ICE, you're not allowed to be doing these kinds of things.

I the concern, and this is more of a policy issue, is whether that somehow presents some sort of falsehood of safety for people, because ICE doesn't need to necessarily follow that or listen to that, and I don't know that we could actually enforce that against an ICE agent who ignored our our signs or whatever our ordinance that says you can't be on this uh park that's open to the public generally to arrest somebody because I think they're gonna say federal law preempts that we have the ability under federal law to go there, we don't need a warrant to go there, so therefore your ordinance isn't valid.

This is such a complex thing.

Yeah, because I try to make it as simple as possible.

Because if some if I was saying we did do that, codified it had our signs up and everything, and then let's say they did come to our parts.

How would our police officers respond to that?

Do you see what I'm saying?

I mean, it is very they can be there in the parks, right?

But what if they were arresting people on our parks and it's one of those sensitive areas, you know what I'm saying, to where it would be in your natural, you know, reaction to want to protect our community, and what would that be?

And none of us have the answer, and it's complex.

Well, and I and I think the answer is that the federal government would take the position that that is that that ordinance would be preempted, so therefore it cannot apply to the ICE agents.

So we're creating that sort of sense that that falsehood of protection for people in the community thinking that is a safe area when it's really not.

And so that's where I think we, you know, obviously it's a policy call for you all, um, but it's one of those things that you really need to think about.

Um, and look, you know, I I think what you all did tonight and getting public comment and you know what staff is proposing to do and you all proposing to do is to continue to work with community and hear from those people who are actually affected about whether or not that type of thing would be helpful.

You know, I'm not one here sort of the ivory tower to say, no, that's a really bad idea.

That's not my call to make.

And I think that, you know, getting that feedback from a community like counselor Alcara was talking about earlier today makes a lot of sense for you guys to continue to have that conversation.

But when you're having that conversation, I think those are the kinds of things that you want to be thinking about.

Um, Counselor Alcare.

So um, I think we're gonna because um I had somebody ask me today at uh November 7th that all this was gonna stop.

And I said no, it won't stop until we have a definite president.

So I think that we need to have as this gets more um ramped up, we're gonna need to have more frequent updates from you.

And probably uh recommending having a work session focused just on ISN HPD soon.

And we're gonna need to hear from Jim soon as details get more frequent.

Um and possibly people getting hurt or impacted negatively as our businesses continue declining.

I think we need to hear more from HPD about what's going on.

Thank you, Counselor Alcare.

I'll just add and I there are two slides left.

Um, and part of it is to address what you had said.

So if it's okay with the council, um I can finish these, it won't take me very long, um, but it's it's uh pertinent, I think, to part of this discussion.

So if we go to the next one, Simone.

Um, we talked, we're we're we're focused a lot on police.

And I just want to add, first of all, my appreciation um for our police.

They are put in such a difficult spot, and we have incredible officers that I um I appreciate what they do.

We also have a lot of other staff that are also being affected by this, right?

And so uh as an example, while we haven't actually seen ICE specific ice activity in the city facility, it's been very close to some of our libraries, for example.

We've had librarians that have witnessed it, right?

So we are working really hard to make sure that our all of our staff, every single staff member has access to all the training that we're that we're we've been talking about.

We're we're doing and we're updating it as as soon as we can, right?

We're updating our guidelines for interactions.

We have it for supervisors as managers for what they do in case, and we have it for our frontline super uh frontline staff as well, so that they at least have some type of preparation in case something does happen at a city facility.

And we and in those we talk about the public versus non-public um space.

Uh we we are actually working on updating all of our signage that show employees only pass this point, right?

Most of our facilities have that, but we want to be really explicit about that because anything beyond it, um, unless there's a warrant, right?

Then nobody from the public, including you know, uh ICE agents or someone else would not be able to go if they didn't have a warrant.

Um we talk about the importance of non-interfering, right?

Because again, we cannot create liability for our uh public employees when they're in those situations.

And we want to make sure that they are also safe, but we also ask them to report these things, you know.

So we want to make sure that we are aware whenever these things happen.

Um we're just up at we're we have a frequently asked questions uh um list that's gonna be going out to our staff probably tomorrow or sometime this week, and we'll be continuing to add that as well.

We have our EAP program, our employee assistance program because not only is this stressful people on the job, but we have employees who have family and friends also that have been uh affected by this.

So we want to make sure we are supporting our employees as they are going through this.

And then obviously we have a very high focus on making sure that we're presenting all of our training in both Spanish and English.

We have many employees who's um who prefer uh Spanish as their first language.

So we're doing our best to make sure we're communicating um the best we can.

Um, Simone, if you could skip to the next one.

This is where we were normally gonna put the Latino Policy Council just to remind us.

So then we'll go to the last slide, which is really next steps and back to counselor all care's um comment.

This is the first.

This this won't be the last work session.

