enforcement

Although Congress explicitly has prohibited the use of federal legal aid funds for the poor from being used to represent illegal immigrants, a loophole allows the money to be used indirectly for that purpose.

Critics contend that the loophole is made possible by a combination of regulations that undermine of intent of the law, approving courts and political appointees who seem to care little about preventing illegal immigrants from benefiting from funds intended to help low-income citizens and legal residents.

The Legal Services Corporation, created by Congress in 1974 to help poor people get access to attorneys, distributes $400 million a year to 137 legal aid firms across the country. Those firms represent low-income folks involved in a range of civil cases, from landlord disputes to employment matters. They also provide legal advice and help poor people apply for government benefits.

“You have two buckets, but one bucket frees up the other bucket … It become a joke, really."

Under federal law, those firms cannot represent illegal immigrants, except in limited circumstances. But rules written by federal bureaucrats and approved by court rulings allow those firms to set up “mirror corporations” that are free to represent illegal immigrants. Technically, federal funds from the Legal Services Corp. cannot be transferred from the grant-receiving firm to its sister organization. But the firms can accept the federal grants and then transfer money from other sources.

“You have two buckets, but one bucket frees up the other bucket,” said Ian Smith, an attorney who recently discovered the loophole when he did legal battle against one of these sister firms. “It become a joke, really.”

James J. Sandman, president of the Legal Services Corp., denied that the organization allows taxpayer money — even indirectly — to make its way to lawyers representing illegal immigrants.

“To ensure strict compliance with these rules, LSC vigorously monitors its grantees and conducts numerous on-site visits to their offices each year,” Sandman wrote in an email in response to questions from LifeZette.

Lax Enforcement Alleged
But Smith, investigative associate for the Immigration Law Reform Institute, said information he has gathered from Freedom of Information Act requests suggests that the federal organization has been less than vigorous in ensuring that federal funds are not used to pay for attorneys for prohibited immigrants.

The federal inspector general with jurisdiction over the Legal Services Corp. told the Immigration Law Reform Institute in response to its FOIA request that it could find no records that a taxpayer-funded legal aid firm had ever turned away a client for failing to prove citizenship or eligibility status. In the last six years, the Legal Services Corp. has conducted just one investigation into a federally funded law firm improperly funding legal representation for illegal immigrants. In that case, an employee of the firm tipped off federal authorities to improprieties, Smith said.

Unlike other federal programs that bar illegal immigrants, Smith said, legal aid organizations are not required to use federal databases to verify the citizenship status of potential clients. Clients merely need to check a box indicating they are a citizen or eligible resident. There is no background check. It is essentially an honor system, he said.

In the legal battle the Immigration Reform Law Institute was involved in, the Washington-based legal group represented a citizens’ organization that led the drive to block a law that would have issued driver cards to illegal immigrants in Oregon. The legislature passed the law in 2013, but Oregonians for Immigration Reform successfully petitioned to put the issue before voters, who rejected the proposal in a landslide in 2014.

A group of illegal immigrants sued last year in an attempt to overturn the referendum. A judge tossed the suit, which now is on appeal. The legal group representing the plaintiffs was the Oregon Law Center, a mirror firm of the taxpayer-supported Legal Aid Services of Oregon. Under the law, Legal Aid Services of Oregon cannot represent illegal immigrants — but Oregon Law Center can.

Documents indicate that ostensibly separate legal aid organizations in Oregon are “nearly one and the same.”

The law ostensibly requires the firms to be legally separate entities. But Smith said his research indicates that they are “nearly one and the same,” with the same board of directors, adjoining offices, and shared litigation support functions. They often share cases and coordinate fundraising efforts, training, and administration.

Documents filed to the Legal Services Corp. show that Legal Aid Services of Oregon uses non-taxpayer funds to pay a pro bono manager who provides technical assistance, support, and coordination of legal services with Oregon Law Center. A joint staff planning committee includes managers of both firms. They also share a mission statement of “achieving justice for the low-income communities of Oregon by providing a full range of the highest quality civil legal services.”

Representatives from Legal Aid Services of Oregon and the Oregon Law Center could not be reached for comment last week.

