On Nov. 5, Immigration Customs Enforcement agents threw Juanita Avila to the ground, temporarily detaining her despite her daughter Emely Agustin pleading with the agents that Avila was a legal resident. 

A crowd of over 150 people gathered in Coiner Park for a candlelight vigil in support of immigrants amid recent ICE activity in Cottage Grove. The Rural Organizing Project, a statewide multi-issue and rural focused political group organized the vigil, where multiple speakers, including Rep. Val Hoyle, with Avila and Agustin, spoke out against ICE activity. 

Avila, who runs a local Latino convenience store in downtown Cottage Grove, is a permanent legal resident of the United States and a valid “green card” holder. 

“It was racial profiling,” Agustin said to the crowd. “They looked at her Real ID which they said was not enough proof.” 

Agustin said ICE agents were pressuring her into saying her mother’s ID was not real and that they did not identify themselves as ICE until after they forcibly detained Avila. After it was revealed Avila was in fact a legal resident, Agustin said, “they still took a long time to release her.” 

Agustin said while her mother has recovered from the physical injuries she received, her family lives in fear. “Everytime we go out and see a semi suspicious vehicle, our hearts start racing.”

Despite the trauma, Agustin said they consider themselves lucky to still be together as a family, “while others are separated and crying for the chance to see their loved ones again.” She added that, “even the people who have work permits, green cards and are citizens are scared because now the color of our skin makes us targets to be assaulted.” Green card is often used as a phrase for a U.S. Permanent Resident Card.

After Augtin finished speaking, her mother thanked the crowd and her daughter because “if she wasn’t there that day, they would’ve taken me.” 

Shortly after, Hoyle took to the stage. “The president says he’s going after the worst of the worst. That’s bullshit,” Hoyle proclaimed. “Right now it’s immigrants, who’s next?” 

Hoyle emphasized that what happened in Cottage Grove is happening across the country. “It is scary, but it’s less scary for us than it is for our immigrant neighbors, so it is our responsibility to be at the front lines.” Hoyle announced to the predominantly white crowd that her office will begin hosting Know Your Rights sessions because “the only people that can take me out are the voters of this district and I’ve got at least until next January.” 

In the crowd stood two retired clergy members of the United Methodist Church, Dave and Cathy Raines. “We follow Jesus and Jesus made it pretty clear that one of the ways we live out our faith is by supporting the poor, the stranger, the hungry and the marginalized,” Dave Raines says. “We are feeling called to increase our efforts to keep our eyes on ICE,” Cathy Raines says. 

Karen Hill, a Presbyterian Church clergy member, tells Eugene Weekly, “we’re just all sickened by what happened.” 

Organizer for Friends of Democracy, a Cottage Grove political advocacy organization, Elaine Burns says people who want to do more in the community to protect immigrants should contact the Rural Organizing Project. “You can come to our Cottage Grove Friends of Democracy meetings on Wednesday nights at the ROP office,” she says.