A national day of protest was declared across the country Jan. 30, and Lane County answered with demonstrations in Springfield and Eugene — beginning with a tense confrontation outside Springfield City Hall and ending hours later with tear gas and a shattered window at Eugene’s Federal Building.
The Springfield demonstration marked one of the most visibly tense immigration-related protests the city has seen in recent years, drawing armed counter-demonstrators. While Springfield police did not deploy crowd-control measures or appear in tactical gear, patrol vehicles were positioned to block portions of nearby streets as officers monitored the situation. The presence of armed counter-demonstrators in a civic space turned what began as a local protest into a flashpoint, setting the tone for a day of escalating confrontations that later unfolded in Eugene.
The Springfield protest began at 2 pm outside City Hall and the adjacent Springfield Public Library, where around 300 demonstrators gathered with signs and chants opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement. What started as a peaceful demonstration quickly became heated when the small group of armed counter-demonstrators arrived, shifting the atmosphere of the event.
The counter-demonstrators — approximately five men — stood near the protest, wearing tactical gear and carrying AR-15s. The men declined to identify themselves to Eugene Weekly, with the exception of Tyler Alford, who remained unmasked throughout the event — unlike the group he was with who were fully masked. Alford said he and the others were there to “show my Second Amendment right.”
Alford said he was there to show support for ICE and described the group’s presence as a response to people “crossing the border illegally.”
As protesters opposing ICE gathered around the armed men, their chants including “Wash your hair” and “Go home chud,” erupted, creating a tightly packed and confrontational scene across from City Hall in the back parking lot of PublicHouse Brewery.
Alford continued by addressing immigration and said of the legal process that “they should have done it before they came here.” He added that people should “make their life better in their own fucken’ country, build your own country up, don’t come to our country to build it,” repeating, “build your own fucken’ country up, don’t come to our fucken’ country and build it.”
Despite arriving in direct opposition to the protest, the armed group remained on site and engaged in conversations with demonstrators. Some discussions escalated into heated arguments, while others remained as just peaceful verbal exchanges. The men said they were willing to talk, though aside from Alford, they largely refused to give their names.
Among those speaking with the armed men was Jana Thrift, who later spoke with Eugene Weekly in Eugene that evening. While the confrontation involving firearms took place outside Springfield City Hall, Thrift was interviewed later at the Federal Building, where events had escalated hours after the Springfield protest concluded.
Thrift was at the protest as a private citizen but said she is the radio station operations coordinator at community radio station KEPW 97.3 FM PeaceWorks Community Radio, which she described as being focused on uplifting community voices.
“Those men have volunteered to do an interview on KEPW. So we intend to hear more from them. We intend to bring into the same room people that are scholars about the laws that we see are being broken, that understand those realities,” Thrift said.
She said the intention is to hear both sides of the debate and create opportunities for deeper public understanding. Thrift added that she hopes those conversations can help the community move toward more engagement through peaceful dialogue.
While the Springfield protest involved visible tension and the presence of firearms, it ended without police deployment or the use of crowd-control measures.