Lawyers ‘Know a Loophole When They See One’
Under regulations governing grants from the Legal Services Corp., elements used to determine if law firms and mirror organizations are genuinely separate include whether they have separate facilities, personnel, and accounting records; and whether funds are transferred. But the presence or absence of any of the those factors is not determinative — the corporation decides on a case-by-case basis.

“It’s hard to enforce because the enforcement agent … is the Legal Services Corporation, itself,” said Ken Boehm, a former general counsel of the corporation.

Boehm was a congressional staffer who helped draft legislation that passed Congress in 1996 strengthening the ban on giving funds to organizations that represent illegal immigrants. Prior to that, the prohibition was murky. Ambiguities were removed in exchange for allowing federally funded legal aid organizations to represent illegal immigrants in cases of domestic violence, abuse, or trafficking. Boehm said the restrictions now are "crystal clear," but he said legal aid firms have devised ways around them. In one case, he said, a mirror organization was paying rent for office space from the grant-receiving firm — but was months behind on that rent.

"Lawyers out there who know a loophole when they see one have been getting away with all sorts of things," he said.

Now chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, which promotes ethics in government, Boehm said enforcement ultimately falls to the 11-member board that runs of the Legal Services Corp. Each is an appointee of President Obama — and Boehm said they have not been aggressive about pursuing violations that involve illegal immigrants.

The Legal Services Corp. also generally flies under the radar of Congress, Boehm said.

"Oversight hearings are sort of scarce," he said. "In the Senate, it's been a couple of years."

Jim Ludwick, who serves on the board of directors of Oregonians for Immigration Reform, said it is frustrating to be opposed in court by lawyers who appear to be indirectly subsidized by taxpayer funds meant to help poor Americans and legal residents.

"We just see where the law is violated — and they get away with it," he said. "They get away with it because they can get away with it."
  Read more about Taxpayer Cash Indirectly Funds Lawyers for Illegals

America’s immigration court judges allow one in three illegal immigrants charged with serious crimes — like rape and drunk driving — roam free in the U.S.

The judges released 32.9 percent of 5,530 illegal aliens charged with crimes since Oct. 1, 2015. That’s the highest percentage since at least 1998, according to Executive Office of Immigration Review data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

“They’re not giving them a legal status, but they’re letting them stay,” Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “So it’s like a de facto amnesty.”

If an immigration judge decides not to order a person’s deportation, the illegal immigrant may stay in the U.S. after serving any prison time determined in a criminal court.

Those illegal immigrants convicted of crimes are likely to re-offend, Vaughan said.

The data obtained by TRAC is consistent with a Boston Globe investigation that discovered 30 percent of 323 criminal illegal aliens released in New England from 2008 to 2012 committed new crimes, including rape and child molestation.

Illegal immigrants with criminal charges haven’t always had such a good shot at staying in the U.S. In 1998, immigration judges allowed only 11.8 percent of illegal immigrants with criminal charges stay in the U.S., according to TRAC. By 2008, that figure increased to 22 percent, and continued to climb each year of President Barack Obama’s presidency.

The increasing proportion of criminal illegal aliens allowed to stay in the U.S. reflects a broader trend of all illegal immigrants allowed to stay. Immigration courts — backlogged with nearly half a million cases — allowed 57 percent of all illegal immigrants before their courts to stay in the country in the first 10 months of 2016, the highest rate since at least 1998. (RELATED: Detainer Requests Plummeting Under Obama)

The U.S. attorney general appoints the country’s 273 immigration judges, without a Senate confirmation. Judges then fall under the Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review. The federal government considers most immigration offenses civil, not criminal, and judges have no ability to enforce what they order.

Immigration judges in some states and cities allow much higher rates of criminally charged illegal immigrants stay in the country. Oregon judges in 2016, for example, allowed 80 percent of the 63 illegal aliens charged with to crimes stay in the U.S. Oregon has about 30 sanctuary cities, counties and jurisdictions. Officials in such jurisdictions refuse to cooperate with federal authorities in the deportation process.

“I was not surprised to see that for example Oregon has a very low rate of deporting people, and one reason for that is it’s basically a sanctuary state,” Vaughan told TheDCNF.

