U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, second from right, poses with the Crespo-Gonzalez family and her chief of staff Kari Williamson, far right, at the Portland International Airport on Feb. 7, 2026. The family was recently released from an immigration detention facility in Texas.
Courtesy of the Office of U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter
Rep. Maxine Dexter escorted a family — including a 7-year-old girl — from an immigration detention facility in Texas back to Oregon on Saturday. The Crespo-Gonzalez family was detained last month while bringing their sick child to urgent care.
We sit down with Dexter, D-Oregon, to hear about that experience and her work in Congress focused on Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding and policy.
OPB reporter Holly Bartholomew covers Portland’s suburban communities as a Report for America Corps member. We also talk with her about how the family is doing now and the latest developments around federal immigration actions in Oregon.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Last month, a Gresham family drove their 7-year-old daughter to an urgent care facility because she’d had a nosebleed that lasted most of the night. They never made it inside the clinic. They were detained by immigration officers in the parking lot and eventually taken to a detention facility in Texas. They spent about three weeks there. They were released this past Friday after Maxine Dexter, a Democratic member of Congress from Portland and areas east, tried to visit the facility.
Maxine Dexter joins me now to talk about this case and the larger issue of immigration enforcement in Oregon. Representative Dexter, welcome back to Think Out Loud.
Rep. Maxine Dexter: Thanks so much for having me, Dave.
Miller: Why did you go to Texas last week?
Dexter: We went to Texas to see Diana and her family, to check on her and to do oversight of the Dilley detention facility. We wanted to see the conditions, how many children were there, how many families, whether they had humane and appropriate conditions or not. But the primary reason was because Diana had been taken and it was egregious. The family had enormous support in the community and we were being responsive, trying to advocate for them.
Miller: This was – I think I’m right – your ninth visit to an immigration detention facility, something that members of Congress like you are authorized to do under a 2018 federal law. But you were not let in this time. Why not?
Dexter: They seem to have a differing answer for that question nearly every time I ask. We gave the seven days required notice for our visit last Thursday. We had emailed and we brought copies of that email. We gave 48-hours’notice of who my staff was and we sent the privacy release forms for the Crespo-Gonzalez family so that we could be sure to talk with them. Those are sort of the bureaucratic hoops that they’ve asked us to jump through and we did all of those and had documentation.
They had also sent us an email saying that because of the active measles cases that they were going to be on quarantine. We expected that that was going to be the reason that they gave us. Yet, the supervising officer who was there on Thursday when we came said, “There are no active cases. We’re not quarantining, there’s no risk.” He was like,, “The Congressional Affairs Office will let you know why you’re being denied access.”
Miller: But they didn’t.
Dexter: No email came.
Miller: My understanding is that ICE has not given you a statement or answered your questions as to why they did actually release the family. So what do you think happened?
Dexter: We’ve had this experience over and over again. And what I can tell you is when I show up, people are released. So whether or not it is cause and effect, it has happened over and over again. We have now had 12 people released as a result, we think, of our showing up.
It could be that there’s other issues going on. We know that there had been media coverage at Dilley and that Diana had been covered in some prominent media. So maybe that had something to do with it. Certainly, Representative Ruiz and the letter that the Oregon House of Representatives and Senate members who signed had sent, maybe that had something to do with it. It’s not for me to conjecture why. They just repeatedly let people out after I show up.
Miller: What does that tell you? Let’s say that you’re right, that it is the public attention you’re bringing to these cases that’s making the difference. What does that tell you about the approach the administration is taking to immigration enforcement?
Dexter: Yeah, what is clear to me is that there’s no solid grounds for them to be holding these people. The people we have advocated for have all had active asylum cases, work permits, no criminal history. These are not the worst of the worst. They are people who are caught up in an inhumane and cruel system.
So when we show up and advocate for them, we ask to talk to them. Literally one of my constituents, I just showed up with a privacy release form, asked to see him, and they said, “We’ll go get him.” And then they said, “Sorry, we’re not going to let you see him here because we’re releasing him.” And his wife didn’t even know he was going to be released.
What it says to me is that they don’t have clear grounds for detaining these folks and when they are put under pressure, maybe that is what it is, they can’t justify keeping them.
