About 100 people packed the Clark County Council chambers during a Wednesday, Jan. 28, meeting, prompting the council to shorten public comment from the usual three minutes to two to accommodate the crowd.
The meeting followed a suggestion made the week prior by Council Chair Sue Marshall that the council consider preparing a statement addressing immigration amid controversial actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration. The potential resolution was listed as new business and drew speakers from across the county.
Most public commenters urged the council to move forward with a statement, many urging further action by refusing to work with federal agencies such as ICE and the FBI. Several speakers tied their concerns to recent ICE-related incidents nationally and locally, including an unresolved Vancouver case involving a detainee who appeared in a video to be struck by a vehicle during an ICE operation. The Vancouver Police Department has since suspended an investigation, citing an inability to contact the immigrant or their lawyer, and federal officials declining to support the investigation. The Vancouver City Council issued its own statement denouncing federal agencies including ICE on Jan. 20 regarding conduct.
Others referenced the council’s past vote rejecting a deal that would have allowed the FBI to continue training at Camp Bonneville. The council voted 3-2 against the agreement on Tuesday, Aug. 19, last year, following a January 2025 theft of thousands of rounds of FBI ammunition from the range. The theft remains under federal investigation. Speakers asked the council to maintain its stance and prevent future FBI use of county-owned land.
Teresa Hardy of the Loo Wit chapter of the Sierra Club pointed to the unusually large turnout as evidence the council needed to act.
“Look around the room. Those of us who come to council meetings, we know that oftentimes there are (few) people here. Look at the number of people here today. Who are you listening to? What kind of action are you going to take?” Hardy asked.
Speaking via Zoom, Kurt Justice, a 20-year military veteran, said recent events have left him fearful despite his service.
“I've never been more scared than I am right now because I have a government that, that if I went out to execute my First Amendment rights, and a federal agent decided to brandish a gun against me, I would be labeled a terrorist,” Justice said.
Haven Davis of Washougal criticized the idea of issuing a statement without concrete steps.
“I agree that the statement seems performative and it needs to become actionable. If you are genuinely serious about keeping the immigrants in our county and in our country safe, then there needs to be action behind the words that you say,” Davis said.
Not all speakers supported limiting cooperation with federal agencies. Rob Anderson, founder of Reform Clark County, cautioned that such statements could endanger public safety.
“Resolutions like Vancouver's and if the county follows suit risk framing federal law enforcement itself as a local public safety crisis. We've seen this recently in Minneapolis agitators interfering in federal operations contributed to fatal outcomes,” Anderson said.
Michael Johnson of Washougal warned the council against what he described as coordinated and secretly funded national protests targeting federal law enforcement.
“The anti-ICE protests we see being held in Seattle and in other cities throughout the state are treated by the mainstream media as nonviolent grassroots expressions of free speech under the First Amendment. Some of the participants in these protests believe that is what they are participating in. However, this could not be further from the truth,” he said. “These protests are well-funded, well-planned, highly coordinated events sponsored by organizations like Antifa and other organizations that have expressed intent for federal law enforcement officials who are tasked with immigration enforcement.”
Johnson’s remarks drew sustained booing from the crowd, prompting Chair Sue Marshall to warn attendees against disrupting public comment. Fia Marie of Clark County, who sarcastically referred to herself as the “Clark County Antifa protest funder” following Johnson’s statement, argued the county must take a firm stance against ICE and the FBI.
“Across the country, we are witnessing in real time in many cases, the public execution of citizens by ICE. There have been nine deaths in 2026 alone, nine. Just last December, we watched one of our community members be physically run over by this agency in Vancouver, Washington,” she said.
The Clark County Council discussed the appropriate approach for issuing a statement following public comment. Chair Marshall said that while a statement alone would not solve the issue, the council needed to respond to growing fear in the community and consider what actions were within its control.
Councilor Glen Yung said he was frustrated by the lack of clear options available to the council but emphasized that fear stemming from ICE’s tactics was real and dangerous, particularly when federal agents wear masks and do not clearly identify themselves. Yung said this confusion puts bystanders and residents at risk and has created an environment where people do not know whether to intervene or stay back.
“I think there's gonna be people that sit on the fence and I think those people that have sat on the fence have been emboldened by current leadership. And not in a good way,” Yung said.
Yung also criticized the Trump administration, saying its approach has encouraged uncertainty and fear while leaving local governments with limited tools to respond. He said acknowledging that fear through a statement was important, even if the council could not directly stop ICE from operating in the county.
Councilors Michelle Belkot and Matt Little expressed concern a statement could cause harm without careful planning. Belkot cited Vancouver Police Chief Troy Price’s warning that officers had been mistaken for ICE agents following the city’s own statement. Marshall responded that ICE agents dressing similarly to local police may be contributing to that confusion and said it was not clear to her that the Vancouver City Council’s statement caused harm.
Wil Fuentes, speaking as a first-generation immigrant from El Salvador, said condemnation and action were both necessary. Fuentes argued the county could explicitly prohibit ICE and federal agencies that support ICE from using county-owned resources, including Camp Bonneville, even if it could not stop federal enforcement outright.
“As a brown person, I feel it every day, every single day I leave my house and I'm scared. I am terrified. I am a US citizen, but that's not gonna stop ICE from profiling me and stopping me and questioning me and potentially running me over with their vehicle … I support, 100%, Preventing ICE, preventing the FBI and other law enforcement agencies that were designed by the way to protect their community, but they're not doing that, from using our resources and using our facilities and not using Camp Bonneville,” Fuentes said.
By the end of the discussion, a majority of the council signaled support for moving forward with a draft statement. Senior policy analyst Jordan Boege was directed to prepare language based on the council’s guidance and seek input from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, the Clark County Jail and the Clark County Public Health before bringing it back for further consideration.
