Pete Simpson, a spokesman for PPB, wrote in an email. “Portland Police Bureau officers assigned to the JTTF do not participate in immigration related arrests or investigations per bureau policy,” Sgt. As part of the city rejoining, the FBI agreed to provide briefings every quarter or as needed to the mayor - who currently functions as the city’s police commissioner - and the police chief. Since 2015, when the city rejoined the JTTF, two Portland Police Bureau officers have been assigned to the partnership between the region’s local and federal law enforcement agencies. Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Chloe Eudaly have also raised concerns about the city’s participation, meaning a majority of the Council may oppose the JTTF in January.Īfter the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the FBI expanded JTTFs across the country to all 56 of its field offices. Hardesty said she believes the JTTF conflicts with Portland’s status as a sanctuary city for immigrants. Immigration enforcement surrounding the JTTF is a critical issue for Portland Commissioner-elect Jo Ann Hardesty, who has said her first act upon taking office next year will be to vote to remove the city from the partnership. “We take terrorism subjects off the streets using every tool we have.” “We will use immigration violations as appropriate to disrupt subjects who pose a threat to our communities,” the FBI official said. The bureau official who spoke to OPB said immigration is not a priority for the agency unless there’s a criminal or national security threat.īut the FBI also did not state whether Oregon’s JTTF participated in any immigration-related arrests.
“There are significant numbers of agents working very, very hard on that subject, so I can assure you it’s a top, top priority for us,” Wray testified. In September 2017, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Homeland Security Committee there were approximately 176 arrests related to domestic terrorism threats. Beyond that, the official wouldn’t give more detail about the numbers documented by the mayor’s staffers. The FBI official told OPB that JTTFs around the country had made “more than 100 arrests” of international terrorism subjects last fiscal year. “We have confidence in the identical notes taken independently by two members of the mayor’s team,” said Michael Cox, the mayor’s chief of staff. The mayor’s office said Friday that the notes accurately reflect what the FBI said during the Nov. “The total number of arrests across the country of both and subjects likely would’ve been discussed at this meeting.” “I can’t speak to the person who took the notes,” said an FBI agency official who spoke on condition of anonymity. But the agency declined to clarify how they may have been inaccurate. When asked about the numbers, the FBI disputed how they were characterized in the Nov. Related: Portland, FBI Met This Month To Discuss Withdrawal From Terrorism Task Force But it’s not clear whether any of the arrests mentioned in the staffer notes happened in Oregon. The questions around immigration could be important to the future of the JTTF in Portland, as the city weighs whether it wants a relationship with any federal agency that participates in immigration-related arrests. In Portland and elsewhere, JTTFs are divided into two teams: one that focuses on international terrorism and the other on domestic threats. “PPB officers do not work immigration matters - officers are fenced off.”
“2017: 200 arrests in the unit -> 25 were immigration related,” she wrote. Nelson’s typed notes state: “200 arrests from JTTF and 25 of them immigration related.” The records reveal figures the FBI apparently told attendees about JTTF arrests. Two of Wheeler’s staffers - Nicole Grant and Berk Nelson - took notes, which OPB received through a public records request.
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