Download the Transcript Jacob admits to throwing rocks at the ICE facility and breaking down doors, but also wrestles with how this conflicts with his desire for a peaceful world. Can you think of a time when your ideals were challenged by a real-world event and you responded differently than you’d imagined? Jacob notes the importance of seeing the humanity in the heavily armed FBI agents arresting him, acknowledging a divine element in all people. What are the practical challenges of maintaining this perspective when facing systemic violence or armed opposition? Quakers have a long history of ministry within prisons. How can we shine light within justice systems that are often designed for punishment, not rehabilitation? Zack Jackson Hey everyone, Zack here. We’re currently in between seasons, getting everything ready for season four of Thee Quaker podcast, which will officially launch in October. But while we’ve been working on the new season, we wanted to bring you a special standalone episode today with Jacob Hoopes. Jacob was involved in a protest at an ICE facility in Portland that turned violent, and was recently sentenced to 900 days in prison for his involvement. A few weeks ago, right before he was scheduled to surrender himself to federal prison, he sat down with me to talk through what really happened that day, how his faith guided him through the chaos, and what accountability means in a world full of violence. So, without further ado, here is my conversation with Jacob Hoopes. Jacob Hoopes My name’s Jacob Hoopes. I use he and they pronouns. I currently live in Portland, Oregon, and I have for, depending on how you count, around seven years. I am a member of Multnomah Friends meeting out here, and have been for solidly the last two years. And I grew up in a variety of meetings out in Philadelphia and in the surrounding area, and BYM and the different facets of that have been a pretty important part of my life since I was born. Zack Jackson So the reason that we’re talking together today revolves around an incident that happened on June 14 of 2025 at a series of protests at the Portland ICE facility. Can you help paint a picture of that day? Jacob Hoopes Yeah, of course. I joined in with millions of others around the U.S. to join the No Kings protest that was happening in Portland that day, showing our national solidarity and our sense of frustration and awareness of the injustice that has been happening under this administration. So, I took part in the rally, doing a big circle of the city, and then I joined a fairly large contingent going down to the ICE facility, and up until that point, it was relatively calm, if excited. A lot of folks were cheering and doing chants and making clear and speaking loudly about the injustices being committed around the country, but it became real, much more so when we were approaching the ICE facility and we started to see clouds of what appeared to be smoke rising from the facility. And as we got close, people ran up to us and shouted, “They’re gassing us. That wasn’t smoke. That was tear gas. And as we got closer, it was evident that there had been like continuing confrontation and continuing assaults on folks peacefully protesting with pepper balls and tear gas, as we saw from the ICE agents and federal officials who were tasked with “quote unquote” defending the ICE facility, so yeah, that was happening, and I found myself in a position where I could see myself and others being shot by the folks behind the door, and I moved. Up to take a position at the front of the crowd, and I felt like there was some responsibility to push back and to make it so that the ICE agents who were antagonizing folks and inflicting violence on folks weren’t able to do so unopposed. This is where I started to make a series of unwise decisions. I picked up these rocks that were sort of part of the pathway that led up to the ICE facility and threw them at the building. The prosecutor has the exact number, but I think it was three rocks at the building. And during that time, the various ICE officer folks were shooting pepper balls out of this door. They were opening the door and shooting people in the crowd, and then closing the door and opening the door, shooting people in the crowd, closing the door. And it seemed to me that there was an opportunity to maybe stop that. So, in short, I found myself in front of the door. I went in front of the door and threw a rock around it. And I talk a little bit more about my thought process in that moment. I did a public letter to folks that I hope folks will be able to find. And yeah, it turns out that I seem to have hurt one of the ICE officers. I hit them in the head with one of those rocks, causing a bleeding. And I’m grateful to have learned later that the injury wasn’t terribly severe, and that doesn’t take away from my responsibility in causing it. But I’m grateful that it was not a severe injury, and the full recovery and all of that, and then later I was still at the facility and I participated in breaking down the doors with a sort of upended stop sign that someone had pulled out. So I do not want to claim that I didn’t make a mistake. I made a mistake, and it’s important to see that that is both true and also. I think it shouldn’t be possible for us to stay silent or stay passive or stay imagining that we’re somehow protected from many of the actions that ICE officers and the Trump administration overall have been taking have been committing. Jacob Hoopes So when I went home that night, I remember, well, of course, feeling physically shaken and unsure if the breaking down of the door was somehow in conflict with, like, my desire to participate in the creation of a more just and more peaceful world, and that’s an ongoing conversation with myself and with others, and I’m continually reminded that, like, as I break down that door, like families are being split apart, and people are being killed. And I don’t want to do some sort of equivalence here, but like these are these are different situations, and I I want to continue trying to find better and better ways to avoid violence, and I I believe that I could have made better decisions that day. Yeah, I yeah complicated feelings for sure, for sure. Zack Jackson So, you went home that night thinking that the worst of it all was over, settled back into normal rhythms, and then it was what a month later that this all came back around. Can you tell us about that day? That you woke up to find federal agents at your front door. Jacob Hoopes Yeah. So in short, it was a month after the events at the ICE facility, and I had imagined that the issue was settled, and so I’ve settled back into life, and I’ve returned to my normal rhythms, and I’m sort of shaken out of bed one day, looking out the window and seeing that there’s a number of armored people, like cops of some description, law enforcement officers, running up my driveway, and I’m confused and worried, and I think that my neighbor is being swatted, and then comes a knock at the door. FBI, open up, much louder and scarier than that. And so I think, oh wow, like we’re the ones being swatted. Like someone has called the FBI and us, and somehow chosen to target us for harassment. Again, in no way did I think this was tied to my actions at the ICE facility. And I say, “Wow, okay, do you have a warrant? And they say, “We’ll deal with that later. And I ask again, like, is there a warrant? And by this time, they have guns, like large, presumably semi-automatic rifles. That’s certainly what it seemed like to me, like very large guns, directly pointed at my chest. So I open the door, and they come in. They arrest me. They arrest, or maybe more properly, put into handcuffs my partner as well as my roommate. And while inside, I try to talk with the FBI agents there. Like they’re human beings. I want to see their humanity as much as I want them to see mine, and it’s difficult to do that because moments before these people had been very close to killing me. I learned later that as part of their application for a warrant, they got approval to use lethal force if they felt it was in any way necessary. It seems the bar was very low for that, and they were the twitch of a finger away. So, I’m incredibly grateful for my upbringing in Quakerism, as it helped me keep a cool head in that moment and return to center and find peace, even in the most distressing moments. Zack Jackson We’re gonna take a quick break. When we return, we speak with Jacob’s father, Tom, about what was happening outside the detention center that weekend, and about the surprising hope that’s blossoming from this situation. Stay tuned. Zack Jackson Hey Friends, We’re now very close to World Quaker Day, which will be on October 4th 2026 (that’s 4th day of tenth month, this year). On that day, the global Quaker body, called the Friends World Committee for Consultation, is planning an extended international meeting for worship online themed Let Peace Be Among Us. The worship is planned for all day, in three sessions covering all the global timezones. Each hour will be dedicated to a different part of the world where prayers for peace are particularly needed. The event will connect Friends in many different places – including the Caribbean, the Middle East and the Great Lakes Region of Africa – all of whom have faced challenges in gathering together where they are. Come for one hour, or come for all. Register online today at worldquakerday.org. That’s worldquakerday.org. Everyone is welcome. See you there. Zack Jackson Welcome back. That Friday, Jacob was arrested and brought into police custody. He had no idea what he was being accused of at the time and was unable to call home for help. It was a frightening weekend for him, but on the outside, people were organizing. Jacob’s partner called his parents, who were living in the Philadelphia area, and they started planning. I called Jacob’s