enforcement

A long line of public speakers gave testimonials for why the designation is needed

The Hillsboro City Council has decided to stall a decision on whether to declare itself a sanctuary city until after the new mayor and councilors get sworn in.

In a standing-room-only Civic Center auditorium Tuesday night, council members could not reach a decision whether to designate the city a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.

The decision would have been the last of outgoing City Councilor Olga Acuna, who requested the vote after advocates begged the city to strengthen its stand with the Latino community last month.

In what was likely the council's most difficult decision in eight years, the council voted to table a final decision until after a new councilor is appointed to fill the seat of new Mayor Steve Callaway, who served as council president.

The city is expected to appoint a replacement on the council within the next month.

Tuesday's vote was 4-2, with councilors Acuna and Kyle Allen in favor of going forward with the sanctuary city designation.

"I'm as concerned about the future as anyone," explained Councilor Rick Van Beveren, who noted his personal regret at how the recent presidential campaign rhetoric has engendered the national Latino population. "(But) I personally align with what sanctuary city portends … (and) once we're labeled, that's it."

Callaway, who was sworn in as mayor during Tuesday's meeting, said that the postponement will allow the new council — which will oversee and adhere to the decision — time to understand what a sanctuary designation will mean for Hillsboro going forward.

The decision to wait will also gives the city time to see how the federal government responds to the many cities who have made similar declarations, Callaway said. President-Elect Donald Trump has said that he would cut off federal funding for cities that declare themselves to be sanctuaries.

"Sanctuary city" is a legally non-binding term used by cities to indicate they will protect undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Oregon has had sanctuary laws in place since the 1980s, which forbid police from arresting people solely on their immigration status.

The topic of making Hillsboro a sanctuary city first arose in December, when members from community action groups WashCo Solidarity and Voz Hispana Cambio Comunitario demanded the council declare the city a sanctuary in order to send a message to Latino residents that they will be protected, specifically from immigration officials.

Instead, that night the council read a statement affirming its commitment to keeping Hillsboro "a safe city for all" — without formally declaring itself a sanctuary.

That decision didn't sit well with sanctuary proponents. On Tuesday, more than 20 people spoke out, offering testimonials to the council as to why the designation is needed.

"The community wouldn't be asking for sanctuary if the city was safe already," Unite Oregon member Carmen Madrid told the council.

That sentiment was echoed by many in the crowd. One woman said she had lived in the city for 15 years, but no longer felt safe.

"You're either for us or against us," another speaker said.

Resident Jose Jaime told the council that stalling the decision was sending a message of its own to Hillsboro's Latino population, which make up about a quarter of the city's population, according to the U.S. Census.

"You threw the Latino community under the bus (with the vote to table)," he said.

Not everyone in the audience was in favor of the proposal, however. Some spoke out against accepting illegal immigration as standard practice.

One speaker said he was against the sanctuary designation because "the people who are afraid are breaking the law."

"If the council vindicates (the law breakers), you'll be breaking the oath you just took," he told the council.

The council is expected to vote on the issue in February. The city is currently accepting applications to fill the council's open seat. Read more about Council postpones sanctuary city vote

The Department of Justice hired 59 immigration judges in 2016.

There are more immigration judges now – 296 – than at any point in the agency’s history. Given the 500,000-case backlog in the immigration court system, that current hiring spree is not expected to change.

But something that is expected to change is the person who decides who future immigration judges will be. Immigration judges are employees of the Department of Justice and, as head of that agency, the incoming attorney general will have a say in who is hired.

“Whoever is ultimately confirmed to head the Department of Justice is hugely significant,” said Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez, law professor at the University of Denver who runs a website that follows developments in immigration law and detainment policies.

For attorney general, President-Elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Jeff Sessions, a Republican Senator from Alabama who has made a name for himself as one of the most anti-immigrant voices in Washington.

The National Review, a conservative news magazine, credited Sessions with single-handedly destroying immigration reform attempts in 2004 and 2014. He is strongly opposed to illegal immigration and is also in favor of limiting legal immigration because he believes it harms domestic workers.

Sessions, or whoever the head of the Department of Justice is, can hire judges who will decide deportation, asylum and all immigration cases over the next four years.

