While Oregon authorities challenge ICE, Trump admin targets 911 dispatchers, local agencies

Some of Oregon’s local law enforcement leaders say that federal immigration authorities have failed to adhere to a longstanding practice of notifying them of their activity in their jurisdictions.

The Trump administration is denying the allegations, claiming without evidence that local 911 dispatchers have revealed the sensitive information of federal agents such as their location to the public.

Last November, concerns over immigration operations prompted the Salem-based Oregon State Sheriffs Association to meet with Seattle-based officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about their concerns. They reported securing an assurance from ICE that the agency would notify local authorities when they were operating in their jurisdictions, aligning with longstanding federal policies on a practice known as deconfliction.

But this month, association president Tim Svenson told the Capital Chronicle that that deal was in jeopardy in light of the departure of high-level leaders from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, such as former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. He described the effort as “still a work in progress” adding that “we make connections and headway with one person, and then they are moved out and another person replaces them.”

“There are ways for agencies to deconflict, and we provided contact information with DHS leadership to assist with this process,” Svenson said in a statement. “I just know from previous conversations with sheriffs that this is still not occurring.”

In response, the Trump administration asserted that it always communicates its activity to local emergency dispatchers and accused them of leaking the locations of federal agents without providing any evidence. Public records, news reports and interviews with local officials in Oregon, however, show that federal agents have not always followed that policy.

A spokesperson for ICE did not provide further evidence for the agency’s allegations or respond to additional inquiries about specific incidents in a fact-checking email.

“Notifications are conducted to local dispatch upon both arrival and departure of the city,” an unnamed ICE spokesperson said in a statement last week. “Despite these established practices, some dispatch centers have broadcast ICE activity over unencrypted channels, exposing officer locations and internal communication gaps within local agencies have led sheriffs to believe ICE failed to deconflict even when proper notifications were made.”

Did the November meeting go anywhere?

The attempt to cast doubt on dispatch systems comes as immigration agents in the state have quietly ramped back up arrests after slowing down earlier this year, according to data from the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition. It also coincides with a new legal battle between the Trump administration and Democratic-led states including Oregon over the states denying undercover license plates to ICE agents.

“The agency has changed, and so there’s not a lot of internal work, but there’s inexperienced leadership who sometimes don’t even think about, ‘OK, oh, we need to notify local law enforcement about what we’re operating on,’” said David Carter, professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University. “I think state and local law enforcement are doing their best to try to work within the system the way that they can.”

ICE officials confirmed their leadership met with Oregon sheriffs in November 2025, and that those regional leaders followed up with their Oregon teams in Portland to review and reaffirm current deconfliction practices.

But Jason Chudy, a spokesperson for ICE, did not respond to inquiries about data from Portland’s Bureau of Emergency Communications showing the Homeland Security Department gave the agency no notifications of its activity in the city in January when U.S. Border Patrol shot two Venezuelan nationals. The Capital Chronicle also inquired about publicly reported ICE activity at the Port of Astoria and the attempted arrest of a U.S. citizen in Salem in February, where local officials have made similar allegations.

“The sheriff and the chief of police in Salem found out much later after the fact,” Marion County Commissioner Danielle Bethell told the Capital Chronicle in January. “When that woman was assaulted, they found out because her daughter called 911, to say that this just happened to her mom, not because immigration or Border Patrol gave them a heads up.”

‘Sporadic’ notifications 

Vulnerabilities in the dispatch system for Oregon’s most populous county surfaced in January, when U.S. Border Patrol shot and wounded two Venezuelan nationals in a Portland hospital parking lot.

On social media, a screenshot posted by local anti-ICE activists revealed a 911 dispatch log with the phone number of one of the shot individuals as well as the name of a Border Patrol agent who confirmed the incident with the dispatch center. Conservatives seized on the 911 caller’s number to connect her to escort sites, and left-wing activists derided the disclosure for providing ammunition to the Trump administration’s claims that the woman was tied to a Venezuelan gang’s prostitution ring. The federal government has since abandoned those claims in court.

Contrary to the Trump administration’s allegations, however, the screenshot, corroborated by the Capital Chronicle through a public records request, doesn’t disclose a federal immigration officer’s exact individual location, though it does include a phone number and name. A call log record obtained through a public records request also shows dispatchers and local authorities needing to reach out to ICE to confirm if the agency was involved after the January shooting.

Similar dynamics played out at the Port of Astoria, where local residents say they believe ICE took advantage of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection office stationed at Pier 1, allowing federal immigration agents to conduct detainments in early June.

Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly told the Capital Chronicle that he only heard a report from one ICE officer after a woman was pepper-sprayed by a federal agent. He said that ICE has offered mixed messages in compliance with the deconfliction agreement set out in November.

“Right after that agreement was made, we received a few notifications, and then they just kind of died off. And then after this last incident, we received a notification they were here the next week, and they did call us and tell us that they were in the area,” he said. “I would say it’s sporadic.”