Last fall, the Trump administration’s campaign to aggressively detain and deport people came crashing into the Pacific Northwest.

Protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Enforcement building in Portland drew most of the national attention, including President Donald Trump’s denunciations straight from the Oval Office. He surged federal officers into the building and attempted to deploy National Guard troops onto the city’s streets.

At the same time, federal immigration enforcement officers spread across the region as part of “Operation Black Rose.” During the months-long campaign, federal officers stopped farmworkers driving to their jobs and whisked away mothers in the middle of shopping for their children.

The second episode of OPB’s documentary series “The Crackdown” chronicles the operation and its impact on the Pacific Northwest. It profiles a pair of families swept up in the dragnet. You can watch the first episode of “The Crackdown” here.

The families describe the jarring moments when they learn their family members were detained and the persistent struggle of trying to bring them home.

Maria Trinidad Loya Medina spent four months in ICE custody after her January arrest. The ordeal devastated her family. Her husband had recently suffered a stroke, and her two teenage children struggled to pick up the pieces.

“The only reason she came to the U.S. was to make a new life, to buy a new house and make a family here,” daughter Valeria Herrera told OPB in a recent interview. “She has the best intentions. She’s not a criminal.”

Paulino Martin San Pedro was arrested by immigration agents in November as he was leaving a job site, and he was quickly deported to Mexico.

“Trying to find my dad was probably the most difficult thing in my whole life,” Eric Martin San Juan told OPB in an interview. “I feel like the way they set it up was to break you and to lose your patience.”

A Homeland Security spokesperson said Martin San Pedro “had, on three previous occasions, entered the United States illegally.”

Eric Martin San Juan at least partially blames the deportation for his father’s health conditions. Paulino Martin San Pedro died in February, three months after his removal, due to complications from E. coli and pneumonia.

“To be transported multiple times, not sleeping, being traumatized, it all kind of wraps together that it weakened his immune system so much that once he got something bigger, it just hit him really, really hard.”

DHS officials said Martin San Pedro had access to medical care while in ICE detention, and had been “medically cleared” for removal.

“Operation Black Rose” spanned from October to March, though most of the apprehensions occurred in October and November. That timeline coincided with the Trump administration’s efforts in court to send the National Guard into Portland.

Numbers provided by Homeland Security officials show agents detained more than 1,400 people in the region during the operation. Only about one-quarter of those detained had criminal convictions.

Part three of this multi-part documentary will be coming in fall 2026.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/11/the-effect-of-operation-black-rose-immigration-sweep-on-two-oregon-families/