Immigration judges in Tennessee only heard cases for 25 illegal aliens charged with crimes in 2016, but allowed 64 percent — nearly two in three — to avoid deportation. New York immigration judges allowed allowed 46 percent of 598 illegal immigrants charged with crimes to stay in the country.

Hawaii, by contrast, allowed 81 percent of illegal aliens with only immigration offenses to stay in the country, but ordered deportation for 81 percent of illegal aliens charged with other crimes, according to TRAC.

Louisiana and Georgia immigration judges were the most likely to order deportations for criminally charge aliens, at 92.4 percent and 83.4 percent, respectively.

At the local level, immigration judges in some cities, particularly sanctuary cities, allow illegal aliens with criminal charges to remain in the country at high rates.

Immigration court judges in Denver, Colo., were the most lenient. They allowed nearly 86 percent of illegal immigrants charged with a crime to stay in the country. Harlingen, Texas, courts allowed the second-highest rate of criminally charged illegal aliens to stay, 81.3 percent, followed by Portland’s 80.8 percent and Seattle’s 79.5 percent.

Most of the criminal illegal immigrants allowed to stay in the country in the fist 10 months of 2016 came from Mexico. Judges allowed 2,035 people from Mexico with criminal charges to remain in the U.S., followed by 391 from the Dominican Republic, 262 from Jamaica and 244 from El Salvador, according to TRAC.

It isn’t a coincident that judges are more lenient than they were two decades ago, Vaughan claimed. She says Obama has made “deliberate” policy changes “to give every illegal alien possible an opportunity to take advantage of the most generous due process possible and to give them every bite at the apple to try to win the right to stay in the United States.”

But criminal illegal aliens aren’t only released through the courts system. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the primary Department of Homeland Security entity responsible for deporting illegal aliens, released a total of 19,723 illegal immigrants in 2015, according to CIS. More than 200 of those people committed murder.

ICE released some of those criminal aliens because their home countries refused to take them back. ICE also sometimes fails to show up at local jails within 48 hours as required, at which point local authorities can no longer hold the illegal immigrants.

Follow Kathryn on Twitter

Send tips to katie@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. Read more about Judges Give ‘Defacto Amnesty’ To 1/3 Of Illegals Charged With Crimes

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Military installations in New Mexico, including Kirtland Air Force Base, will stop accepting some driver’s licenses for base access as early as Sept. 15 as implementation of the federal Real ID Act approaches, military officials said Tuesday.

While New Mexico-issued licenses and IDs are valid under Real ID criteria in some aspects until October 2020, at this point they won’t be accepted for Kirtland access after Oct. 10 of this year absent another extension – which is considered likely.

Meanwhile, state officials said Tuesday they hope to begin issuing new Real ID compliant licenses later this year. Under the new system, undocumented immigrants would be eligible only for driving authorization cards that are not valid for purposes of federal identification.

“We’re still on track and moving forward” on the implementation of the new two-tier system, said Benjamin Cloutier, a spokesman for the Department of Taxation and Revenue.

Beginning Sept. 15, identification cards or driver’s licenses issued by Minnesota, Missouri, Washington or American Samoa – which are not currently compliant with Real ID – cannot be used to access Kirtland, according to a base news release.

“New Mexico has received an extension for their state-issued ID cards through Oct. 10 of this year,” said Maj. Brent Pickrell, commander of Kirtland’s 377th Security Forces Squadron.

“New Mexico plans to file for another extension, and while we believe this request will likely be approved, we must plan for the contingency where it does not,” said Pickrell, who commands the unit at Kirtland that controls installation access.

Base officials expect resolutions for New Mexico and 28 other states and territories to be reached prior to Oct. 10, but they are preparing for the possibility that these IDs will become invalid, he said.

Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range are implementing similar restrictions. Kirtland officials said the new rules are being implemented Air Force-wide. Officials at Cannon Air Force Base near Clovis did not immediately respond to a request about its access policies.

NM on track

New Mexico is awaiting approval from the federal Department of Homeland Security for its Real ID implementation plan and expects to begin issuing Real ID compliant licenses later this year.

Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia Padilla has told legislators the state got the go-ahead to order the fingerprint machines needed for background checks. The agency also has been working with a vendor that is designing the new licenses. Training for Motor Vehicle Division employees in the new system was to occur throughout August.

