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U.S. CITIZEN SWEPT UP BY ICE: Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement abducted a U.S. citizen before he started work on Northeast Airport Way last Thursday, kicking him to the floor of a van and taking him to the ICE detention center, according to a letter sent Oct. 7 by the man’s attorney to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Frank Miranda, who was born in California, according to a birth certificate reviewed by WW, says two men in plain clothes and masks confronted him when he arrived at the metal shop where he grinds metal at 6 am. The incident may be the first documented in Portland in which ICE has swept up an American citizen as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to apprehend and deport undocumented immigrants. In an interview, Miranda, 46, said two men sprang from a small, unmarked SUV and called him by name, asking for ID. They said they were from DHS and wanted to determine his citizenship. “They looked like day laborers,” Miranda says. “They were not looking or acting professional at all.” Both spoke with thick Central American accents, says Miranda, whose mother is from Mexico. Miranda showed them his Oregon driver’s license, and one of the men snatched it, he says. Miranda took out his phone and began filming. In a 30-second video shot before agents took the device, a masked agent threatens to “get the dog” to make Miranda answer their questions. A third agent appeared with the animal and began asking Miranda about work he did on a fishing boat years ago. The agents handcuffed him and forced him into a van. Inside, an agent who apparently spoken no English kicked his legs out from under him and told him he would be sitting on the floor on this ride. “They were high-fiving,” Miranda says. The agents took him to the ICE facility on South Macadam Avenue, where he was fingerprinted and held for several hours. Miranda says he refused to talk to an agent there without a lawyer present, and the agent eventually relented. ICE’s media department didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.
KOTEK RAISES MONEY, DRAZAN KEEPS MUM: Gov. Tina Kotek has not announced her reelection plans for 2026, but her fundraising has kicked into a higher gear, with nearly $400,000 raised since Sept. 1, giving her $1.1 million in the bank. Meanwhile, Kotek’s 2022 Republican opponent, state Rep. Christine Drazan (R-Canby), is keeping her options open. Drazan, the former two-time House minority leader, passed on seeking that position again; Rep. Lucetta Elmer (R-McMinnville) replaced her in caucus elections last week. Drazan is seeking appointment to succeed state Sen. Daniel Bonham (R-The Dalles) in Senate District 26. (President Donald Trump nominated Bonham to be assistant secretary of labor Oct. 2.) If Drazan wins the Senate appointment, she would frustrate a rival, state Rep. Jeff Helfrich (R-Hood River), who also wants Bonham’s seat. A Senate seat would offer the ability to fundraise for a potential governor’s run during the February short session—a step House rules prohibit. But Drazan is reticent about the governor’s race: “I am really focused on the Senate appointment.”
PPS TRIES TO PATCH GAP IN PARAEDUCATOR SUBSTITUTES: A revived Portland School Board committee on teaching, learning and enrollment opens a window into the school district’s paraeducator substitute crisis. The number of students enrolled in Portland Public Schools’ special education program ebbs and flows from year to year, but students receiving special education services are increasingly a larger part of the district’s overall enrollment. In the 2024–25 academic year, they made up 17.2% of PPS’s student body, making serving them and their families a growing priority for the district. But in a presentation the committee will hear Oct. 9, district leaders say they’re struggling to fill paraeducator substitute positions, key as regular staff struggle with high rates of burnout and “overwhelming” caseloads, according to the presentation. Numbers from Oct. 2 of the 2025–26 academic year reveal the district has struggled thus far to fill 2,213 of its 3,646 needed paraeducator substitute positions—or about 60%. (In previous years, the district has also reported struggling to fill thousands of positions.) In an attempt to provide more regular staffing, PPS recently contracted with Tennessee-based company ESS, and is requiring paraeducator substitutes interested in continuing with the district to join the ESS team. Elizabeth Held, acting president of the Portland Federation of School Professionals, expressed concern. “We asked how many additional staff outside the existing sub pool ESS would provide,” she tells WW, “and have yet to receive an answer. Nor have we been given information on the incoming staff’s training.”
SPURNING WAGE OFFER, KAISER WORKERS SET STRIKE DATE: Unions representing Kaiser Permanente workers across the U.S., including in the greater Portland area, announced plans for a five-day strike beginning Oct. 14. The roughly 4,000 Kaiser Northwest staff threatening the work stoppage include a mix of registered nurses, lab workers and other staff—such as social workers and physical therapists—who work at Sunnyside and Westside medical centers as well as surgical centers and clinics along the Interstate 5 corridor from Longview to Eugene. The previous contract expired at the end of September, with no deal emerging from months of prior negotiations. Naturally, pay is a sticking point. Kaiser, which says it already pays better than market rates, proposed a 21.5% wage bump nationwide over a four-year period, but unions are demanding 25%, which Kaiser says would translate to higher rates for members (600,000 of whom are in Kaiser’s Northwest division). “A strike would only delay progress, waste millions, cause lost wages, and potentially disrupt care,” Kaiser says in a statement, though it adds that if a strike does occur, its hospitals and medical offices will stay open. The Oregon Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals says Kaiser wages trail behind other area health providers, making it harder to recruit and retain, and threatening care quality in turn. “We remain at the bargaining tables,” the union says, referring to local and national negotiations, “but the gap is wide.”
