This is about protecting Oregonians

Communities are living in fear right now as masked and unidentified ICE agents snatch people off the streets with no due process.

That's not hyperbole; it has been the policy of the Trump Administration from Day 1 of this term to prioritize brute force over civil rights, and to have law enforcement appear more threatening by making them anonymous.

And over the past few weeks, members of the Trump administration – including his own son Donald Trump Jr. – have made comments about targeting cities like Portland next with their federal occupations.

Recently, when Trump's "border czar" Tom Homan made plans to visit Oregon, I urged him to join me for one of my open town halls to explain his policies and hear directly from the people his ICE agents are affecting.

Instead, he silently skulked in and out of Portland to quietly meet with ICE agents without facing Oregonians.

It's clear that the Trump administration has Portland in its sights.

So I've introduced a bill to restore a key area of accountability: requiring ICE agents to always have clear identification and banning them from wearing masks when making arrests.

It's one of the core tenets of our justice system that those enforcing the law must identify themselves. If they don't, trust, public safety, and social order cannot be sustained.

Keeping Oregonians and our communities safe and maintaining due process are not mutually exclusive, no matter what Donald Trump and his henchmen say.

Oregonians deserve the peace of mind to know they can walk home without masked agents sweeping them up at a moment's notice and not being read their rights. They deserve an end to the terror the Trump administration is deliberately instilling.

It's time we made ICE agents visible and accountable, and I won't stop fighting to get it done.

More soon,

Ron