PORTLAND, Ore. — Federal immigration agents shot and wounded two people in a vehicle near Adventist Health hospital in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday afternoon, authorities said, drawing hundreds of protesters to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building that evening and prompting Oregon’s attorney general to open a formal investigation.
The Department of Homeland Security said agents were conducting a “targeted vehicle stop” when the driver tried to run them over, and that an agent then fired a “defensive shot.” There was no immediate independent corroboration of that account or of the agency’s claims about the vehicle occupants’ affiliations, the Associated Press reported. The shooting came a day after an ICE officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis.
The shooting, the second involving ICE agents in two days, comes as Oregon and Portland officials have mounted legal and political opposition to federal immigration enforcement in the city. Oregon’s attorney general opened a formal investigation, and the FBI is leading the inquiry into Thursday’s incident.
Portland Police said officers first responded at 2:18 p.m. to a report of a shooting outside Adventist Health hospital. Minutes later, police received word of a man seeking help in a residential area about two miles away. Officers there found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds and determined they had been injured in the encounter with federal agents, police said. Officers applied a tourniquet to one of the two.
Their conditions were not immediately known. City Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney said during a council meeting that “as far as we know, both of these individuals are still alive, and we are hoping for more positive updates throughout the afternoon.”
The DHS said the vehicle’s passenger was a Venezuelan national the agency described as “affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” and as involved in a recent Portland shooting. The Associated Press reported there was no immediate independent corroboration of that claim or of any gang affiliation of either vehicle occupant.
Police Chief Bob Day said at a nighttime news conference that the FBI was leading the investigation and that he had no details about the events that led to the shooting.
Oregon officials respond
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield vowed to investigate “whether any federal officer acted outside the scope of their lawful authority” and said he would refer criminal charges to the prosecutor’s office if the evidence warranted it.
Mayor Keith Wilson and the Portland City Council called on ICE to end all operations in the city pending a full investigation. “We stand united as elected officials in saying that we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts,” they said in a joint statement. “Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘full force’ threatened by the administration has deadly consequences.”
Wilson said at a news conference that he was skeptical of the federal government’s account. “There was a time we could take them at their word,” he said. “That time is long past.”
State Sen. Kayse Jama, who lives near the scene, said Oregon is a welcoming state and told federal agents to leave. “You are not welcome,” Jama said. “You need to get the hell out of Oregon.”
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, urged demonstrators to remain peaceful. “Trump wants to generate riots,” Merkley said on X. “Don’t take the bait.”
Protests and community response
Hundreds of people gathered at the ICE building in Portland that evening. Several dozen also gathered near the site where police found the wounded.
“It’s just been chaos,” said Anjalyssa Jones, one of those present. “The community is trying to get answers.”
The Portland shooting heightened tensions in a city that has had a prolonged conflict with the Trump administration over immigration enforcement, including the president’s earlier unsuccessful effort to deploy National Guard troops there. The Associated Press reported that video evidence from prior ICE enforcement shootings — including the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis the day before — has cast doubt on the administration’s characterizations of what prompted agents to fire in those incidents.