Attorney General Jeff Sessions coming to Portland to talk about sanctuary cities

Article author: 
Maxine Bernstein
Article publisher: 
OregonLive.com
Article date: 
Monday, September 18, 2017
Article category: 
Oregon Issues
Medium
Article Body: 

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will be in Portland on Tuesday to talk about sanctuary cities and immigration with federal law enforcement officials.

Sessions will make his remarks at 1 p.m. at the Portland field office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at 1455 N.W. Overton St.

Sessions is also expected to meet separately with Oregon sheriffs and police to discuss immigration, violent crime, drug enforcement and the opioid epidemic, among other things, an administration official said.

Portland Commissioner Nick Fish wrote on his Facebook page over the weekend that city needs to show Sessions that it "stands with our Dreamers."

Sessions announced earlier this month that the Trump administration would do away with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals...

Sessions called DACA an "unconstitutional exercise of authority by the Executive Branch,...

Sessions also has spoken out publicly at least twice about the local case of Sergio Martinez, a man called "a serial immigration violator'' by federal officials. He had been deported 12 times from California and Texas...

In an address in Miami in August, Sessions blasted Multnomah County's refusal to alert immigration officers. "How can these politicians hear this story and do nothing?'' he asked. "By protecting criminals from immigration enforcement, cities and states with so-called 'sanctuary' policies make all of us less safe.''...

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who also serves as the city's police commissioner, won't be meeting with the attorney general.

"The mayor fundamentally disagrees with the AG's approach to immigration issues and other issues, and will deliver that message to the AG via letter tomorrow,'' said Michael Cox, Wheeler's spokesman.

Local activists have planned a protest to coincide with Sessions' visit.

Portland's Resistance, the political group Milenio.org and nonprofit Voz Hispana Cambio Comunitario have set up a Facebook page that reads, "Jeff Sessions You're not Welcome Here!!''

The protest is planned for his arrival at the federal office in Northwest Portland, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Willamette Week first reported on Sessions' trip.

Oregonian Staff Writers Jessica Floum and Rebecca Woolington contributed to this story.