During 2016's hiring spree, immigration judges were hired at courts throughout the country. However, since January 2015, the court in Imperial County has not had a sitting judge. It is the only immigration court in the country to have a vacant bench.

The case backlog in Imperial County is so large that hearings are being scheduled for 2019 and 2020.

Julio Cesar Mendez, 42, has been fighting a deportation case in Imperial County since 2009.

“I’ve been waiting all those years,” he said. “It is very difficult, very stressful and frustrating. I don’t have a criminal charge.”

Mendez hasn’t had a court hearing since 2009. His next hearing is currently scheduled for Dec. 2017 but Mendez suspects that it will get pushed back.

While he waits, Mendez can stay in the country and pay $600 each year to apply for an annual work permit. He would like to buy a house, but the bank wants him to pay 30 percent upfront because of his status, which he cannot afford from the money he makes installing and repairing air conditioning units.

Mendez, who has one son at UCLA and another in high school who has been accepted to California State University, Fullerton, has thought of trying to move the case to immigration courts in San Diego or Los Angeles, but the motion costs $1,000 to file and there is no guarantee a judge will grant it.

Sessions could push current immigration judges, who do not share his politics, into early retirement by transferring them to undesirable locations like the Imperial courthouse.

“Short of firing, life can be made difficult or unpleasant for employees,” Garcia Hernandez said. “Superiors can increase workloads or transfer them to unattractive locations. These are highly qualified professionals with deep ties to a particular community so the prospect of being transferred may be enough for them to say, 'You know what, I might just do something else.'”

There is precedent for attorney generals pushing people out of the Department of Justice.

In 2003, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft asked five members of the Board of Immigration Appeals – a panel that reviews the decisions of immigration judges – to find new jobs. Critics saw it as a purge of their most pro-immigration members while the Department of Justice defended the move as a way to streamline the appeals process, according to media reports at the time.

If confirmed by Congress, Sessions will play a key role in realizing Trump’s campaign promises of deporting millions of immigrants and securing the U.S. borders.

As attorney general, he would not only be in charge of who he hires but also how immigration judges are trained. One way he could influence what kind of judges are hired is by prioritizing those with previous experience as prosecutors for the Department of Homeland Security who work deportation cases, Garcia Hernandez said.

“Immigration judges are employees of the justice department,” Garcia Hernandez said. “Just like any other employee of the Justice Department, they answer to the AG.” Read more about How Attorney General Jeff Sessions could make it easier to deport immigrants

The Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) November 1, 2016 Inmate Population Profile indicated there were 14,731 inmates incarcerated in the DOC’s 14 prisons.

Data obtained from the DOC indicated that on November 1st there were 964 foreign nationals (criminal aliens) incarcerated in the state’s prison system; more than one in every sixteen prisoners incarcerated by the state was a criminal alien, 6.54 percent of the total prison population.

Some background information, all 964 criminal aliens currently incarcerated in the DOC prison system were identified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal law enforcement agency that is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. If an inmate is identified by ICE as being a criminal alien, at the federal law enforcement agency’s request, DOC officials will place an “ICE detainer” on the inmate. After the inmate completes his/her state sanction, prison officials will transfer custody of the inmate to ICE.

Using DOC Inmate Population Profiles and ICE detainer numbers, the following table reveals the total number inmates, the number of domestic and criminal alien inmates along with the percentage of them with ICE detainers incarcerated on November 1st in the state’s prisons.
 

Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Report ICE inmates list 01 November 16 and Inmate Population Profile 01 November 16.

Using DOC ICE detainer numbers, the following table reveals the number and percentage of criminal alien prisoners incarcerated on November 1st that were sent to prison from the state’s 36 counties.
 

Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Report ICE inmates list 01 November 16.

Here are the ways Oregon residents were victimized by the 964 criminal aliens.

Using DOC ICE detainer numbers, the following table reveals the number and percentage of criminal alien prisoners incarcerated on November 1st by type of crime.
 

Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Report ICE inmates list 01 November 16.

Using the DOC Inmate Population Profile and ICE detainer numbers from November 1st, the following table reveals the total number inmates by crime type, the number of domestic and criminal alien prisoners incarcerated by type of crime and the percentage of those crimes committed by criminal aliens.
 

Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Report ICE inmates list 01 November 16 and Inmate Population Profile 01 November 16.

