ICE agents fired pepper balls at neighbors who confronted a North Portland immigration arrest

On December 11, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Erik Téllez as he drove his 17- and 15-year-old children to school in Portland's St. Johns neighborhood, surrounding the family's minivan with three vehicles on North Fessenden Street. Agents pulled Téllez from the vehicle and held him in an unmarked van while his children waited inside until their mother arrived. When neighbors gathered to observe the arrest and one began shouting at the departing agents, officers fired pepper balls at the group; several minutes later, as the agents left the scene, they fired additional rounds toward the same neighbors, filling the street with chemical munitions.

City officials said it was the first documented instance of federal officers firing pepper balls during an immigration arrest in a Portland neighborhood, distinguishing it from earlier pepper-spray use during protests outside ICE's South Waterfront facility. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and the three City Council members representing the district -- Elana Pirtle-Guiney, Sameer Kanal and Dan Ryan -- issued a joint statement condemning the deployment as "unjustified, disruptive and escalatory," calling it "unnecessary and potentially unconstitutional" and demanding that federal agents stop using chemical munitions in the city's neighborhoods.

Video from the scene showed agents telling neighbors the pepper balls were warning shots; witness Jaslyn Cincotta said officers pushed her during the encounter, and neighbors said the confrontation blocked school buses on the route to nearby George Middle School during the morning commute. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment on the incident.