Miller: I want to turn to the bigger picture issues here because this is one family among thousands or thousands of individuals as well. You’re in person right now, partly because budget negotiations focused on ICE, CBP and the Department of Homeland Security more broadly, they’re stalled. And a government shutdown of parts of the Department of Homeland Security is going to happen this evening, Pacific Time. What restrictions on ICE power do you and your Democratic colleagues want to see?
Dexter: Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries sent a very clear list of what we were expecting. I want to be clear that family detention, children detention, absolutely in my mind needs to be on that list. It is inhumane. It’s not making anybody safer. But there’s a very clear list, including removing masks, stopping warrantless arrests and illegal searches and seizures. The fact of the matter is we are asking them to follow the law, in most respects. And the fact that that is even a needed request is absolutely absurd.
Miller: To be clear, ICE and Customs and Border Patrol agents are going to continue to do their work. They may or may not get paid. I’ve seen differing accounts of that. It seems pretty clear that FEMA and TSA agents, too, will work and they will not get paid. But what difference do you think this shutdown is going to have both politically and also on the ground?
Dexter: What I can tell you is people have been scared, intimidated and increasingly angry about the lawlessness and the cruelty of the immigration enforcement. Our community here in Portland has been resounding in its demands that we stand firm, that we defund ICE, that we dismantle or abolish ICE. That is not a highly debated issue, at least in the constituents I’m hearing from. And I think that is spreading throughout the country, and [in] more and more red, traditionally Republican districts.
So what I think it means for all of us is that whether or not the Republicans come to the table and negotiate in good faith on this, the people want to see us fight. They want us to stand up for the Constitution, for basic civil rights. They have all the money they need for Homeland Security right now. There’s more than they can spend, so if they choose not to pay people, they continue to break the law, we need to try to do everything we can to enforce the law.
Miller: I’m curious about your political read on this – the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota by federal immigration agents. It absolutely changed the national conversation about the administration’s actions. And in fact, just this week, just yesterday, Tom Homan announced the surge in Minnesota would be ending. But it does seem like since the conversation shifted in the aftermath of Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s shootings, killings, that something even since then has shifted once again among Republicans. And now, I’m wondering to what extent you see a lasting shift among your Republican colleagues in their approach to this issue?
Dexter: Yeah, I think there is clarity that immigration reform is needed. There’s no question that Donald Trump won on immigration reform being necessary. Nobody voted for this. Nobody wanted executions of Americans in the streets.
And my Republican colleagues are also having to deal with the impacts. I was just talking to farmers yesterday and they don’t have people to harvest their crops, they can’t get H-2A visas for people to come into the country. We are losing health care workers that are already in dire overstressed states. The skilled labor needed to build housing has shown an impact on declining production. If you care about the economy and affordability, you have to care about immigrants. So this impact that people aren’t showing up for work, that they are stepping out of the economy is a concern that my Republican colleagues, I think, are more and more grappling with at this point.
So why ever you care about immigration right now, a lot of people in this community care because this is illegal, immoral, inhumane enforcement. I think the Republicans are also having to deal with the impacts on the economy and their constituents in a way that is bringing us all to an understanding that something has to change.
Miller: When you say defund and dismantle ICE, what is your vision for what federal immigration enforcement should be, aside from the immigration system itself? And I grant that they’re obviously related, but when we’re talking specifically about enforcement itself, what’s your vision for what it should or should not be?
Dexter: I mean, ICE was created in 2003. We’ve had immigration for hundreds of years before that.
Miller: And we had immigration enforcement before ICE. It’s not like it didn’t exist before DHS was created post 9/11.
Dexter: No, that’s exactly right. So it did not have to be under a large umbrella of Homeland Security. Customs and Border Protection has a very clear ability to enforce the border and immigration law within 100 miles of the border, which is fairly more liberal, I think, than most of us feel like it should be at this point.
What we need is enforcement of the law and we need pathways so people aren’t trying to cross illegally. People aren’t trying to break the law. They’re trying to build a new life, one with opportunity and stability. So, immigration enforcement is inextricably tied, in my mind, to legal pathways for immigration.
Whatever that looks like, whether it’s the CBP One app or other modalities for people to schedule coming in, we have to know who’s coming to our country, what their history is, what they’re planning on doing, how long they’re going to be staying, and then enforce that. I don’t think border protection necessarily is a debated issue. We don’t want cartels bringing people, drugs, ammunition and arms into our country – full stop. I don’t think that that is anything any of us want.
