Bend Mayor Sally Russell is defending herself over accusations she did not do enough to intervene in the arrest of two city residents by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

The arrests took place Aug. 12, and culminated with a tense standoff between protesters and ICE employees that lasted more than 10 hours.

ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers eventually extracted the men from the standoff and sent them to a detention facility in Tacoma, Washington.

Delivering a prepared statement at a Bend City Council meeting Wednesday, Russell said she tried to deescalate the situation, but noted an ICE official told her the orders came from Washington, D.C., and the official said there was nothing she could do.

“They were prepared to implement whatever measures were necessary, from their perspective, to take the two detainees into federal custody,” Russell said. “She made certain that we understood that the orders were coming directly from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security top level.”

Facing notable criticism from the public, Russell assured Bend residents that the city does not cooperate with the federal government on immigration issues.

Russell said she wanted to compile a “detailed after-action report” on the incident, and repeated that local law enforcement does not work with federal agencies on immigration issues because of Oregon’s sanctuary state law.

The mayor’s remarks did not silence her critics Wednesday. Janet Sarai Llerandi Gonzalez, executive director of the Latinx community organization Mecca Bend, called in during public comment to chastise the mayor for not meeting with protesters during the standoff.

“You would have also seen the desperation in the two mothers’ faces and you would have heard the cries from the 8- and 14-year-old children, pleading to the drivers of the buses to allow them to say goodbye to their fathers,” she said. “But you chose not to show up for us.”

Llerandi Gonzalez called on Russell to apologize to the families of the detained men, and to resign.

Transportation bond

In other council business Wednesday, councilors decided on a 5-2 vote to send a transportation bond to the fall ballot.

The measure would generate $190 million dollars to pay for projects that would ease traffic congestion in the growing Central Oregon city.

Bend officials had originally wanted to put the bond on the ballot in May, but decided to wait because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Voters will now get a chance to decide in November.

Projects funded under the bond would also include more pedestrian and bike-safety measures. The bond has support from a large mix of business and environmental groups, including the Bend Chamber of Commerce and 1000 Friends of Oregon.

If passed, new taxes from the bond wouldn’t kick in until 2022.