The new license system was approved by the Legislature and the governor this year, ending a contentious five-year debate over whether the state should continue issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

Under the state’s plan, undocumented immigrants – along with any citizens who want them – will be able to get driving authorization cards that are not good for official, federal identification purposes. Citizens and others with a lawful presence will be able to get Real ID compliant licenses, as long as they provide the required documents, including certified copies of birth certificates and documents with Social Security numbers.

Fingerprinting will be required only of undocumented immigrants who are new applicants – that is, those without current New Mexico licenses.

Still, beginning Oct. 10, people with licenses or IDs from states or territories currently under an extension will need approved alternate forms of ID for unescorted base access, unless further extensions are approved.

Those states and territories are New Mexico, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Guam, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, the Northern Mariana Islands, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Valid forms of identification for Kirtland

Kirtland officials said valid alternate forms of ID include:

■ U.S. passport.

■ U.S passport card.

■ Permanent resident card/alien registration receipt card (Form I-551).

■ A foreign passport with a temporary (I-551) stamp or temporary (I-551) printed notation on a machine readable immigrant visa.

■ An employment authorization document that contains a photograph (Form I- 766).

■ Identification card issued by federal, state or local government agencies, provided it contains a photograph and biographical information such as name, date of birth, gender, height, eye color, and address.

■ U.S. Coast Guard merchant mariner cards/credentials.

■ PIV or federally-issued PIV-1 Cards (personal identification verification) issued by the federal government.

■ PIV-I card (personal identification verification-interoperable issued by non-federal government entities).

■ DHS “Trusted Traveler Cards” (Global entry, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST).

■ Merchant mariner card issued by DHS/ United States Coast Guard (USCG).

■ Border crossing card (Form DSP-150).

■ U.S. certificate of naturalization or certificate of citizenship (Form N-550) and U.S. permanent resident card (Form I-551).

Kirtland officials also said that current holders of distinguished visitor’s passes would be granted access with the passes until they expire, and new passes would be issued according to the REAL ID requirements.

For a full list of REAL ID Act and compliant and non-complaint states, visit dhs.gov/current-status-states-territories [https://www.dhs.gov/current-status-states-territories]. Read more about Military bases to refuse some New Mexico IDs

The Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) June 2016 Inmate Population Profile indicated there were 14,709 inmates incarcerated in the DOC's 14 prisons.

Data obtained from the DOC indicated that on June 1st there were 954 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, 6.48 percent of the total prison population.

Some background information, all 954 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 June 1st in the state's prisons.

OREGON DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
Month/Day/Year DOC Total Inmates DOC Domestic Inmates DOC Inmates W/ICE detainers DOC % Inmates W/ICE detainers
June 1, 2016 14,709 13,755 954 6.48%
Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Report ICE inmates list 01 June 16 and Inmate Population Profile 01 June 16.

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

OREGON DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
County DOC Total Inmates W/ ICE Detainers DOC % Inmates W/ICE Detainers
Marion 237 24.84%
Multnomah 209 21.91%
Washington 184 19.29%
Clackamas 69 7.23%
Lane 50 5.24%
Jackson 32 3.35%
Yamhill 22 2.31%
Linn 18 1.89%
Umatilla 18 1.89%
Klamath 14 1.47%
Polk 14 1.47%
Benton 12 1.26%
Malheur 12 1.26%
Lincoln 10 1.05%
Deschutes 8 0.84%
Coos 6 0.63%
Jefferson 6 0.63%
Josephine 6 0.63%
Clatsop 4 0.42%
Crook 3 0.31%
Douglas 3 0.31%
Tillamook 3 0.31%
Wasco 3 0.31%
Morrow 3 0.31%
Hood River 2 0.21%
Union 2 0.21%
Columbia 1 0.10%
Gilliam 1 0.10%
Lake 1 0.10%
OOS 1 0.10%
Baker 0 0.00%
Curry 0 0.00%
Grant 0 0.00%
Harney 0 0.00%
Sherman 0 0.00%
Wallowa 0 0.00%
Wheeler 0 0.00%
Total 954 100.00%
Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Report ICE inmates list 01 June 16.

