Residents call for protection and compassion amid enforcement fears
The Seaside City Council met Monday with updates on the city’s Stepping Stones camp from Clatsop Community Action, a rehearing of Ordinance 2025-06 regulating camping, lying and sleeping and other new business.
The meeting came at a tense moment for many residents after a weekend immigration enforcement operation in the city. Several speakers urged city leaders to protect vulnerable residents and to approach homelessness and public safety policies with greater compassion and transparency.
Public comment was dominated by discussion of a recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in the city, during which six individuals were detained on Saturday, Nov. 8.
Seaside resident Daffne Yuilana Mejia expressed concerns about the ICE presence.
“I received an alarming phone call from my family telling me to stay home, to not go downtown and to cancel all of our plans,” Mejia said. “There were videos and pictures of ICE agents in Seaside kidnapping our friends and family members, some of our hardest working community members on their way to work were pulled over, taken from their vehicles and put into unmarked vehicles.”
Mejia said the people were taken into custody because, “the masked individuals felt they looked suspicious, that’s code for being brown and Hispanic.”
Mejia said she did not see a local police officer present during the incident to help calm community fears and called on the police department to protect residents.
Mejia asked whether the city has a plan to protect its Hispanic community.
“Are our local officers here to protect all of us, the residents of Seaside by stepping up to calm our fears or will they choose to look the other way while Seaside residents are being kidnapped and taken against their will with no wrongdoings?”
Michael, who declined to give his last name, said he was a retired Army veteran and combat medical specialist who served seven years said there were enemies in Seaside on Saturday.
“I was stationed in Germany, I was warned when I got there about the Neo-Nazi’s, I was warned we could get jumped at any time, and we did,” Michael said.”What I see on the news and what I saw on Saturday on Facebook was equivalent to just that.”
Michael, who said he was a social emotional learning educator at Pacific Ridge Elementary School, said half of the school’s students were absent on Monday.
“They didn’t show up to school, they didn’t show up to be loved — they didn’t show up to be educated because they were afraid,” Michael said. “And this is America.”
He said he was angry and said he never thought he would see ICE agents in Seaside.
“Yet here they come wearing my camouflage,” he said. “Let’s look out for each other like we have since I’ve lived here, where I have hugged and loved on, and I return that to your children, to your grandchildren and I will continue to do that. I hope you guys will do the same.”
Councilor Seamus McVey requested a brief five-minute recess “between the comments during public comments and the intensity,” saying he appreciated a moment to collect his thoughts.
Camping ordinance discussion
The council also reheard Ordinance 2025-06, which amends Chapter 2 of the city code to establish regulations, definitions and programs for lying or sleeping on public or private property. It outlines permitting, prohibitions, penalties, enforcement and notice requirements.
During public comment, Seaside resident Michael Sonnleitner said the need to sleep is a “fundamental human right. … I think you all recognize that, I see it in your policy, I see it in your designated camping area,” Sonnleitner said. “I am congratulating you on your efforts — but I suspect they are not enough.”
Sonnleitner said people who have tents or vehicles are privileged compared to those sleeping on benches or in wheelchairs, as he saw in Portland.
“That could be here, and I think we need to be proactive here,” Sonnleitner said. “I imagine that it is likely things are going to get worse before they get better here. There will be a lack of space in your designated area — anticipate that.”
Sonnleitner said the people in the camp “will be destitute” and asked what the city plans to do about the homeless population in the new designated area.
“If you have law enforcement simply saying ‘five days there, then you must move,’ they’ll move to some other place and then in five days they must move. … It’s like playing Whack-A-Mole. I’ve seen that for years in Portland,” Sonnleitner said. “They physically have no place to sleep — it’s simply a reality.”
McVey said that after discussions in workshop sessions, “there is still quite a bit of work to be done. I have unresolved questions myself and I can’t do it as is without those questions getting answered.”
McVey cautioned against repeating past mistakes and said the council should avoid “putting people in neighborhoods without notice or an opportunity for them to speak.”
“We’re trying to do the bare minimum,” said McVey, “and I think when we’re dealing with human lives, while we are here, we really need to be thorough and make sure that we’re actually doing the work to get it nailed down.”
McVey said the council has held numerous meetings on the issue but still isn’t addressing core concerns. “We’re trying to say we’re going to do this bare minimum and not actually do the work to address the actual problems.”
Councilor Chris Binnicker disagreed, noting there have been three meetings reviewing the policy.
“I think we’ve moved into a positive direction, there’s been an update already,” Binnicker said. “This is based on Medford’s similar policy, and I think there is always an opportunity in the future to make things better, but I didn’t hear anything that was outstanding specifically from this specific policy.”
Councilor David Posalski agreed, saying the city has dealt with the issue “for five to six years now.”
He said the council should not “give up good because we only wanted perfection. … There will always be changes and updates based on laws changing, court rulings,” Posalski said, adding that the ordinance is a step forward.
Councilor Tita Montero said the ordinance is “a huge step forward” but said she still had concerns.
“I also do not want us to say ‘Okay this is passed now’ and not going to look at it again,” Montero said. “My concerns are specifically about the fact that if we need overflow — and we heard tonight, 40 people at Stepping Stones — the likelihood of needing overflow is there.”
Montero said the city should be specific about how it would handle overflow and where it would be located.
“Wherever that overflow is in the city, the people who live around there need to have a say, be warned and know what is going on,” Montero said. “This is what we need to be working on before we overflow.”
The ordinance passed on its second reading, with Montero and McVey voting no.
Montero then made a motion to move the overflow discussion to the city’s top priority list. Posalski seconded, and the motion carried.
The Seaside City Council will meet next at 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 24 at City Hall.
