State and federal officials said they are investigating after a group of masked men impersonating Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulled over and assaulted a migrant in Oregon.
The incident, the latest in a string of crimes committed by alleged ICE impersonators, took place between 3:30 and 5 p.m. on July 17 near Woodburn in Clackamas County, south of Portland.
The encounter began when the driver saw an SUV behind them turn on red and blue emergency-style lights and pulled into a turnout.
“Two men exited the suspect vehicle, one of whom was armed with a rifle,” Oregon State Police said in a statement. “The suspects identified themselves as ‘ICE’ and told the victim they were being detained. The victim was forcibly removed from their vehicle, searched, and placed into the back seat of the suspects’ vehicle.”
Inside, a third individual assaulted the driver, police said. The victim was released about 20 minutes later.
The suspects were described as wearing boots, baseball caps, face coverings, and green long-sleeved shirts, as well as tactical vests marked ‘POLICE.’
The FBI confirmed to The Independent it is jointly investigating the incident with state police but declined further comment, citing its policy on ongoing investigations.
The Independent has contacted the state police for comment.
The victim later sought medical treatment for injuries sustained in the incident, state police said. While at a local hospital, the individual began getting text messages from a number claiming to be from a law firm offering legal services in response to the alleged assault.
A call to the same number by The Independent went straight to voicemail.
The Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition, a local advocacy group, said in a statement on Saturday on Facebook that an “immigrant community member” was the victim of the incident, and that the alleged assault was reported to the group on its hotline the day it occurred.
The group said it was unaware until state police described the incident that the attack had “been carried about by impersonators and not by ICE themselves.”
“This reveals the truth immigrant communities and advocates have long known: there is very little visible difference between ICE kidnapping someone, and armed private kidnappers,” the group wrote.
ICE agents have face widespread criticism for their use of masks, civilian clothes and unmarked cars because such tactics can make it harder to easily identify members of law enforcement and easier to impersonate them, which is a federal crime. During its large-scale operations in cities across the U.S. last year, ICE and the Border Patrol regularly carried out warrantless stops and detentions.
ICE impersonators, meanwhile, have been accused of rape, terrorizing business owners, kidnapping and false traffic stops.
The agency’s tactics are again under the spotlight after a pair of fatal shootings this month in Texas and Maine.
In Houston, an agent killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national, as officers tailed his van in unmarked vehicles in an operation targeting someone else. Salgado Araujo’s brother, who was in the van, claims they were unaware law enforcement was chasing them.