So those sorts of enforcement actions absolutely need to be maintained. But ICE is supposed to be enforcing immigration law, which is civil law, not criminal law. The fact that they are carrying guns, wearing masks, not identified, is antithetical to what civil law enforcement should be. And that needs to be entirely dismantled and brought back to what it really should be.
Miller: You signed on to a letter that was sent to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem yesterday asking for a lot of clarification about the administration’s plans for a new immigration detention facility of some kind in Oregon. Senator Merkley, who was one of the main writers of that letter, told The Oregonian this: “We’re going to be watching this every single day and striving to make sure that not only it doesn’t happen in Newport, but it doesn’t happen anywhere in our state.” What power do you all have as members of Congress to prevent that?
Dexter: Well, certainly we have the power of the purse that has been pulled back. So we need to reassert our power of the purse …
Miller: But as you noted, the purse has already been opened up very widely to DHS in the One Big Beautiful Bill. There’s money for this.
Dexter: It has. Yes, there is. Permitting … we can put a lot of pressure on jurisdictions – and this is obviously playing out in Portland as well – but state and local jurisdictions have power in that regard. So making sure that the public understands what the impact on them is and making sure that they’re engaged in this is absolutely part of why I sign on to these letters.
And then frankly, if we can agitate and make it clear that we don’t want it there, sometimes our federal government and DHS has decided to go elsewhere. And we’ve seen this with Republican colleagues who have asked Noem not to put one in their own state or in their districts. We are also ready to assert ourselves as much as we can.
Miller: I want to turn briefly to a different issue, but a huge one. Yesterday, the administration announced it was ending the primary federal program aimed at reducing the emissions of greenhouse gasses in this country. There are a lot of ways to think about this. But just briefly, I’m wondering how you think about this as a doctor, as a pulmonologist.
Dexter: Thank you so much for asking. The endangerment finding is basically saying that these greenhouse gasses that were named in this settlement impact people’s health. They endanger their health. And based upon that, we can regulate greenhouse gas emissions, even though it’s not the particulate matter, soot, that used to be what was regulated. Taking that away eliminates most of the enforcement that we can have on industry, polluters, across this nation. It is the largest sweeping undermining of environmental protection law that has ever happened in this country.
It is absolutely something that each and every American should be thinking about. It started with people in Los Angeles not being able to see the ocean, the haze, the impacts on health. We know the excess health implications of air quality diminishing is exponential. People don’t understand when they’re breathing something in and they can smell it, or they can taste it, or it makes them hoarse, that is getting into their lungs and causing harm. And a lot of times that harm builds up over time without you ever knowing it, until you’re showing up with asthma, COPD, or other heart and lung disease.
There’s also very quick impacts. When there’s a wildfire and people are breathing in the particulate matter, we know that strokes, heart attacks, cancer over the longer term, but immediate harm is done. So we, each and every one of us, should be pushing back on this. This is something that, frankly, I went to Congress to fight for. I’m a pulmonologist. I literally am taking care or have taken care of people’s lungs throughout my life. And each person in this country should be with the understanding that the government is doing everything they can to protect their health, and that starts with air and water quality.
Miller: Maxine Dexter, thanks very much.
Dexter: Thank you.
Miller: Maxine Dexter represents Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District, which stretches from Portland’s east side to part of Clackamas and all of Hood River counties.
For more on the story of the Crespo-Gonzalez family, I’m joined now by OPB reporter Holly Bartholomew, who covers Portland’s suburban communities as a Report for America Corps member. Holly, welcome back.
Holly Bartholomew: Hey, Dave.
Miller: What have you learned about what this family experienced in the detention facility?
Bartholomew: So we haven’t heard a ton from the family directly because they’ve said they’re not interested in speaking with the media right now. But from conversations that I’ve had with a relative and a close friend of the family, we know things like the food was really not great and the water made Diana, the 7-year-old, feel sick and lethargic. And that’s pretty consistent with reports from other detainees at the facility.
One other thing that the sister or the aunt of Diana told me was that because the food was so bad, Diana was only eating bread with mayonnaise. And it sounds like she actually ended up losing a bit of weight while at the facility. We also know that Diana contracted a fever in the first couple of days at the facility, but didn’t get to see a doctor until a few days later.
