PORTLAND, Ore. — Federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people Thursday in a vehicle outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon, a day after an officer shot and killed a driver in Minnesota, authorities said.
The Department of Homeland Security described the vehicle's passenger as “a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” who was involved in a recent shooting in Portland. When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants Thursday afternoon, the driver tried to run them over, the department said in a written statement.
“Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot,” the statement said. “The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene.”
There was no immediate independent corroboration of those events or of any gang affiliation of the vehicle's occupants.
During prior shootings involving agents involved in President Donald Trump's surge of immigration enforcement in U.S. cities, including Wednesday's shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, video evidence cast doubt on the administration's initial descriptions of what prompted the shootings.
According to the the Portland Police bureau, officers initially responded to a report of a shooting near a hospital about 2:15 p.m.
A few minutes later, police received information that a man who was shot asked for help in a residential area a couple of miles away. Officers then responded there and found the two people with apparent gunshot wounds. Officers determined they were injured in the shooting with federal agents, police said.
Their conditions were not immediately known. Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney said during a Portland City Council meeting that Thursday’s shooting took place in the eastern part of the city and two Portlanders were wounded.
“As far as we know both of these individuals are still alive and we are hoping for more positive updates throughout the afternoon,” she said.
The shooting escalated tensions in an city that long had a contentious relationship with Trump, including his recent, failed effort to deploy National Guard troops in the city.
Portland police secured both the scene of the shooting and the area where the wounded people were found pending investigation.
“We are still in the early stages of this incident,” Chief Bob Day said. “We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and the City Council called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to end all operations in Oregon’s largest city until a full investigation is completed.
“We stand united as elected officials in saying that we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts,” a joint statement said. “Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘full force’ threatened by the administration has deadly consequences.”
The city officials said, “federal militarization undermines effective, community‑based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region. We’ll use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”
They urged residents to show up with “calm and purpose during this difficult time.”
“We respond with clarity, unity, and a commitment to justice,” the statement said. “We must stand together to protect Portland.”
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, urged protesters to remain peaceful.
"Trump wants to generate riots," he said in a post on the X social media platform, formerly Twitter. "Don't take the bait."
An ICE officer shot Renee Good in the head Wednesday as she tried to drive away on a snowy Minneapolis street. Tensions remained high Thursday, with dozens of protesters venting their outrage outside of a federal facility that's serving as a hub for the administration's latest immigration crackdown on a major city.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Trump and others in his administration characterized the shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her.
Vice President JD Vance weighed in Thursday, saying the shooting was justified and that Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was a “victim of left-wing ideology.”
“I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it is a tragedy of her own making,” Vance said, noting the officer who killed her was injured while making an arrest last June.
State and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said video of the shooting shows the self-defense argument was “garbage.”
Good’s death — at least the fifth tied to immigration sweeps since Trump took office — resonated far beyond Minneapolis, as protests took place or were expected this week in many large U.S. cities.
Good's shooting happened on the second day of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which Homeland Security said is the biggest immigration enforcement operation ever. More than 2,000 officers are taking part, and Noem said they already made more than 1,500 arrests.
It provoked an immediate response in the city where police killed George Floyd in 2020, with hundreds of people turning up to the scene to vent their outrage at the ICE officers and the school district canceling classes for the rest of the week as a precaution.