Uh I think we all recognize that we're gonna be dealing with this for some time.

And so there's things that we heard tonight that, and I know there's there's more to come from council that we can look into.

Uh, we can work on what those next work sessions come back and and look like.

Um we can include police as well.

And so again, this is not the only time that you'll hear about this from us.

Uh, and and this is gonna be ongoing.

Uh, we will want to continue.

You'll see these other things on here.

We want to make sure we're promoting accurate information that's so important right now that people hear accurate, transparent information from us.

Uh, we want to make sure we're engaging with our staff that make sure they feel supported and and and we're helping them do what they need to do in their jobs.

We will continue to engage with the community.

There's lots of good ideas that we heard tonight about ways to do that and working with our community-based organizations because they so often will know better than we do, and we need to hear from them on that.

Um, we're going to be working on this request for funding, as we talked about earlier.

We are very we're we want to go quickly on that.

So we have this 2,000 200,000 to 2,000.

We have this 200,000 identified, and we want to make sure we're quick and nimble um and make that easy for access.

So hopefully this week or next, we'll have that on the streets ready to go to be able to start soliciting that information from uh those organizations.

And then beyond that, uh, that's our presentation tonight.

So we wanted to just share everything we had, and I know the council has may have more questions.

Um I'll turn it over back to Mayor Pace and thank you.

Thank you, Robbie.

Uh there it's 11:15.

Uh we've had a long evening, but are there any other questions or comments?

Counselor Ambry.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for for for sending this out.

This this was this was really good.

Um so uh uh I what we haven't gotten to is uh uh so uh as a council, what what are the directions that we want to give to the city?

So that part we haven't gotten to.

So when so the next work session should be soon so that we could you know just kind of discuss what we we've absorbed in and give the direct and yes, yes.

Uh we can we can uh change all of our future work sessions, whatever we need to do, right?

So um I've already talked with staff about what we have in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, just to make sure because two weeks is still a long time.

Yes.

So we already know some things, right?

Some of the things that and maybe tonight it would be helpful, like declaring an emergency, right?

That came up a lot tonight.

Again, if the council wants to do that, we can do that.

That's easy to do.

I was just trying to be transparent about what that really means.

Um, we will get working immediately on these community uh service grants.

Um that's already in in motion.

So by the next time we meet in a couple of weeks as a work session, those will already be out there.

I can't guarantee they'll be already scored and and funded because that's just a process to go through.

We want to want to make sure that we're working effectively with our community and that they're all aware of it.

But all those things are things that we're doing now.

Um, a couple of other things as well, just uh going back to what Chief had talked about with Flock.

We have some research to do there as well, right?

Making sure that we're uh some of our other technology that we're using, we're not in we just don't know sometimes.

And so we will look into those types of things.

But if there's other things to your point, Counselor Anvery, um, direction.

If there's more direction you want to have us look into, we can do that tonight.

We can we could get more direction in two weeks as well because this is gonna be a long term.

Um I don't want to work work uh uh work more time, but one of the big things that I do do want to do is have uh uh have Chad look into very carefully what can we change as policy so that the HBD can be more responsive, legally more responsive.

That that is that is the main thing I I heard today.

Very good question.

We can do it.

Uh and and we've had a lot of those discussions already, and so we will continue to look into that.

I will say um I I heard that a lot as well tonight.

Um sometimes uh specifics were lacking on really what that means.

And so if you or the other counselors have specifics about, hey, can you look into specifically this, like what we were just talking about with public spaces or whatnot, that would be helpful because otherwise it's very broad.

And we so far have we continue to meet and try to figure this out.

But if you have specific examples of where you want us to look into, please tell me so we can we can address those specifically.

Counselor.

I'm sorry, counselor all care, then counselor Sogano.

Um just curious, does ICE notify HPD if they are coming in to town?

Um I wouldn't say it's never happened, it rarely happens, and typically that would be um maybe if they were I'm trying to think of an example of when they notified us ahead of time.

Um it's it might be at a time where they see a conflict with you know, um with some police operation that we might be doing somewhere, or they have a question about uh a particular area.

Um they have asked if they could use um police department facilities, and we said no.

Um so uh it has happened very rarely.

I would say um the vast majority of times we don't know until we get we either see it or we get a call from the community.

And and what did they want to use police facilities?

What police facilities?

I I'm sorry, I can't discuss that.

Would they make a similar request to that to the Washington County Sheriff?

I um I I can't speak to their communications with any other law enforcement agency.

Can you find out, Robbie?

We we can try, but uh there's just some information that they may not be able to share either.

I can certainly ask if we know if they know of any examples of ice wanted use facilities.

Uh we could check on that.

Be important to know.

Um counselor, counselor Sargato and then Counselor Sinclair.

Yeah.

Um I have a few things, so it's not gonna be quick.

Uh so I I really appreciate the that you all found 200,000 to get out to the community.