Asylum seeker arrested at Portland courthouse transported to Tacoma. Federal judge seeks answers

The 24-year-old asylum seeker arrested at Portland Immigration Court on Monday was taken within hours to a federal detention center in Tacoma, according to court records filed Tuesday.

That revelation by federal authorities came in response to a series of questions from U.S. District Judge Amy M. Baggio, who is reviewing the matter. Baggio on Tuesday ordered federal immigration officials “not to transport” the asylum seeker from the detention center in Tacoma to another location.

The 24-year-old was detained at the federal courthouse in downtown Portland following the dismissal of her case Monday. Innovation Law Lab is now representing the asylum seeker, who it described in court records as a transgender woman who fled Mexico in 2023. Immigration lawyers filed an emergency habeas corpus petition challenging the federal action.

Responding to that petition, Baggio on Tuesday ordered federal officials to keep the woman in Oregon until providing notice to the court or, if she had already been moved, provide the exact time she was relocated and why.

Federal officials disclosed that she was removed at about 3 p.m. Monday, according to a summary listed in the electronic court docket. The woman’s petition was filed at 2:37 p.m. Monday, prompting Baggio to conclude she had jurisdiction to review the matter.

Publicly available records didn’t indicate if federal officials explained why they believed moving the woman to Tacoma was immediately necessary. Baggio gave officials until noon on Thursday to respond to the petition.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have a small office in South Portland where immigrants show up for their check-in appointments and where people can be held for a short-term period while awaiting transfer to a detention center. Typically, people get transferred to the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, a much larger facility, which can hold up to nearly 1,600 immigrants, or to other detention centers across the country.

Focus on the woman’s swift move to Tacoma and the judge’s order that she not be moved again come as the Trump administration faces scrutiny across the country for its aggressive deportation efforts. The Trump administration has already forcibly removed several alleged gang members, many without criminal records, to a notorious prison in El Salvador in defiance of a court order. It also attempted to remove a smaller group to South Sudan. Both cases have led to legal challenges and lawsuits against the administration.

Inside the federal courthouse in Portland on Tuesday morning, there were no apparent signs of continued enforcement action by ICE agents.

Outside, a small group of protesters gathered. One held a hand-drawn sign of a family running, which read in all capital letters, “Immigrants are not the enemy.”

Brad Schmidt and Maxine Bernstein contributed to this report.

–Yesenia Amaro is on the investigations team. Reach her at 503-221-4395, or yamaro@oregonian.com.

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