Candace Avalos
Role at the time: Portland City Councilor for District 1, in a joint statement with Councilors Jamie Dunphy and Loretta Smith
Statement summary
Portland City Councilors Candace Avalos, Jamie Dunphy and Loretta Smith said in a joint statement that ICE shot two of their East Portland neighbors and that it was part of a pattern of violence. They said the violence is unacceptable, criminal and against the U.S. Constitution.
“Today ICE shot two of our East Portland neighbors – just one day after an ICE agent shot and killed a Minneapolis mother. We are still waiting for more information at this time, but this is part of a pattern of violence that we have seen too many times across our country. ICE in our communities does not make us safe. It should be crystal clear to everyone that the real threat to community safety is the ICE agents harassing, targeting, detaining — and in some tragic cases — killing our neighbors. This violence is unacceptable, it is criminal, and it is against the constitution of the United States.”
Why we used this label
The case asks whether the Border Patrol agent was justified in shooting the two people. The councilors said ICE shot two of their East Portland neighbors, called it part of a pattern of violence, and said the violence is unacceptable, criminal and against the U.S. Constitution. They rejected the agents' conduct and did not defend it, so we used the label Condemned.