On September 11, a distressing scene unfolded on a Northeast Portland street when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Víctor José Brito Vallejo. A bystander captured video footage of the encounter, showing Brito Vallejo pinned to the ground by multiple agents, pleading for air.
The Arrest Caught on Camera
The video, filmed by Portland resident Elizabeth Cox, shows one agent lying on top of Brito Vallejo while three others restrained him on the pavement. Throughout the clip, Brito Vallejo can be heard repeatedly saying in Spanish, “No puedo respirar” — “I can’t breathe.” Witnesses said he did not appear to resist arrest.
Cox recalled that she was returning home from a doctor’s appointment when she noticed several unmarked vehicles stopped near the intersection of Northeast Clackamas Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. “It didn’t seem normal,” she said. “Someone was being pulled out of a car, and it looked aggressive.”
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She decided to record the encounter, explaining that she had learned filming ICE operations can provide crucial evidence for those detained. “I just wish I’d captured more,” Cox said. “The moment they pulled him from the car looked incredibly violent.”
A Family in Fear
Brito Vallejo’s wife, who asked not to be named due to her immigration status, could be heard in the video screaming for help from inside their car. The couple had been out making DoorDash deliveries when ICE agents stopped them.
She later explained that their family — including their three children, ages 15, 12, and 8 — had fled Venezuela in 2023 after her husband faced political persecution. They initially settled in New York, a sanctuary state, before moving to Oregon earlier this year believing it would offer stronger protections for undocumented immigrants.
But the September arrest shattered that sense of security. After Brito Vallejo was taken, his wife said she and their children were left homeless, living in their car for nearly three weeks. They now stay in a friend’s basement. The children have not attended school for almost a month.
“I have a lot of fear,” she said softly.
Part of a Broader Crackdown
The arrest comes amid reports of increased immigration enforcement in Oregon, part of a broader push under the Trump administration’s national crackdown. The Oregonian/OregonLive recently detailed multiple incidents showing a sharp escalation in ICE activities across the state.
Earlier this month, ICE officers allegedly raided a Gresham apartment, entering with rifles drawn while searching for a suspect. Inside were a 24-year-old woman, her three-month-old baby, her stepfather, and her brother. Agents arrested the men, even though they were not the individuals named in the warrant.
In another incident, ICE agents reportedly held a group of teenagers at gunpoint at a Dutch Bros Coffee shop in Hillsboro, according to local law enforcement documents.
These encounters have fueled growing concerns among immigrant communities and advocates about excessive force and the targeting of individuals not posing immediate threats.
ICE Declines to Comment
When asked about the Portland arrest, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials declined to comment, citing agency policy on ongoing cases. No details have been released about the charges against Brito Vallejo or his current detention status.
Advocacy groups have repeatedly urged ICE to review its enforcement methods, emphasizing that many immigrants detained in such raids are asylum seekers or residents with deep community ties.
A Community Shaken
For Cox, the bystander who filmed the event, the experience was deeply unsettling. “It was horrifying to watch,” she said. “I felt like the least I could do was record, so there would be some accountability.”
For Brito Vallejo’s wife and children, the trauma is ongoing. They remain uncertain about their future in a state they once believed would protect them.
Their story has become another powerful example of how federal immigration enforcement continues to disrupt families and communities, even in places that call themselves sanctuaries.