father, Tom Hoopes, to hear his side of the story. Tom Hoopes We got the phone call on Friday midday, maybe noon, and when the news landed, Beth and I looked at each other, and she said, “You need to get on the next plane, and I said, “Absolutely. So there was not a moment’s hesitation, and I immediately moved into triage mode, so I was on the next available plane, nonstop flight to Portland. But long before that, I’d been on the phone texting hundreds of people. So by the time I landed, there was already a major intervention operation underway. I have felt so much love and support from the extended Quaker community from the moment this happened through today and continuing. The Quaker community showed up in force, and it has been one of the most powerful affirmations of my life. Zack Jackson So you arrive in Portland and get right to work, right? Because Jacob is scheduled for his first court date that Monday, right? Like that’s when the charges will be announced, and I’ve read that that was a pretty tense weekend for you guys with provocateurs on both sides that were trying to stir up trouble. How did you handle that day? Tom Hoopes Yeah, thank you for characterizing it the way you did because that’s exactly right. People from the alt right and people from the anarchist community of Portland, both of which are well populated, were eager to turn this into a national media circus, and I was given the name of an elder in the Portland area who’s actually not a member of Multnomah meeting. She’s actually part of a different Quaker community. Charisse Bach is a prominent Quaker in the Pacific Northwest, and Eileen Flanagan put me in touch with her as a person who could help ground the group outside of the courthouse, because what we realized was that there would be hundreds of people at the courthouse on Monday when he was arraigned, and it had the risk of becoming a sort of secondary uprising, a massive public event with the Portland anarchist community, adding their intensity and their vitriol, and that was the last thing in the world that I wanted. I wanted to take care of my child, and so I asked Charisse and members of Multnomah Meeting to come and hold the group outside in prayer and in a vigil that was in the style of Quaker worship, and they stepped in immediately. And I spoke with Eileen and Daniel Hunter and got ideas about how to keep the crowd focused and centered. I went to the EQAT website and printed out song sheets that I duplicated at the local staples, and so immediately there was a sense of the Quaker community holding us, supporting us, giving us every resource that we needed. So suffice it to say, there was this huge gathering, and of course, I wanted to be in the courtroom itself, and the courtroom itself was filled to overflowing, and then Jacob came in, and I had not laid eyes on him this whole time, and he was looking courageous and resilient and alert, but also scared, and as the proceeding unfolded, and we heard the charges for the first time, and mind you, when Jacob was arrested, he was not told what he was arrested for. He was not read a warrant. You know, he put two and two together that this had to do with the events of June 14, but he didn’t know what was the accusation. And when I heard it, that he was facing the possibility of 30 years in prison, my head started to spin because my own father finished his life age 79, and I did the math, and I realized that if Jacob were to serve that long, it could well be after I finished my life, and that was a bone-chilling thought. And the judge did something that our attorney later told me she’s never seen. He’s never seen before. She looked out at the box, the courtroom, whatever they call the space for visitors and observers, and she said, “Who are these people? She said, “I see the father and the girlfriend, but I don’t know who the rest of you are. Can you please introduce yourselves? And one by one, people stood up, and the judge instinctively looked out at this crowd of incredibly sweet-looking, loving people across the age spectrum, and in doing that, really inoculated the potency of the prosecution’s claim, and that was the first of many things that have happened here along this path that really feel like way opening to me, where I am. It could have been so much worse, and instead, Jacob was allowed to walk away that day, but with an ankle monitor. So that day, when he was released, we all went outside. The courtroom emptied, and we joined the crowd outside. So at that point, I don’t know, maybe there were 400 people out from the courthouse. There was a tremendous outpouring of love and support, and it was sort of like everybody wanted to touch him and honor him, and he gave me this incredible hug. Tom Hoopes So in many ways, I’ve been stepping along this path every step of the way, anticipating what might happen, what could happen. There have been multiple times when it felt like this could have slipped sideways, and and I, I guess I