Immigration agents arrest man after hearing at Washington County Circuit Court

Federal immigration agents this month detained a migrant leaving Washington County Circuit Court, marking the first confirmed arrest near a local Oregon courthouse by the Trump administration.

Samantha Ratcliffe, chief immigration attorney at the Metropolitan Public Defender, confirmed the July 7 immigration arrest but declined to provide the name of the individual or additional details.

The newsroom was able to identify him as a 44-year-old man from Portland. It’s unclear why immigration officials arrested him, but the man’s partner told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she believes he was ordered deported from the United States in 2011. He’s originally from Honduras.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The arrest is just the latest in Oregon under a Trump administration that has upended the status quo through aggressive immigration-enforcement tactics. Courthouse arrests had generally been off-limits under previous presidents but, as was the case during Trump’s first administration, are again

becoming a norm

.

Already at least a half dozen

asylum seekers

have been detained at or near federal immigration court in downtown Portland since

early June

. The Washington County incident marks the first confirmed arrest near a local courthouse in Oregon, although no state agency is tracking them and at least one arrest outside the same courthouse had been suspected, but not verified, in late January.

Oregon Chief Justice Meagan A. Flynn on July 1 issued interim procedures for how local courts should address the potential for immigration enforcement by federal officials. Recent changes to U.S. Department of Homeland Security policy governing civil immigration enforcement near courthouses “poses a significant threat to the fair and orderly administration of justice in Oregon courts,” the new guidelines warned.

The procedures, however, mainly focus on telling judges and court staff what to do and what to document, as required under Oregon’s sanctuary laws that generally prohibit cooperation on immigration matters, an official said. Immigration arrests inside court will be tracked, as will federal requests for assistance or use of non-public areas, but arrests outside court won’t be documented.

“Our focus is on supporting our staff and judges with guidance for occasions when activity occurs inside courthouses and court facilities and do what we can to ensure access to justice in our courts,” Todd Sprague, a spokesperson for the Oregon Judicial Department, said in an email, adding that officials are “not actively monitoring areas outside the courthouses and court facilities.”

The guidance from the Oregon Judicial Department comes after the arrest of a Wisconsin judge in April for allegedly helping an immigrant evade federal agents.

The man arrested in Washington County last week appeared before Judge Ricardo Menchaca for a felony case accusing him of driving under the influence of intoxicants, criminal driving while having a suspended or revoked license, and a misdemeanor for failure to perform duties of a driver tied to property damage, according to court records. He has prior DUII convictions.

On the day of his immigration arrest, the man’s girlfriend said they spotted a man wearing green outside the courtroom who was watching them. The couple decided to take the stairs in a “completely different” direction, she said.

As soon as the couple got in her car outside the building, she said, ICE agents boxed them in with four SUVs. One ICE agent tried to get her car keys out of the ignition by reaching through her car window, she said. Another ICE agent opened the passenger door and pulled her partner out, she said.

The woman said her partner was doing the right thing by showing up to court as required.

“I don’t understand how they can just do that,” she said. “It’s wrong”

Moving forward, determining the frequency of immigration arrests near courthouses will be difficult.

Courthouse rules established in 2019 state that no person should be subjected to civil arrest without a judicial warrant in a court or nearby, including sidewalks and parking areas serving the court. But that guidance was repealed in 2021 after officials said it became redundant with enhancement to the state’s sanctuary laws.

In 2021, public and law enforcement agencies began to be required to submit reports to the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission documenting communication or requests for cooperation from federal authorities for immigration enforcement.

This year’s judicial procedures also allow judges and court staff to gather information for “internal use even if it doesn’t rise to the level required for reporting” to the justice commission.

Since the Washington County arrest didn’t happen inside court facilities, no request for cooperation or communication was submitted by federal authorities to court personnel. Sprague said only that “there was a suspected ICE” arrest “across the street” from the Washington County courthouse.

Kelly Officer, research director for the Criminal Justice Commission, confirmed no report has been submitted to her agency by any circuit court so far in 2025.

Sprague said officials don’t have an opinion on other possible approaches that could lead to more concrete reporting for immigration arrests that take place in the vicinity of courthouses.

“We don’t have an opinion on other possible approaches to reporting, who might be charged with monitoring areas near courthouses, or how that might work,” he said.

Reporter Zane Sparling 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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