Miller: It’s particularly striking given the circumstances of their detainment to begin with.
Bartholomew: Yeah, I mean, I think the fact that she was on her way to a doctor when they were detained, didn’t get to see a doctor, and then contracted a fever and then still didn’t get to see a doctor until five days after they had already been in the facility is pretty telling. And then we also just heard that it’s a rough time. It’s a detention center. It’s not a fun place to be. Diana talked about missing her cat and missing her friends at home, and things like that.
Miller: Do we know how she’s doing right now?
Bartholomew: She seems to be doing OK. We know that earlier this week they actually went to the state Capitol in Salem to see some of the lawmakers who helped advocate for their release. From some of the photos I saw, Diana got a couple of new toys, like a doll, on that trip. She also got a Happy Meal from McDonald’s, which was apparently one of the things that she really missed while in detention. And Ricki Ruiz, the representative from Gresham, who was very vocal about sharing this family story and who helped coordinate that trip to the Capitol this week, said that they’re still definitely adjusting to life back at home and that they have a long road ahead, it seems like.
Miller: What reason did the Trump administration give for this family’s detention?
Bartholomew: DHS did not respond to any of our many requests for comment about why this family was detained. But they told the Oregon Capital Chronicle that the family entered the country illegally in 2024 using a border patrol app called CBP One, which was widely used at the time, but has since been eliminated by the Trump administration. DHS has apparently detained a lot of people who use that app to enter the country and apply for asylum, saying that the program and the app are basically no longer valid.
Miller: What did you hear about that reasoning from the family’s lawyers?
Bartholomew: The legal clinic that represents them, the Innovation Law Lab, has argued that they followed all of the proper procedures when they applied for asylum. They waited at the border between Mexico and California until they could get their appointment scheduled with Border Patrol. And they only entered the country after making that appointment. The Law Lab also pointed out that their asylum application is still pending. They haven’t had a chance to go before a judge to discuss it. Their court date is actually not even scheduled until 2028.
Miller: This family was released, as we were talking about with Rep. Dexter, but do you know where immigration enforcement actions for the family actually stand right now?
Bartholomew: Yeah, unfortunately it’s pretty unclear. Like Rep. Dexter said, we don’t even really know why they were released, so we don’t know what that means for their case. The attorneys for the family said they’re still working out a plan for the case now that they’re out, but yeah, it’s just kind of unclear right now.
Miller: Before President Trump’s second term began, ICE agents were barred from making arrests at sensitive locations like hospitals, churches or schools. The administration ended that policy. How did the fact that this arrest happened at an urgent care center parking lot affect the attention that this case got in Oregon and I think around the country?
Bartholomew: There were definitely a lot of fears when the Trump administration ended that policy last year because it had just been around for so long, and there were concerns about it having a chilling effect and people not going to the hospital because of those fears. And since that policy was revoked, we’ve seen a few instances of arrests at some of these sensitive locations here in Oregon. I think particularly of the chiropractor who was arrested at his kids’ preschool in Beaverton.
But this is one of the first detentions that we’ve heard of at a medical setting in Oregon. And I think that definitely played a part in how this case caught attention. I also think the fact that it was their 7-year-old daughter who was the one they were seeking medical care for also played into that.
Miller: Last week, as we talked about, a federal judge ruled that U.S. immigration agents in Oregon cannot arrest people without warrants unless there is a likelihood of escape. Does ICE seem to be complying with that injunction?
Bartholomew: I think it’s kind of difficult to say at this point. We actually know that arrests in Oregon were way down in January. The Portland Immigrants Rights Coalition reported only 76 arrests in the state in January, which is way less than the hundreds that were reported in October, November and December. And just there being so few arrests makes it hard to track any patterns and enforcement right now.
I have not seen any allegations that the government is violating this injunction, but I think we have to wait and see how this plays out. I can say we do know that in Colorado, where a similar injunction against warrantless arrests was issued in November, attorneys with the ACLU and a couple of immigration law firms there alleged that the judge’s orders are being violated and that those warrantless arrests are continuing. So it’s possible that the order here is being violated as well, but right now we don’t know that. And so I think only time will tell.
Miller: Holly, thanks very much.
Bartholomew: Thanks, Dave.
Miller: Holly Bartholomew covers Portland’s suburban communities as a Report for America Corps member.
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