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Good morning, Northwest.
The escalation of immigration enforcement near Hillsboro schools has had a marked impact on students, educators say. So they’re taking action to help kids get to class safely.
OPB and Report for America’s Holly Bartholomew leads off this morning’s newsletter with a story on Hillsboro teachers who have formed a neighborhood ICE watch.
Meanwhile, it’s been about one month since the president announced he would send the National Guard into Portland, and still no boots are on the ground.
President Trump remains blocked from sending soldiers to the Rose City as a trial over the matter begins today.
Here’s your First Look at Wednesday’s news.
—Bradley W. Parks
Izza Dye, dean of students at Poynter Middle School, communicates with other volunteers during the ICE watch on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025 in Hillsboro, Ore. The watch, which happens during school drop-off, is an informal effort started by educators and parents in response to increased activity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the area.
Saskia Hatvany / OPB
‘This community is not the enemy’: Hillsboro teachers form neighborhood ICE watch
Normally, Andy Bunting spends the hour or so before his class begins at Hillsboro’s Eastwood Elementary School prepping for the day and chatting with colleagues.
On Friday, instead of his usual routine between 7 a.m. and the start of class at 8 a.m., Bunting and nearly a dozen other teachers and volunteers were posted at various points in the neighborhood around the school, watching out for their students — and for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Four days earlier, ICE reportedly detained a parent about 100 feet from the school shortly after drop-off. Federal agents have also been seen patrolling the neighborhood in the morning.
Immigration officers have hit the city of Hillsboro hard in the past two weeks. Between Oct. 14 and 23, ICE made at least eight arrests in Hillsboro, and four last Thursday alone.
Teachers and parents have been patrolling the neighborhood every morning since. (Holly Bartholomew)
The James R. Browning United States Courthouse building, a courthouse for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, is photographed Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025, in San Francisco.
Godofredo A. Vásquez / AP
3 things to know this morning
- A federal trial in Oregon that could determine whether President Donald Trump can legally deploy the National Guard to the city of Portland is set to get underway today. (Conrad Wilson)
- President Trump remains blocked from deploying the Oregon National Guard to Portland after a federal appeals court decided to rehear the case. In its decision yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also reversed its ruling from last week that sided with the Trump administration. (Conrad Wilson and Dirk VanderHart)
- Oregon and Washington joined a multi-state lawsuit yesterday seeking to force the Trump administration to continue funding the federal food assistance program as the government shutdown continues. (Bryce Dole)
‘Hush’ Episode 4: Boogeyman
The “Hush” team looks at the ways police focused on two men in Sarah Zuber’s life and how a true crime trope took police down the wrong path. (Ryan Haas and Leah Sottile)
Alex Sarama, new head coach of Portland Fire speaks at a press conference at the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. The WNBA team is set to return to Portland in 2026.
Saskia Hatvany / OPB
Headlines from around the Northwest
- Portland mother freed, reunited with children after four months in immigration detention (Troy Brynelson)
- Portland’s incoming WNBA team welcomes new coach, celebrates 15,000 season ticket deposits (Kyra Buckley)
- Wells Fargo to lay off more than 400 workers in Oregon (OPB staff)
- Uncle Sam billboard on I-5 near Chehalis goes from right-wing zingers to a statement of Native rights (Stephen Howie)
- Oregon’s Black leaders call out civil rights attacks (Alex Baumhardt)
Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation
“Think Out Loud” airs at noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app. Today’s planned topics (subject to change):
- Portlander’s global health development podcast centers voices of USAID workers amid agency’s dismantling
- What a county lawsuit could mean for Oregon’s sanctuary state law
Matthew Dennison’s bright, approachable paintings hint at a complex world
Portland painter Matthew Dennison’s work combines figures and environments in unexpected ways.
It could be a child playing with a wild fox or a narwhal confronting a family in a ski boat. The depictions challenge assumptions about how we humans fit into an ever more complex world.
His bright colors and blocky, naive shapes make the paintings approachable while grappling with real-life threats. They’re drawn from Dennison’s obsession with world news and intuition that everything is connected.
This story originally aired on Feb. 28, 2013. (Jule Gilfillan)
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