Using DOC ICE detainer numbers, the following table reveals the self-declared countries of origin of the 964 criminal alien prisoners by number and percentage incarcerated on November 1st in the state’s prisons.
 

Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Report ICE inmates list 01 November 16.

Beyond the DOC criminal alien incarceration numbers and incarceration percentages, per county and per crime type, or even country of origin, criminal aliens pose high economic cost on Oregonians.

An individual prisoner incarcerated in the DOC prison system costs the state approximately ($94.55) per day.

The DOC’s incarceration cost for its 964 criminal alien prison population is approximately ($91,146.20) per day, ($638,023.40) per week, and ($33,268,363.00) per year.

Even taking into account fiscal year 2016 U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) award of $1,788,075.00, if the State of Oregon receives the same amount of SCAAP funding for fiscal year 2017, the cost to incarcerate 964 criminal aliens to the DOC will be at least ($31,480,288.00).

None of preceding cost estimates for the DOC to incarcerate the 964 criminal aliens includes the dollar amount for legal services (indigent defense), language interpreters, court costs, or victim assistance.

Bibliography

Oregon Department of Corrections Population Profile November 1, 2016:
http://www.oregon.gov/doc/RESRCH/docs/inmate_profile_201611.pdf

Oregon Department of Corrections Population Profile (unpublished MS Excel workbook) titled Incarcerated Criminal Aliens Report dated November 1, 2016.

Oregon Department of Corrections Issue Brief Quick Facts 53-DOC/GECO: 3/23/16:
http://www.oregon.gov/doc/OC/docs/pdf/IB-53-Quick%20Facts.pdf

U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), 2016 SCAAP award: https://www.bja.gov/funding/FY2016-SCAAP-Award-C.PDF

  Read more about Oregon Department of Corrections: Criminal Alien Report November 2016

One of the detrimental impacts of having a significant foreign national population residing in the United States, be they legally or illegally present in the country, is crime.

The scope and impact of foreign national crime on the U.S. citizens and residents of this country is virtually going almost unreported in mainstream news sources online, on television or in hard-copy newspapers.

For example, information on foreign national crime has been readily available to any mainstream news source that has the ability to do a simple search on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) inmates statistics website under the heading of inmate citizenship.

Here is what a search of the U.S. BOP website reveals on the number and percentage of criminal aliens in federal prisons on Oct. 29, 2016 (The most recent crime numbers available.).

Inmate Citizenship:

n México 27,815 inmates, 14.6 percent;

n Columbia 1,702 inmates, 0.9 percent;

n Dominican Republic 1,685 inmates, 0.9 percent;

n Cuba 1,228 inmates, 0.6 percent;

n Other / unknown countries 9,516 inmates, 5.0 percent;

n United States 149,194 inmates, 78.1 percent;

n Total Inmates 191,140 inmates.

Putting these preceding criminal alien inmate numbers and percentages into words:

On Oct. 29, there were 41,946 criminal alien inmates in the prison system. Alien inmates were 21.9 percent of the federal prison population; more than two in every 10 prisoners were criminal aliens.

The 27,815 Mexican nationals in the prison system were a staggering 66.3 percent, almost two thirds, of the criminal aliens in federal prisons.

An interesting fact, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons breaks down the federal prison population into 13 types of offenses. A significant fact, one of the top five offenses, the reason BOP inmates were incarcerated in federal prisons, was for immigration crimes. There were 15,580 inmates in the BOP prison system incarcerated for immigration crimes; they were 8.7 percent of the federal prison population.

The Fourth Estate, defined as “the public press,” needs to exercise due diligence in reporting on foreign national crime so that elected and nonelected governmental officials responsible for law enforcement at a national, state and local level will be held accountable in enforcing laws written to protect U.S. citizens and residents from criminal aliens that have and continue to invade our country. Read more about Criminal aliens 21.9 percent of federal prisoners

Reps. Mike Nearman and Sal Esquivel want to get the measure on the 2018 ballot.

Two Oregon legislators want to repeal a 1987 statute that prevents police from enforcing federal immigration law.

Right now, law enforcement agencies can't use their resources to apprehend immigrants if their only violation is being in the country illegally. But a potential ballot measure would do away with the long-standing state statute.

