June 18, 2025
Page 5
Trump Directs ICE to
Expand Deportations
Summer Free For
All Returns for 2025
Citywide Fun
at No Cost
Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) is
bringing back its beloved Summer Free For
All series for 2025, a community favorite
made possible by the voter-approved 2020
Parks Local Option Levy. The festivities
begin with Free Lunch + Play on Monday,
June 23 at 22 park locations and apartment
complexes across East Portland. Live mu-
sic, movies, and cultural events will follow
citywide starting July 2.
During the school year, more than half
of Portland’s students rely on free or re-
duced-price meals. To help fill the gap
during summer, PP&R’s Free Lunch +
Play program offers nutritious meals and
engaging activities for children and fami-
lies when school is out. Starting June 23,
kids can take part in games, sports, music,
arts, and crafts, all led by trained staff and
community partners. The program runs
Monday through Friday at parks through-
out the city and also reaches two East Port-
land apartment complexes through Mobile
Lunch + Play, which operates from June 23
through August 22.
This summer’s Free For All series in-
cludes more than 40 events designed for all
ages, from multicultural festivals and con-
certs to outdoor movies and community
celebrations. Schedules are currently avail-
able in English and Spanish, with addition-
al translations coming soon in Ukrainian,
Russian, Somali, Chinese, Vietnamese,
and more.
“It’s just not summer in Portland until
Summer Free For All gets going again,”
said PP&R Director Adena Long. “There
is nothing like experiencing live music or
enjoying an outdoor movie with your loved
ones in your favorite neighborhood park.”
The 2025 movie lineup includes Inside
Out 2, Coco, Despicable Me 4, The Sand-
lot, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Live
performances will feature well-known
local acts such as Norman Sylvester with
Lenanne Miller, BridgeCity Soul, Conjun-
to Alegre, Too Loose Zydeco, and more.
Community festivals like the East Portland
Summer Arts Festival, Washington Park
Summer Festival, and The Kidz Outside
Festival also return this year.
The Summer Free For All series is
made possible by the Parks Levy, which
allows PP&R to deliver on its promises
to Portland voters. The levy funds free
family-friendly events, recreational pro-
gramming, swim lessons, fitness and arts
classes, and teen- and older adult-focused
activities. Importantly, it eliminates cost as
a barrier to participation in these vital com-
munity offerings.
The official Summer Free For All kick-
off celebration will take place on Thursday,
June 26, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Parklane
Park. Everyone 18 and under is invited to
share a meal and enjoy activities in the sun.
Free lunch will be served between 11:30
a.m. and 1 p.m.
The East Portland Summer Arts Festi-
val returns July 12 and 13 at Ventura Park,
with Edna Vasquez headlining day one as
part of her Best of Both Worlds tour. Day
two features Portland Taiko and Friends,
promising an evening of powerful drum-
ming, dance, and musical storytelling. The
Washington Park Summer Festival will be
held August 9 and 10 at the Rose Garden
Amphitheater, with performances begin-
ning at 6 p.m. each evening. This year’s
acts include Tempos Contemporary Circus
and the Portland Cello Project performing
the music of Radiohead.
At Gateway Discovery Park, free sum-
mer activities will take place Monday
through Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
June 23 through August 22. No registra-
tion is needed. Children can enjoy arts
and crafts, games, cultural activities, and
more. Free lunches will be served daily
from 11 to 11:45 a.m. as part of the Free
Lunch + Play program.
Free Open Play Swim will also be
available at six outdoor pools across the
city each week. Creston Pool hosts ses-
sions on Mondays from 6:30 to 8 p.m.,
Peninsula Pool on Tuesdays from 1 to
3:45 p.m., Montavilla Pool on Tuesdays
from 6 to 8 p.m., Grant Pool on Wednes-
days from 1 to 3 p.m., Sellwood Pool on
Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8 p.m., and
Pier Pool on Thursdays from 1:30 to 3:30
p.m., with an expected opening date of
July 14.
PP&R’s Fitness in the Park program re-
turns as well, offering free outdoor group
fitness classes for ages 14 and older. Be-
ginning June 23, classes will take place at
eight locations citywide, including Irving
Park, Ventura Park, and Mt. Scott Park.
For full schedules, event listings, and
additional information, visit portland.
gov/parks.
President Donald Trump, left, escorted by Air Force Col. Angela F. Ochoa,
Commander, 89th Airlift Wing, walks from Marine One to board Air Force One,
Sunday, June 15, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., for a trip to Canada to
attend the G7 Summit. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Democratic-Ran
Cities Targeted
AP- President Donald Trump on Sun-
day directed federal immigration officials
to prioritize deportations from Demo-
cratic-run cities, a move that comes after
large protests erupted in Los Angeles and
other major cities against the Trump ad-
ministration’s immigration policies.
Trump in a social media posting called
on U.S. Immigration and Customs En-
forcement officials “to do all in their
power to achieve the very important goal
of delivering the single largest Mass De-
portation Program in History.”
He added that to reach the goal offi-
cials ”must expand efforts to detain and
deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest
Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago,
and New York, where Millions upon Mil-
lions of Illegal Aliens reside.”
Trump’s declaration comes after
weeks of increased enforcement, and
after Stephen Miller, White House dep-
uty chief of staff and main architect of
Trump’s immigration policies, said ICE
officers would target at least 3,000 arrests
a day, up from about 650 a day during the
first five months of Trump’s second term.
At the same time, the Trump admin-
istration has directed immigration offi-
cers to pause arrests at farms, restaurants
and hotels, after Trump expressed alarm
about the impact aggressive enforcement
is having on those industries, according
to a U.S. official familiar with the matter
who spoke only on condition of anonym-
ity. Protests over federal immigration
enforcement raids have been flaring up
around the country.
Opponents of Trump’s immigration
policies took to the streets as part of the
“no kings” demonstrations Saturday that
came as Trump held a massive parade in
Washington for the 250th anniversary of
the U.S. Army.
Saturday’s protests were mostly
peaceful. But police in Los Angeles used
tear gas and crowd-control munitions to
clear out protesters after the event ended.
Officers in Portland, Oregon, also
fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse
a crowd that protested in front of a U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
building well into the evening.
Trump made the call for stepped up
enforcement in Democratic-controlled
cities on social media as he was making
his way to the Group of Seven economic
summit in Alberta, Canada.
He suggested to reporters as he de-
parted the White House for the G7 on
Sunday evening that his decision to de-
ploy National Guard troops to Los An-
geles was the reason the protests in that
city went peacefully.
“If we didn’t have the National Guard
on call and ready, they would rip Los An-
geles apart,” Trump said.
The shift also come as Trump is grap-
pling with the impact his mass deporta-
tion effort is having on key industries that
rely on workers in the country illegally.
Trump posted on his Truth Social site
Thursday that he heard from hotel, ag-
riculture and leisure industries that his
“very aggressive policy on immigration
is taking very good, long time work-
ers away from them” and promised that
changes would be made .
That same day Tatum King, an official
with ICE’s Homeland Security Investi-
gations unit, wrote to regional leaders
telling them to halt investigations of the
agriculture industry, including meatpack-
ers, as well as of restaurants and hotels,
according to the U.S. official.