Federal immigration authorities arrested a 41-year-old man inside Portland International Airport last week while he was attempting to travel back to his home in New Jersey with his boyfriend.
The Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition, which tracks and verifies immigration arrests in Oregon, said the Sept. 9 arrest at an Alaska Airlines departure gate was the first known immigration arrest this year at the airport. The group said it received several reports of arrests at the airport last fall when immigration enforcement in Oregon intensified amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday confirmed that Diego Mauricio Ospina Sanchez was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents inside Portland International Airport.
The spokesperson said Ospina Sanchez entered the country legally on Oct. 15, 2024, from Colombia but overstayed his visa. The unnamed spokesperson said Ospina Sanchez was ordered deported by an immigration judge on Aug. 13, 2026.
Ospina Sanchez’s boyfriend, Kewin, who asked to only be identified by his first name due to fears of being targeted by federal authorities, said the couple was near their departure gate when several agents dressed in plain clothes suddenly surrounded them and asked to see their identification, which they both provided. Agents then quickly ushered Ospina Sanchez away.
People who overstay their visas may be eligible to adjust their status to obtain legal permanency under certain circumstances. Kewin said Ospina Sanchez doesn’t have a criminal record and sought asylum to remain in the country after his visa expired. But he didn’t receive a notice for his first hearing in immigration court, where he had hoped to make his case to be allowed to remain in the country, Kewin said. That hearing resulted in his deportation order.
“They hunt us as if we were bad people,” Kewin, who is back in New Jersey, said in Spanish. “As if you were a criminal or an animal. That’s what they are doing.”
The Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Ospina Sanchez received due process.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests at airports began to spike across the country this summer, raising alarm among attorneys who said passengers were being abruptly swept up by federal agents while traveling. The move reflects a new ICE tactic under the Trump administration to target people traveling with expired visas. The uptick in airport arrests comes amid reports that the Transportation Security Administration is increasingly collaborating with ICE.
The unnamed Homeland Security spokesperson said the agency is reversing a “Biden-era policy that allowed aliens in our country illegally to jet around our country.”
“Under President Trump, DHS will no longer tolerate this,” the spokesperson said in an email. “This administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport.”
The latest arrest at Portland International Airport comes after the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition reported that an immigrant from Oregon was detained by federal authorities at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport in August.
The coalition condemned last week’s arrest at Oregon’s busiest airport.
“No legitimate public safety purpose is being served in this kind of surveillance and harm of travelers through our state,” the group said in a statement.
The coalition urged people who are in immigration proceedings to continuously check the status of their case.
“Missing a hearing, even one you were not aware has changed, could give ICE grounds to detain you,” the group said. “(The Transportation Security Administration) is a federal agency and part of the Department of Homeland Security, and information about people’s travel plans are now being cross-referenced against other databases ICE uses.”
Molly Prescott, a spokesperson for the Port of Portland, which owns and operates Portland International Airport, said the agency did not receive reports of the immigration arrest at the airport. She said Port Police would only be dispatched if there was a disturbance or threat to public safety that required police involvement.
“We do not assist in immigration enforcement in accordance with state and city law,” she said. She referred questions about enforcement activity to ICE.
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Kewin said he and his boyfriend never imagined that a fun trip to visit California and Washington would end in despair.
Kewin said he didn’t know what to do after Ospina Sanchez was arrested. If he boarded the flight, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to find his boyfriend’s location.
So, he didn’t get on the plane.
Instead, he called the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition’s hotline and a Spanish-speaking community member drove to pick him up.
“I think he was extremely emotionally distraught,” said Pearl Jennings, operations coordinator with the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition, who spoke with Kewin after his call to the hotline. “I think he was really, really overwhelmed.”
Jennings said a mutual aid group found a place for Kewin to stay until he was able to fly back home, provided him with meals, connected him with resources and helped him locate his boyfriend. She criticized the federal government for targeting someone without a criminal record like Ospina Sanchez.
“They were on a cute vacation,” Jennings said. “They both loved the Twilight films and they were in Forks, Washington, on a Twilight tour.”
Ospina Sanchez was initially taken to the regional detention center in Tacoma. Kewin said his boyfriend called him Wednesday afternoon and told him he was being transferred to El Paso, Texas, Wednesday night.
Kewin said he worries about his boyfriend’s detention, especially given that Ospina Sanchez has an underlying medical condition. Kewin worries the detention could weaken his immune system and lead to the progression of his illness. He said his boyfriend gave him permission to talk about his illness.
“Not sleeping well, not eating well, and having his mental health very impacted, would awaken his illness,” he said in Spanish. “It becomes active again.”
Kewin said his boyfriend has told him that he’s being provided with medication in Tacoma but is not doing well emotionally and mentally.
Kewin said Ospina Sanchez earlier this week told him that he was considering signing his voluntary departure order.
“He told me, ‘I’m going to ask for my voluntary departure, I’m already tired, I can’t deal with this, I can’t deal with my illness, I can’t handle my psychological situation if I’m not sleeping, I’m not eating,’” he said, adding that Ospina Sanchez also told him he’s been losing weight.
Kewin said he has been talking to lawyers and will continue to fight to get his boyfriend released. He has started a GoFundMe to raise money for legal expenses. He worries that if Ospina Sanchez is deported to Colombia, he won’t be able to continue with his medical treatment.
“Now, I’m very lonely, honestly,” Kewin said. “That’s what has made this more difficult.”
Jennings said she believes that if Ospina Sanchez was traveling alone, his family might not have found out what happened to him for months.
“It’s just a really vulnerable situation,” she said. “PIRC is really hoping to not be seeing any more airport arrests just because of the level of vulnerability and complication.”
She also said she’s concerned that more immigrants will miss court appearances and face deportation orders as the Trump administration moves to expedite court hearings.
“It’s just a cruel way of criminalizing people who didn’t do anything wrong except not check that website,” she said. “It’s a horrible way to make people eligible for deportation.”
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