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Portlanders will have the opportunity to speak with theirs wallets this weekend to oppose the ongoing atrocity at the U.S.-Mexico border.
On Saturday, June 29, Fifty Licks Ice Cream will be donate 50 percent of sales from cups and cones to Kids in Need of Defense, an organization that helps children like those who've been taken from their parents under the Trump administration's practice of family separation at the border. The group works to ensure minors don't appear in immigration court alone and uphold their right to due process.
Fifty Licks owner Chad Draizin says he's been moved by news coverage about the detained youths—some as young as a few months old—being forced to sleep on concrete floors and go weeks without access to soap or toothbrushes.
"I'm furious about what's happening to children—infants, even—in these ICE concentration camps," he says. "I read the news every morning before I get dressed, and of course I saw all of the accounts of attorneys and observers who were finally granted access to these camps. I found myself there in the shower reeling from the news and just pissed off —furious at the deliberate and senseless cruelty at the hands of my government on my behalf."
Both the Fifty Licks locations, at 2021 SE Clinton St. and 2742 E Burnside St., will participate in the effort, as well as their food truck at Northwest 24th Avenue and Thurman Street.
This is the latest example of a local business raising money to address larger social issues—in mid-June, dozens of Portland restaurants donated a percentage of sales to the Northwest Abortion Access Fund in response to the growing number of states restricting access to safe, legal abortions.
It's also not the first time Fifty Licks has gotten political: Last summer, the company handed out free ice cream to protesters outside the Portland U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters.