Some of Oregon’s political and academic leaders have begun putting federal officials on notice that they value all who live, work and attend school in Oregon regardless of where they came from.
Well done.
Portland, Beaverton, Multnomah County and the state’s three largest universities have been taken on sanctuary status, meaning they will not spend public resources to help deport anyone whose only crime is that they don’t hold proper documentation to be in the United States.
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As Ted Wheeler told The Oregonian/OregonLive last week, “For more than 150 years, Portland has been a destination for those wanting to apply their hard work to the purpose of creating a better life for themselves and their families. My own family made the trek on the Oregon Trail. We are a city built on immigration.
“We are not going to run from that history. We will not be complicit in the deportation of our neighbors.”
Some Oregonians have complained the sanctuary designations leave them feeling unsafe. But the protections do not shield those who have broken state or local laws. That’s really the point.
Federal agents are the ones tasked with enforcing federal immigration laws. And they’re on it. Neither state law nor sanctuary status got in the way of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tracking an undocumented Oregon man reporting to the Multnomah County Courthouse earlier this week after violating terms of his probation for a drunk driving offense.
Further, Oregon has been a sanctuary state for 30 years. For three decades it’s been against the law for city, county or state police to assist immigration officials unless the person has committed a crime beyond that of entering the country without proper documentation.
The chorus of voices in Oregon grew louder Thursday when Gov. Kate Brown amplified the declarations made in other jurisdictions by expanding the state’s existing law. She mandated that state agencies cannot use public resources to build a registry that identifies religious beliefs. And the state can’t identify or arrest people living here based on their immigration status.
While Oregon’s stance on this topic isn’t new, it now comes with a risk. President Trump has threatened to punish local authorities who refuse to hand over undocumented immigrants for deportation. That’s despite the fact that federal courts nationwide have ruled that local authorities’ responsibility to comply with requests for help on immigration cases is entirely voluntary.
But fear works. City council leaders in Forest Grove failed to pass a resolution for sanctuary status last week, citing various concerns including political blowback and the possibility they might lose federal money. That’s embarrassing for leaders of a town who count about one-fourth of its population as Latino.
This month marks the 75th anniversary of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s executive order authorizing the internment of Japanese Americans. Within six months of the order, more than 100,000 Americans had been removed from their homes and dumped into miserable camps across the country. Just in case.
In the name of safety, the military emptied communities across the West Coast – 4,000 from the Portland area. Few leaders spoke out while people were rounded up or during the two years they were imprisoned. In fact, the apologies and reparations didn’t come until decades after the interned were allowed to return home and attempt to rebuild their lives.
When our nation’s leaders finally did speak, they promised such an act would never be allowed again.
They vowed to not be silent, and neither should our leaders today.
The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board
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