What led 4 older Oregonians to the Portland ICE protests

On Thursday mornings, a group called Knitters Against Fascism sets up their lawn chairs across the street from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland.

One of the group’s members, 67-year-old Tracy Wright, is there to protest with her knitting needles.

“We’re a bunch of older women sitting around knitting,” she said. “We have our knitting needles — our weapons of mass construction — and that’s about the only weapons that we have.”

Wright is one of many Oregonians who’ve protested in recent months against the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.

A retired grocery store owner, Wright wasn’t always politically active. She grew up during the social justice movements and anti-war protests of the 1960s and ‘70s, but she wasn’t very involved.

Now, after seeing news clips of immigrants being arrested, she said she thinks more violence could befall immigrants and protesters.

“My heart just goes out for so many people in this situation,” Wright said. “And even though there’s not a lot that I can do, I can be here.”

Another knitter, 75-year-old Beth Kent, said she was too busy as a nursing student to get physically involved in the protests of the ‘60s and ‘70s. But the now-retired nurse said a lot has changed since then — and she’s found a new spark to come out and protest.

“Now that I’m retired, and I think now that I have three grandchildren who are little, what are we leaving for them?” Kent said. “And it’s rather terrifying. So, I feel much more obligated and have the time to be out here doing something.”

While some of those protesting in front of the ICE facility are newer to activism, others have been politically active for decades.

Kathryn Gearheard, a 78-year-old retired economist, protested for the first time in 1969 while studying at Oregon State University.

That year, OSU’s Black Student Union staged a walkout after a football coach threatened to expel Fred Milton, a Black student athlete, for refusing to shave his beard during the off-season. Gearheard was among many students who joined in protest.

Now, she says the matter at stake is the rule of law.

Gearheard said she began protesting after learning on social media that at least two immigrants in her North Portland neighborhood had been detained by ICE agents.

“There’s no law and order in it at all,” she said. “It’s just assaults on people.”

Marvin Simmons was leaning against a pole outside the facility, wearing a green army jacket. He’s a 77-year-old Vietnam War veteran. Simmons is protesting in support of immigrants’ right to due process. That includes access to legal representation and a right to a fair court hearing, regardless of citizenship.

“They’re just getting picked up off the streets, and that’s not right,” he said.

In early October, Simmons said he was knocked over while holding a sign reading “This Vietnam Veteran says, ‘Due process now.’” He said he was standing across the street from the ICE building when law enforcement began directing people to back up.

“I was just backing up, and all of a sudden this one guy just hits me in the chest and knocks me down and I hit my back on the curb,” he said.

Simmons said he’s OK and that he plans to keep protesting. And he’s not alone. Wright says Knitters Against Fascism will also keep showing up.