Copyright The Oregonian
His phone starts going off early in the morning and he hardly ever gets a break, with pings sometimes demanding his attention through the late hours of the night. Jose A. Garibay Esquivel is the owner of Isabellas Market in Salem, but most of his calls lately come from people seeking help or wanting to share information about immigration crackdowns in communities across Oregon. Around January or February, just as President Donald Trump returned to office, Garibay Esquivel started seeing misinformation spread on social media related to immigration enforcement. He distributes Mexican products, such as candy, chips, salsas and Mexican drinks, to Oregon stores, including up and down the Willamette Valley, so he’s often on the road. He started sharing what he was seeing as he was traveling, giving people tips on Facebook if he noticed ICE activity. He attributes his newfound pursuit to family heritage. “My father was like that; he would dedicate himself to helping the community with whatever he could, with what he had,” Garibay Esquivel said in Spanish. He has growing company. Neighbors, churches, local grassroots networks and schools have stepped up to help immigrant Oregonians as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown takes hold. They help accompany people to their immigration court hearings, or to their U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement appointments. They help keep the community informed about ICE activity by posting in social groups or using whistles. They organize school carpools, they do grocery runs, and they help connect neighbors with neighbors. They also provide trainings on what to do — and what to document — when someone spots ICE agents in their neighborhoods. The spike in social media videos documenting sightings of immigration authorities in Oregon is evidence of both increased ICE activity — and communities’ mobilization to confront it. While some immigrants have sought this help, others have hesitated due to their uncertainty and distrust. And as the crackdown intensifies in Oregon, so has the fear in the community, even among those helping, leading some of them to be reluctant to speak publicly. Not Garibay Esquivel. He’s known by the nickname El Compa Tony. Compa is short for compadre, a word to describe a child’s godfather, and is a Spanish term of endearment. “What’s important here is the community,” he said, “and what I do is connect what I know with a necessity. If there’s a person who has a need, and I know a person who can help, then I connect them.” ‘Nobody should feel like nobody’s with them’ A similar spirit is guiding volunteers with Augustana Lutheran Church in Northeast Portland. In early October, the pastor at the Irvington neighborhood congregation, the Rev. W.J. Mark Knutson, joined U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, a Portland Democrat, and two dozen other church volunteers at Portland Immigration Court to support a man from Venezuela who is seeking asylum. The man — who asked to be identified only by his first name, Francisco, due to fear he might jeopardize his pending immigration case — has been unable to find a lawyer to help him. Augustana Lutheran is accustomed to stepping in. The church established itself as a sanctuary for immigrants in 1996 and in 2014 allowed an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador to live in the church for 81 days to avoid a deportation threat. On that early October day in immigration court, people packed the gallery and none of those with court dates appeared to have lawyers or people who could help them navigate the system. That’s not unusual. A 2024 report by nonpartisan data nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse said attorneys were assigned to just 24% of cases in Portland Immigration Court, among the lowest rates in the country. A state-funded program that provides free legal services to people facing deportation assigns an attorney to a person only for their final immigration court hearing. Knutson said Augustana is trying to rectify that. “Nobody should feel like nobody’s with them.” And he wants as many people as possible to join his church’s effort. “We encourage everybody around the state, find your neighbors who may have to go to a court, go with them,” he said. “If we can all accompany in large numbers, that’s going to show a lot to the courts and to this state we live in, how much we care for each other.” Liz McKanna, a retired employment lawyer, was one of the church volunteers that morning. She said it can be scary for anyone to go to court alone. “We want to support them and make sure they have due process,” she said, “that they aren’t just swept away, and not have their cases fully heard.” As Francisco left the court that day, Dexter approached. The first-term member of Congress from Portland — who occupies one of the safest Democratic seats in the nation — has emerged as a strong voice against Trump’s immigration tactics, going so far as to travel to El Salvador to demand the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a wrongly deported Maryland man. “No tenga miedo,” Dexter told Francisco in Spanish. Even with an American accent, her message was clear: Don’t be afraid, she said. Portland neighbors create support system Not everyone feels safe, though. Some people who are helping the immigrant community don’t want their names out there due to fear that information connected to their groups, or members, can lead immigration officials to the people they are trying to help. The co-founder of a local network in North Portland, who asked not to be named in order to not put people in jeopardy, said the group is composed of a mix of people who have lived in the area for generations and people who recently moved there. The group formed soon after the presidential election. “Some of us are U.S. citizens, some of us are immigrants or children of immigrants,” the person said. “We came together in recent months, concerned about the racist attacks on our neighbors and overreach of this administration and attacks on the Constitution.” The group has been building networks of neighbors who can help others by providing rides, helping with errands, providing emotional support or, in some cases, just dropping by to share a meal. “Some families are scared to go out, or some families have actually already had someone detained or deported,” the person said. The group has also trained people through the Migra Watch program, an initiative that takes its name from a Spanish word for immigration authorities that helps community members learn how to identify ICE and safely document their activity. The local network also encourages people to call the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition’s hotline if they see ICE, so the organization can track the activity and make people aware of their rights. In the past few weeks, the co-founder said, the group has connected neighbors to help set up carpools for parents who are too afraid to take their children to school. “We care about our neighbors,” the person said. “I think it’s natural to support people when people need a hand or in a moment of crisis.” Other Portland churches ramp up immigrant protection efforts The Immigrant Justice Action Group at First Unitarian Church of Portland was formed at the downtown congregation 20 years ago, but it was “reenergized” under the first Trump administration, said the Rev. Alison Miller, senior minister at the church. Over the past several months, Miller said, the church has split many of its collection plates with organizations that work with immigrants and refugees. “We were concerned in the second administration that there would be a quicker, more organized effort to target groups that were targeted under the last Trump administration,” she said. “We were concerned about what might happen to immigrants.” The church has been working with organizations such as the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition and Together Lab, to help support people going to their hearings at Portland Immigration Court and at their ICE check-in appointments. “It makes a difference when people are paying attention to what’s happening when immigrants come to these appointments,” she said. “It’s very demoralizing when people show up for their appointments and are unexpectedly then detained.” The church, in collaboration with other groups, provides space for ongoing trainings in the community. Last weekend, they held a Migra Watch session, for example. “I think it’s important for people to become educated,” she said, “and to learn about the ways that they might help.” And to take a stance, she said. “This is not the America that we dream about,” she said. “We dream about an America that celebrates diversity and honors the benefits that happen when everyone’s rights are protected.” Tow truck operators volunteer to help Back in Salem, Garibay Esquivel is happy to see his work inspiring others to take action. When people send him videos or pictures of immigration arrests, they also send him pictures of abandoned cars on the roads in an attempt to identify the person and locate family members. El Compa Tony now has help from a few tow truck operators who have volunteered to retrieve the abandoned cars of people who’ve been arrested by immigration agents. “We all can help,” Garibay Esquivel said, “in one form or another.”
