Father drops two kids off at bus stop then gets arrested by ICE, Oregon officials say

A father has been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents near Portland after he dropped his children off at a bus stop, school officials said.

The children attend school in the Tigard-Tualatin School District, authorities told The Oregonian. It hasn’t been determined if the children saw their father get arrested, the media outlet reported.

The man has been identified as Tomas Galvan-Rodriguez, who is “a citizen of Mexico and in the United States illegally,” a U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement spokesperson told McClatchy News.

Galvan-Rodriguez has a 2004 conviction for hit and run and a 2008 conviction for larceny, the ICE spokesperson said.

“Two of our students…their (parent) walked them to the school bus, the kids got on the school bus and ICE came and arrested the parent,” TTSD School Board member Jill Zurschmeide said, according to The Portland Tribune. “Washington County is the hot spot right now for this.”

The children were connected to The Latino Network and other service organizations to make sure they have basic needs and safe housing, Superintendent Sue Rieke-Smith told The Portland Tribune.

Rieke-Smith told the Tribune that she and other officials are trying to prevent immigration officers from using school bus stopsto make their arrests.

Oregon’s sanctuary law, passed in 1987, forbids using local and state funds to detain people for being in the country illegally if they have committed no other crimes, according to OPB.

The law has paved the way for similar legislation, including California’s “sanctuary law,” which restricts local and state law enforcement from cooperating with federal level immigration authorities, according to NPR.

This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 8:59 PM with the headline "Father drops two kids off at bus stop then gets arrested by ICE, Oregon officials say."