Oregon governor Kate Brown, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, and Multnomah County circuit court judge Nan G Waller were all on hand last week to testify in favor of HB 3464, which would codify Oregon as a “sanctuary state” for illegal aliens. This comes after Governor Brown issued an executive order on the matter back in February, in response to Trumpism.
Governor Brown’s testimony included the following quotes:
“Thank you, madame attorney general, for working with me to make Oregon a more welcoming and inclusive state” says Brown. She went to on to laud a bill from 1964 that “made it illegal for Oregon law enforcement agencies from treating Oregonians as criminals on the basis of their immigration status”….”At a time when resources are scarce, we should not be spending state resources doing the federal government’s bidding”… “In February, I extend the protections of Oregon’s Sanctuary statute by executive order. Under the law, law enforcement agencies were precluded from treating Oregonians as criminals, solely on the basis of immigration status. My executive order extended that policy to all state agencies and our employees”…“(this bill) directs all state and local jurisdictions to NOT gather information about Oregonian citizenship or immigration status when they are not required to by state or federal law. When agencies do have to gather citizen or immigration information, the bill authorizes agencies to keep that information confidential where disclosure isn’t required by law. We don’t want private information about people that we do not need. Second, the bill directs public bodies not to disclose private information, like addresses or work places, for the purpose of enforcing federal immigration laws. For example, if an ‘undocumented immigrant’ witnesses a crime, she can disclose her personal contact information to the police without fear of the officer passing her personal information onto an I.C.E. agent. Third, the bill directs the Attorney General to develop model policies that state agencies and local governments can adopt. State and local agencies are clamoring for resources on this subject, this bill directs the Attorney General satisfy that need. I appreciate the Attorney General for already working with the Department of Education, along with the Latino network, to make sure families with school age children have the forms and access to the information they need to keep their families safe. I am deeply concerned and very alarmed by recent anti immigrant measures undertaken by the federal government. History teaches us not to follow the federal government into public policy that betrays Oregon values. Just upstairs in the gallery, an exhibition documents our state’s regrettable participation in the federal government’s incarceration of Japanese Americans… Oregon should stay true to our values. I respectfully suggest that House Bill 3464 is a step toward realizing Oregon’s aspiration as a welcoming and inclusive place to all who call our state home.”
Ellen Rosenblum is the state’s Attorney General chimes in next, in support of the bill, and basically complains that her office is unable to help people blatantly violate laws.
“Over the course of the last 6 months, my phones have been ringing. I have received call after call, many making the same request. My office has heard from school districts, courthouses, mayors, asking, and in some cases pleading, for help in dealing with federal immigration authorities. As attorney general, I can tell you that the rules that apply to immigration enforcement are not simple or self evident. When ICE comes, they don’t come with a manual. Our communities have no consistent source for guidance in dealing with federal authorities, so often times they turn to us, the Oregon department of justice, and we turn them away. We turn them away because we are the lawyers for the state, and in the absence of other direction from our legislature, we have no basis for providing assistance to our cities, our counties, or our school districts, no matter how badly it is needed. And so we leave them to their own devices, to negotiate on their own the ambiguities of federal law. And in the lack of certainty or ability to tell Oregon residents what they should expect, fear and rumor hold sway and our communities crumble. This uncertainty damages our businesses, the fear of immigration authorities has emptied the downtown corridors of cities across Oregon. Representative Alonso-Leon will share with you the story of downtown Woodburn, and of community gripped by a fear essential enough to grind their economy to a halt. But this is not the only city or county so damaged. This uncertainty damages our budget, as our schools, courthouses, and other public accommodations are left to wrestle with these questions on their own, they are forced to draw on even more limited resources. This diverts from other budgets and priorities and allows our state resources to be funneled away and commandeered for federal purposes. This uncertainty damages our public safety. A 2013 study conducted by the University Of Illinois found that 44% of Latinos considered themselves less likely to contact police if they are the victim of crime, because they fear that police officers will ask them about their immigration status. A person who is forced to worry first about immigration will not only fail to call to report a crime they experience, they will fail to