An ambulance crew says armed ICE agents blocked them from taking a patient to the hospital, as one goon allegedly threatened to shoot the driver.
The medics had collected a protester with a suspected fractured collarbone from ICE’s South Macadam Avenue site in Portland, according to matching incident reports by the two medics and radio traffic reviewed by Willamette Week.
As they tried to leave, federal agents are said to have stood in front of the ambulance, according to the reports.
When the driver put the vehicle in park and it nudged forward slightly, one ICE officer allegedly leaned in, pointed, and yelled at the first responder: “DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN, I WILL SHOOT YOU, I WILL ARREST YOU RIGHT NOW.”
“I was…in such shock,” the driver later wrote, “that they were…crowding and cornering me in the seat, pointing and screaming at me, threatening to shoot and arrest me, and not allowing the ambulance to leave the scene.
“This was no longer a safe scene, and in that moment, I realized that the scene had not actually been safe the entire time that they were blocking us from exiting, and that we were essentially trapped.”
The identity of the officer in question has not been disclosed.
Willamette Week obtained two contemporaneous reports—one to ambulance company American Medical Response and one to a Teamsters union rep—plus radio logs about the Oct. 5 incident.
In them, the crew says the agents first argued that they should ride in the ambulance without arrest paperwork, but the medics refused, citing policy.
Agents then formed a line at the gate and crowded the driver’s door, the reports state.
At 9:40 p.m., dispatchers recorded, “We are still not being allowed to leave by ICE officers.” Minutes later—after more shouting—the ambulance finally left for Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, escorted by an unmarked car.
The episode sheds light on a fraught dynamic between agents sent by the Kristi Noem-led Department of Homeland Security, who protect facilities, and local medics called to treat civilians.
The EMTs’ union told Willamette Week that when armed agents interfere with transport, they “cross a moral line.” Global Medical Response, AMR’s parent, said it was “reviewing” the case.
DHS had not responded to Willamette Week’s queries by publication, and the Federal Protective Service did not comment. The Daily Beast has also contacted DHS for comment.
The alleged clash comes amid a broader hard-line posture around ICE facilities in Portland and Chicago.
A federal judge last week barred DHS agents in Chicago from using force on journalists covering protests outside an ICE site, citing accounts of “riot control” weapons and injuries to credentialed reporters.
Journalists and protesters in the Illinois city have also sued the administration over “extreme brutality,” while the White House drives a mass-deportation agenda dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.”
President Donald Trump has sought to deploy National Guard troops ro Portland. He describes Oregon’s biggest city as a “war zone” where ICE facilities and officers are “under siege” from “domestic terrorists.”
ICE has attempted to project its strength against protesters with restraint and transport operations.
However, the Trump administration’s attempt to paint the city as one of chaos has backfired, with local officials detailing generally small-scale and peaceful gatherings.
Reuters reported in June that ICE tripled its internal arrest target to 3,000 per day, which critics fear is fueling more aggressive tactics.
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