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M Artin l uther K ing J r .
January 16, 2019
2019 special edition
Arrested in the Fight for Civil Rights
Rev. Michael Ellick (left), Rabbi Debra Kolodny, and Rev. Barbara Nixon were among the
Oregon faith leaders who were willing to get arrested for a cause in a series of civil disobedi-
ence actions against the federal Immigrant and Customs Enforcement office in Portland.
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er to be able to make that call.”
Loose was a key organizer of the
civil disobedience actions.
Kolodny, along with Rev. Mi-
chael Ellick and Rev. Barbara
Nixon, would make up the first
wave of faith leaders being arrest-
ed, starting Aug. 6, in what the
group called the August of Action.
The demonstrators went up to the
door of the ICE Office on South-
west Macadam Avenue to deliver
the letter, in person, to Godfrey.
When there was no response, they
linked arms with other demonstra-
tors and blocked cars from being
able to come or go. They then sat
on the ground.
Rev. Nixon, who serves First
United Methodist Church in Cor-
vallis, had put her body on the
line with her colleagues, despite
significant joint problems. “I was
quietly hoping that if they were
going to arrest us, that it would
happen sooner rather than later
because it’s pretty tough sitting on
the ground that way,” she recalled.
Within a matter of minutes,
however, Homeland Security of-
ficers asked the faith leaders to
leave. They refused, three times,
and made it clear that they knew
their actions were illegal. The
three were put in handcuffs by
federal police officers.
Reflecting on the use of such a
public maneuver, Rev. Ellick, who
previously lived in New York City
for 18 years and was involved in
the Occupy Wall Street protest in
2011, admits that getting arrested
for a cause is not always effective.
“Civil disobedience doesn’t al-
ways make sense as a tactic. It’s
a popular thing to do. It’s edgy.
But we were really clear with our-
selves this can’t be about cathar-
sis,” he said. “In this instance, we
felt helpless, frustrated, outraged
and hurt by the country. And we
narrowed in on a tactic.”
Though Rev. Ellick, Rabbi
Kolodny, and Rev. Nixon were de-
tained for less than two hours, and
not brought into a jail cell during
that time, the attention it brought
to the issue was a success.
“It was symbolic pressure,”
Rev. Ellick said. “And in our mind
it, worked.”
By the end of the month, 30
faith leaders associated with the
movement had been arrested--one
of them twice. After the first couple
of weeks of arrests, ICE starting to
release the asylum seekers, but by
the trickle. By the end of Novem-
ber, however, all 120 plus asylum
seekers were out of the prison.
Werner said it’s hard to predict
what’s next for the faith leaders
with today’s political climate.
“We’re living in a time where a
new policy could be handed down
next month that’s even harsher
or more inhumane, more unjust,
than what we’re facing today.
We’re finding great strength to
keep pushing and to keep getting
up and doing it even if next month
might be harder,” he said.
Sarah Loose credited the
group’s achievements to many
organizations coming together, in-
cluding St. Michael & All Angels
Episcopal Church in northeast
Portland, which provides office
space support, ACLU Oregon, In-
novation Law Lab, and others.
“We found our slice and went
in there but the success of it as a
whole was really because of that
joint movement effort,” she said.
If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t
run then walk, if you
can’t walk then crawl, but
whatever you do you have
to keep moving forward.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.