<\/p>\n
Six protesters were arrested by police in Portland, Oregon<\/a>, late Thursday, as an appeal for calm from local leaders largely held despite growing outrage over federal immigration enforcement in the city after two people were shot<\/a> by US border patrol agents.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified the two people who were shot in a statement<\/a> on Friday as Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras and Luis David Nico Moncada, undocumented immigrants from Venezuela.<\/p>\n A department spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, told Fox News<\/a> that both were suspected of ties to a Venezuelan gang, but that connection appeared to be less certain than originally stated by federal authorities in the immediate aftermath of the shootings.<\/p>\n The department did not offer documentation for that claim and the Guardian has not been able to confirm it.<\/p>\n Zambrano-Contreras and Moncada were shot on Thursday afternoon outside a Portland<\/a> hospital. DHS said that US border patrol agents had stopped a vehicle to search for a person they suspected of being an undocumented immigrant connected to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. According to the agents, they opened fire when the driver of the vehicle tried to run them over, DHS said. \u201cFearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot. The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene,\u201d DHS said in a statement.<\/p>\n A man who was at the medical building told the Oregonian<\/a> he saw federal officers follow a Toyota pickup truck into the parking lot of the office building and try to corner it. One officer pounded on the window, he said. The driver then backed up and moved forward at least a couple of times, striking a car behind them, before turning and speeding off.<\/p>\n The FBI\u2019s Portland office said it is investigating the shooting.<\/p>\n Authorities have not confirmed the condition of the injured, but emergency dispatch audio obtained by FOX 12 Oregon<\/a> indicated that the 911 call came from a man who said he was shot twice in the arm and his wife had been shot in the chest.<\/p>\n The shooting, which came one day after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, intensified criticism in Portland on the Trump administration\u2019s aggressive immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n Last year, Portland saw months of protest centered on an ICE processing facility in the city\u2019s south waterfront. Donald Trump tried to deploy national guard members to the city in response, but the deployment was blocked by a federal judge who said the president\u2019s claim that the city was \u201cwar-ravaged\u201d as a result of small-scale protests \u201cwas simply untethered to the facts\u201d.<\/p>\n On Thursday, city leaders forcefully condemned the shooting, while urging residents to protest peacefully.<\/p>\n Jeff Merkley, one of Oregon\u2019s two Democratic senators, urged protesters to remain calm in light of the shooting. \u201cTrump wants to generate riots,\u201d he said in a post on X. \u201cDon\u2019t take the bait.\u201d<\/p>\n A banner at the top of the Portland city government website late Thursday advised residents: \u201cRespond with calm and purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n The Portland police chief echoed those pleas. Bob Day said: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Residents appeared to heed that call. On Thursday evening, about a hundred protesters gathered outside city hall in downtown Portland to chant: \u201cAbolish ICE!\u201d A smaller number of protesters also returned to the ICE facility, many of them dressed in the animal costumes that have helped defuse tensions in recent months. Later, police used force to clear protesters from the street outside the facility, arresting six<\/a>, including a young man who usually wears an inflatable frog costume<\/a> to protests but was in street clothes.<\/p>\n Portland\u2019s mayor, Keith Wilson, said at a news conference: \u201cWe know what the federal government says happened here. There was a time when we could take them at their word. That time is long past.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts. Portland is not a \u2018training ground\u2019 for militarized agents, and the \u2018full force\u2019 threatened by the administration has deadly consequences. As mayor, I call on ICE to end all operations in Portland until a full investigation can be completed.\u201d<\/p>\n Maxine Dexter, the Democratic representative for the district where the shooting took place, who is also a doctor, called on ICE to leave Portland.<\/p>\n \u201cICE has done nothing but inject terror, chaos, and cruelty into our communities,\u201d Dexter said. \u201cTrump\u2019s immigration machine is using violence to control our communities \u2013 straight out of the authoritarian playbook. ICE must immediately end all active operations in Portland.\u201d<\/p>\n Portland leaders were firm in demanding a local investigation. \u201cWe must allow our local law enforcement to do its work,\u201d Dexter said. \u201cThere must be a comprehensive investigation without Trump\u2019s interference.\u201d<\/p>\n The Oregon attorney general, Dan Rayfield, said late on Thursday that his office was opening a formal investigation into the incident to examine whether \u201cany federal officer acted outside the scope of their lawful authority\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been clear about our concerns with excessive use of force by federal agents in Portland and nationally,\u201d Rayfield said.<\/p>\n