Shooting Comes Amid Minneapolis Shooting and Heightened Immigration Tensions
Federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people Thursday afternoon outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon, authorities said, intensifying scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement a day after a similar agent-involved shooting turned fatal in Minnesota.
According to the Portland Police Bureau, officers were first called at about 2:18 p.m. to a reported shooting near a hospital in the eastern part of the city.
Police confirmed at the scene that federal agents were involved. Minutes later, officers received information that a man who had been shot was requesting help several miles away in a residential area. Responding officers found a man and a woman with apparent gunshot wounds and determined they were connected to the earlier encounter with federal agents. Both were transported to the hospital, and their conditions were not immediately known.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a written statement that agents fired after the driver of the vehicle attempted to run them over. The department alleged the passenger was affiliated with a transnational criminal organization, claims that had not been independently corroborated. In previous agent-involved shootings during Donald Trump’s expanded immigration enforcement efforts, video evidence has raised questions about initial federal accounts of what prompted the use of force.
Portland City Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney told colleagues during a council meeting that, as of Thursday afternoon, both individuals were still alive. Police secured both the original shooting scene and the location where the wounded pair were found while the investigation continued.
“We are still in the early stages of this incident,” Portland Police Chief Bob Day said, urging calm amid heightened tension following the Minneapolis shooting. The FBI Portland said it is leading the investigation into the agent-involved shooting.
City leaders sharply criticized the federal presence. Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to halt all operations in Portland until a full investigation is completed, warning that federal militarization undermines community-based public safety and civil rights. They urged residents to respond with calm and unity as officials work to determine what happened.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, also called for peaceful responses, cautioning against escalation as the investigation unfolds.
“Trump wants to generate riots,” he said in a post on the X social media platform. “Don’t take the bait.”