"Law enforcement is prohibited from enforcing the law," said Republican Rep. Mike Nearman of Independence.

Nearman, along with Republican Rep. Sal Esquivel of Medford, wants to get the measure on the 2018 ballot...

"Law enforcement needs this as a tool to be able to make a dent in illegal immigration. I think we're going in the wrong direction," Nearman said.

Oregon lawmakers passed the law in the 1980s because several local police departments and federal immigration officials conducted raids that targeted the state's Latino community, said Andrea Williams, the executive director of Causa, an advocacy organization that works with Latino immigrants.

During the raids, she said, many U.S. citizens and other lawful residents were swept up.

"This law was passed in the 1980s ...." Williams said.

She said the law is also important because it helps foster trust between police and immigrants.

"When communities, especially immigrant communities that tend of be fearful of interacting with police officers, have an increased fear it reduces the number of people coming forward as witnesses. More crimes go unreported and people are less likely to report suspicious activity," she said. Read more about Potential ballot measure targets Oregon 'sanctuary' immigration law

SALEM — A Venezuelan man who is HIV positive and is in the United States legally was arrested in Portland in a pre-dawn raid because of a methamphetamine possession conviction, his immigration lawyer and a rights group said on Monday.

Luis Garcia, a nurse at a hospice center in Portland, now faces deportation to a country that is in an economic crisis, and where medicine is scarce.

“If he is deported to his native Venezuela, it will be a death sentence ... Venezuela will not provide him with the life-saving medications he needs to live with HIV,” the advocacy group Basic Rights Oregon said in a statement.

The group said Garcia was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Nov. 15...

Rose Richeson, spokeswoman for ICE’s Seattle office, said that based on Garcia’s felony conviction, the agency placed him in “removal proceedings” and has him in custody pending a decision by immigration courts.

N. David Shamloo, Garcia’s immigration attorney, said Garcia’s conviction for possessing methamphetamine made him subject to removal from the United States...

The lawyer said he is surprised that ICE didn’t grant Garcia supervised release, with electronic monitoring and weekly check-ins, as the agency could have done.

“He clearly had a job, no prior offenses, he had legal permanent residence status, and in fact this was a very minor offense,” Shamloo said, adding that Garcia had been put on probation for the offense....

Garcia entered the United States at age 17 on a tourist visa and attended nursing school in San Francisco, receiving a student visa, Basic Rights Oregon said. He works at a hospice center in Portland, the group said. Officials at the center declined to comment.

Earlier this month, another Oregonian — a man who was adopted from South Korea by Americans when he was 3 — was deported to his native country by ICE because of his criminal record....

On Nov. 10, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said there were about 41,000 people in U.S. immigration detention facilities. Many are new arrivals. In October, 46,195 people were apprehended along America’s southwest border, compared with 39,501 in September and 37,048 in August, he said. Read more about Venezuelan served sentence for drugs, now faces deportation after being arrested in Portland raid

The Corvallis Police Department has decided what it will do about immigration and citizenship enforcement: Nothing.

In the three weeks following the presidential election, the department has received several questions from citizens concerned about immigration enforcement. Police Chief Jon Sassaman said it was time to clarify the department's policies.

Currently, Corvallis Police Department policy prohibits any form of discrimination, which includes discrimination based on a person’s citizenship status. Oregon law also prohibits law enforcement agencies from “detecting or apprehending persons whose only violation of law is that they are persons of foreign citizenship.”

Sassaman said the department would not participate in any immigration enforcement, even if Oregon law allowed for it.

“Not only do we not do it, we’re not going to do it,” Sassaman said Thursday. “We’re not in the business of immigration enforcement.”

While federal laws could change, Sassaman said he has no plans to change department policy....

“I don’t want people to be afraid,” Sassaman said...

“How people define sanctuary city might be different across the country,” Sassaman said. “So we wanted to reaffirm to the community that we’re not in the business of immigration enforcement and be as clear as possible.”

Some have speculated that cities or agencies who take exception to possible changes to federal immigration laws could jeopardize federal funding and grants. But Sassaman said he is not concerned the announcement will affect any future federal funding for the department.

“We will remain consistent with grant applications we apply for. And I guess we’ll know if we get denied,” he said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” Read more about Corvallis Police: 'We're not in the business of immigration enforcement'