(GRESHAM, OREGON) Federal immigration agents stopped a van of construction workers on their way to a job in Gresham in early October 2025, an encounter local lawmakers and worker advocates say fits a growing pattern of occupational and racial profiling tied to street-level enforcement by ICE in Oregon’s building trades.
State Rep. Ricki Ruiz, a Democrat whose district includes Gresham, said the arrest team moved in on a Saturday morning as the men drove from a Home Depot in nearby Troutdale toward a downtown Gresham worksite on Main Street. Ruiz said the workers told him they noticed two SUVs following them, and that when they arrived, six ICE officers got out and started handcuffing people almost at once.
According to Ruiz’s account, five men were placed in cuffs while a sixth ran away. One of the five was later released after showing proof of U.S. citizenship, Ruiz said, but four were taken into custody and transported to an ICE facility in South Portland. At least one was later moved to ICE’s Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, a transfer that can make it harder for families to visit and for lawyers to reach clients quickly.
Family members told Ruiz that agents had a warrant for only one of the four men who ended up detained, though that detail could not be independently verified from the available reports. The Department of Homeland Security did not comment on the incident. Ruiz said the four men taken away had “different names than the one ICE agents said they were seeking,” adding: “It’s not law enforcement, that’s not justice.”
Broader consequences for workers and families
For immigrants and mixed-status families, the stakes of such stops go beyond a single arrest. A car ride to a jobsite can turn into detention, bond requests, and weeks of missed pay — even when the original focus was supposedly one named person.
Laborers often travel in carpools and share pickup points near big-box stores, which means one enforcement action can pull in several workers at once. The ripple effects include:
- Lost wages and missed shifts
- Bond hearings and legal costs
- Emotional strain on families and communities
- Increased difficulty for employers to meet deadlines
Lawmakers and legal context
U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, a Democrat whose district includes Gresham, said she believes a recent Supreme Court decision has encouraged what she called “roving” immigration patrols. Dexter pointed to a 6-3 opinion that lifted restrictions on certain patrol practices, language that explicitly described targeting:
“those who gather in locations where people are hired for day jobs; who work or appear to work in jobs such as construction, landscaping, agriculture, or car washes that often do not require paperwork and are therefore attractive to illegal immigrants; and who do not speak much if any English.”
Worker advocates say that kind of reasoning can blur quickly into racial profiling when agents decide who “appears” to work a particular job.
Alyssa Walker Keller of the Portland Immigration Rights Coalition said her group received a report from one detainee, but had no further details as of October 14, 2025. In interviews, trade workers and contractors describe a climate in which people avoid routine tasks — buying materials, stopping for breakfast, or even calling police after an accident — because any contact could expose them to questioning about status.
Economic and safety impacts on construction
The fear has spread through parts of the construction economy already strained by labor shortages and tight schedules. A November 2025 survey found:
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Construction firms affected by immigration actions in prior 6 months | 28% |
| Firms that experienced ICE jobsite visits | 5% |
| Firms reporting other impacts (e.g., workers staying home) | 10% |
Contractors say even a few hours lost can ripple into missed inspections, delayed concrete pours, and penalties on projects that depend on tight sequencing.
Some employers say the anxiety does not stop at undocumented workers. One contractor, Palomino, told reporters that his crews include people from Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Peru, and that they work on a government project that requires Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses. Despite that, Palomino said several employees were stopped by ICE on the way to work, held for hours, and released only after background checks. He said the delays set back the job and rattled workers who believed their paperwork would shield them from being treated like suspects.
Contractors who rely on immigrant labor say the uncertainty has become a daily management problem, not just a political debate. Kenny Mallick, who runs a plumbing and heating business in Gaithersburg, Maryland, described a “broken labor system” in which even legal workers fear being swept up and having to prove, again and again, that they belong. Trade groups warn that when workers vanish from crews overnight, safety can suffer because new hires may be less trained or may rush to keep up.
National context and incidents
The Oregon reports fit a national pattern of high-visibility actions around worksites and hiring corners:
- June 2025: More than 100 arrests at a construction site in Tallahassee, Florida.
- August 2025: A raid at a Home Depot in Los Angeles ended with the death of a Guatemalan migrant who fled across a freeway.
- October 2025: Four arrests reported at a site in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Los Angeles incident is a reminder that even when agents do not use force, the panic they create can be deadly.
What families and advocates can do
ICE did not publicly release details about the Gresham arrests, and there were no additional Oregon-specific incidents described in the available reports after October 2025, even as enforcement continued under President Trump’s policies.
Families trying to find someone taken into custody can start with the official ICE locator:
- Use the ICE Online Detainee Locator System: https://locator.ice.gov/odls/#/index
Advocates recommend also collecting and recording the following details to improve search results and legal support:
Remember to use the ICE Online Detainee Locator System if someone is detained, and collect full legal name, date of birth, and country of birth to improve search results.
- Full legal name
- Date of birth
- Country of birth
Ruiz said constituents have asked city leaders to document stops and for employers to keep copies of IDs on site, so workers can call relatives fast.
According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, the mix of street stops, detention transfers, and jobsite rumors can chill entire workforces, leaving both immigrant families and local builders paying the price.
Key takeaways and warnings
- Warning: Routine trips to worksites or supply stores can lead to detention — with broad consequences for families and projects.
- Deadline-awareness: Rapid documentation (full name, DOB, country of birth) is critical for locating detainees.
- Practical steps for employers and workers:
- Keep copies of IDs accessible (while respecting privacy and legal constraints).
- Document any stops or encounters with enforcement.
- Share emergency contact and identity information with a trusted family member or advocate.
This case and related reports highlight how street-level enforcement practices intersect with workplace routines, producing economic, legal, and human costs across the construction industry.
Immigration enforcement in Gresham, Oregon, has shifted toward street-level stops of construction crews, raising concerns about racial profiling and economic disruption. Recent arrests of workers traveling to jobsites have triggered political backlash and highlighted the vulnerabilities of the building trades. While federal authorities cite law enforcement mandates, local leaders and contractors warn that these tactics destabilize the labor market and create a climate of fear for all workers.
