A Salem woman who federal agents pulled from her car and threw to the ground in January still hasn't gotten answers about what happened to her.

On July 28, U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas brought the woman's case to a congressional hearing in Houston, demanding body cameras for immigration agents and independent investigations when they injure people.

The woman, identified only as Maria by her union SEIU Local 503, was driving near Northeast Silverton and Hawthorne on Jan. 29 to pick up a cake for her grandson's birthday when four agents in unmarked vehicles boxed in her van, according to Oregon Capital Chronicle reporting and earlier Statesman Journal coverage.

They shattered her car window, dragged her out, and threw her to the ground. When they found her U.S. passport in her purse, they drove off without calling for medical help. Before leaving, one agent told her: "Don't forget to renew your passport."

Maria sustained a torn rotator cuff, a concussion, and bruised ribs, according to a hospital report her family provided. She has been a U.S. citizen for seven years.

"I was frozen in fear and too frightened to respond when these agents started banging on my window, 'Papers, Papers,'" Maria said in a statement read at a February 2026 news conference in Woodburn. "They bashed in my car window like you've probably seen all over social media where they do this to people and pulled me out. Not gently, not with care, but aggressively, as if I was wanted for a terrible crime."

Salem Police told Maria's daughter they could not respond to reports of federal officer misconduct and directed her to contact the FBI or the Department of Homeland Security. DHS did not respond to questions about the stop as of early February.

Salinas connects three district incidents

At the July 28 hearing, Salinas named Maria's case alongside two other incidents in her district: the November 2025 detention of Christian Jimenez, a 17-year-old McMinnville High School senior and U.S. citizen whose car window agents also shattered during his lunch break, and the July 17 Woodburn incident in which three people allegedly impersonated ICE agents and assaulted a woman on Highway 211.

As we reported July 28, Gov. Kotek blamed Trump administration immigration tactics for creating the conditions that led to the Woodburn assault.

Salinas, a Tigard Democrat whose 6th Congressional District includes parts of Marion County, told the Oregon Capital Chronicle after the hearing that her main takeaway was that communities are less safe because of what ICE is doing now.

The hearing was a "shadow" session convened by Democrats in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus without approval from the Republican House majority.

It focused on the July 7 shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Houston father killed by a federal immigration officer, and the July 13 killing of Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, in Maine. DHS initially said Salgado Araujo was the target of detention but later admitted he was not.

Salinas said federal immigration agents are not held to the same accountability standards as local law enforcement and that it is harder to sue federal agents. She called for legislation requiring body cameras and said her priority is supporting a discharge petition led by U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Texas Democrat, that would force a House vote on immigration reform..

No timeline has been announced for the discharge petition, the body camera legislation, or any DHS response to the Salem incident.