report a crime that they witnessed. This uncertainty damages our public health. Confusion about immigration enforcement separates people from the services they need. It can separate the suffering person from the mental and physical health services they need, and it can convince the probationer that it makes more sense to disappear into the underground than to comply with the terms of their probation and to receive the treatment, counseling, and guidance needed to bring them back into the society. This uncertainty damages our public education. In our increasing diverse schools, fear of immigration enforcement makes children anxious and unfocused if they come to school at all. This fear can also keep a student from applying to college or financial aid, ending their education career and wasting their potential. Perhaps most of all, this uncertainty hurts our communities, paralyzing community members who have no idea what to expect when they send their children off to school or when they visit their doctor, when they drive off to work in the morning. This paralysis invades every aspect of the lives of these diverse and vibrant communities in our state, shattering their ability to provide their important and valuable contributions to their neighborhoods, their economies, and their households. House bill 3464 aims to end this uncertainty. At its broadest it aims to accomplish two objectives; First, it aims to provide our schools, courthouses, and other public accommodations with needed guidance in dealing with federal immigration authorities. This advice, which will be developed collaboratively , between the public accommodations and my office, looks to provide simple guidance in understanding the rights and obligations we all possess in this area. This is offered with the intent of full compliance with all federal and state laws. Our job is to follow the letter of the law, but to understand that we need go no further.”
Nan Waller is the Presiding Judge for Multnomah County. Here is what she had to say:
“I thought it would be helpful to you to hear a little bit about the impact of immigration activities in and around our courthouses, and why it is important,in fact imperative, that we take steps to preserve the neutrality of the courts in the eyes of all members of the public. The commitment courts make to the public is that we will provide a neutral for the resolution of disputes and in doing so access to all who seek justice. Every day hundreds of people stream into our courthouses, victims of domestic violence, seeking protection orders, landlords and tenants, criminal defendants, parents trying to resolve custody and parenting issues, witnesses and litigants in complex civil matters. It is fundamental to our justice system that the doors are open to all, we do not ask immigration status or for documentation when we open our doors…. However, since the executive order on deportation was signed in late January, we’ve had consistent reports from lawyers, community organizations, victims’ advocates, and public inquiries to the court, that some members of our community are afraid to come to our courthouses because of the practice of ICE activities in and around our courthouses. We have no authority to prevent ICE from being in the courthouse, we have no authority to prevent anyone, our courts are, by tradition and by the Oregon Constitution, open to all. However, we are very concerned that there’s been an significant, chilling effect of I.C.E.’s actions in and around our courthouses, and that this will deter and has deterred members of our community from seeking redress in our courts. Given the impact of ICE activities in our courthouses across Oregon, Chief Justice Thomas Balmer wrote to Attorney General Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kelly in April asking them to not make arrests inside courthouses, or at least to include courthouses in their definition of ‘sensitive locations’ so that our courts can preserve their mandated impartial and neutral role…. I don’t have data to share with you on how many people ICE activities in and around our courthouses have dissuaded from accessing the courts, and it would be indeed hard to measure how many people have not come to the court for a restraining order, how many people have not shown up to testify in a case, how many people have let their matter go and been defaulted….”
She goes on to complain that the only Hispanic person who showed up to an immigration forum was a judge, and that everyone else in the Hispanic community was too afraid to show up, fearing ICE would nab them. Judge Waller then complains about ICE arresting someone in the courthouse.
You may recall one of Waller’s underlings, Judge Monica Herranz, who made national news a few months for assisting an illegal immigrant elude ICE agents by giving him use of her private entrance and exit way out of a courtroom.
Two years ago the Oregon legislature passed a bill that gives “free” college to illegal aliens.
Yes, that’s right, you have Oregon’s governor, attorney general, judges, elected state officials, and elected city officials all blatantly encouraging people to violate laws and offering protection and taxpayer funded “public assistance” to such people.
You can reach Governor Kate Brown at 503-378-4582
Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum can be reached at 503-378-4400
And judge Nan G Waller can be reached at 503-988-3846
(H/T 2A News.us)
