Immigration activists held a demonstration in downtown Portland on Tuesday to welcome unaccompanied child immigrants rumored to be arriving in Portland within the next few weeks.
Although it's unclear when children might arrive, the activists sought to pre-emptively counter anti-immigration protesters in Oregon and across the country.
Claire Flanagan, a coordinator for the Portland Central American Solidarity Committee, said she organized the demonstration in response a map on an anti-immigration website that targets Morrison Child and Family Services centers in Portland.
The anti-immigration group claims unaccompanied child immigrants are being housed at four locations in Portland, although The Oregonian could not immediately confirm whether that is true. In an email, Morrison Chief Administrative Officer Patricia DiNucci said the organization is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement, but she deferred further comment to the department's Washington, D.C-based spokesman, Kenneth Wolfe.
He also declined to provide specifics, but said in an email: "For years, HHS has operated shelters throughout the United States for children who enter the country without their parent. These shelters are currently in many states, including Oregon."
Melissa Navas, a spokeswoman for Gov. John Kitzhaber, said the governor's office has not been involved in any resettlement efforts.
At the demonstration Tuesday afternoon, about a dozen people stood on the corner of Southwest 10th Avenue and Salmon Street waving handmade welcome banners and spreading the message to passers-by.
And although the demonstrators had heard only rumors that children might be arriving in the coming days or weeks, they said they wanted to begin raising the community's attention and start a positive dialogue about immigration reform.
"There's these anti-immigrant groups and hate groups...(who) are going anywhere to oppose it and to harass them," said Marco Mejia, an organizer for Portland Jobs With Justice, a local immigrant rights' group. "We're here to tell them that the community of Portland, we don't allow that."
Flanagan said she thinks people should urge politicians to address the root causes of emigration from Central American countries.
"A lot of people are pushed by violence in their own countries," she said. "We're just trying to give a welcoming message to the kids who will be coming to Portland."
-- Ian K. Kullgren