Here are the ways Oregon residents were victimized by the 954 criminal aliens.

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

OREGON DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
Crime DOC Total Inmates W/ ICE Detainers DOC % Inmates W/ICE Detainers
Sex Abuse 186 19.50%
Rape 173 18.13%
Homicide 136 14.25%
Drugs 102 10.69%
Sodomy 92 9.64%
Assault 77 8.07%
Robbery 55 5.76%
Kidnapping 32 3.35%
Theft 24 2.51%
Burglary 18 1.89%
Driving Offense 9 0.94%
Vehicle Theft 3 0.31%
Arson 0 0.00%
Forgery 0 0.00%
Escape 0 0.00%
Other / Combination 47 4.93%
Total 954 100.00%
Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Report ICE inmates list 01 June 16.

Using the DOC Inmate Population Profile and ICE detainer numbers from June 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.

OREGON DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
Crime DOC Total Inmates DOC Domestic Inmates DOC Inmates W/ICE Detainers DOC % All Inmates W/ICE Detainers
Sex Abuse 1,733 1,547 186 10.73%
Rape 971 798 173 17.82%
Homicide 1,665 1,529 136 8.17%
Drugs 934 832 102 10.92%
Sodomy 1,034 942 92 8.90%
Assault 1,922 1,845 77 4.01%
Robbery 1,574 1,519 55 3.49%
Kidnapping 294 262 32 10.88%
Burglary 1,382 1,358 24 1.74%
Theft 1,159 1,141 18 1.55%
Driving Offense 250 241 9 3.60%
Vehicle Theft 431 428 3 0.70%
Arson 78 78 0 0.00%
Forgery 37 37 0 0.00%
Escape 48 48 0 0.00%
Other / Combination 1,197 1,150 47 3.93%
Total 14,709 13,755 954
Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Report ICE inmates list 01 June 16 and Inmate Population Profile 01 June 16.

Using DOC ICE detainer numbers, the following table reveals the self-declared countries of origin of the 954 criminal alien prisoners by number and percentage incarcerated on June 1st in the state's prisons.

OREGON DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
Country DOC Total Inmates W/ ICE Detainers DOC % Inmates W/ICE Detainers
Mexico 763 79.98%
Guatemala 24 2.51%
Cuba 16 1.68%
El Salvador 14 1.47%
Russia 11 1.15%
Ukraine 11 1.15%
Vietnam 11 1.15%
Honduras 10 1.05%
Federated States of Micronesia 6 0.63%
Canada 5 0.52%
Laos 5 0.52%
Philippines 5 0.52%
Other Countries 73 7.65%
Total 954 100.00%
Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Report ICE inmates list 01 June 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 954 criminal alien prison population is approximately ($90,200.70) per day, ($631,404.90) per week, and ($32,923,255.50) per year.

Even taking into account fiscal year 2015 U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) award of $1,602,510.00, if the State of Oregon receives the same amount of SCAAP funding for fiscal year 2016, the cost to incarcerate 954 criminal aliens to the DOC will be at least ($31,320,745.50).

None of preceding cost estimates for the DOC to incarcerate the 954 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 June 1, 2016:
http://www.oregon.gov/doc/RESRCH/docs/inmate_profile_201606.pdf

Oregon Department of Corrections Population Profile (unpublished MS Excel workbook) titled Incarcerated Criminal Aliens Report dated June 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), 2015 SCAAP award: https://www.bja.gov/funding/FY-2015-SCAAP-Awards.pdf

David Olen Cross, Salem writes on immigration issues and foreign national crime. He is a weekly guest on the Lars Larson Northwest Show. He can be reached at docfnc@yahoo.com or at http://docfnc.wordpress.com/. Read more about Oregon Department of Corrections: Criminal Alien Report June 2016

The knock came at 7:30 a.m., just as Francisco Aguirre was about to take a shower.

His 18-year-old son was the one who opened the door and saw the uniformed immigration officers standing on the front porch...

On some level, Aguirre had known this could happen, given his recent arrest for drunk driving. He pulled out his cell phone and made a call.

Soon, about 15 church volunteers appeared on his front lawn, got Aguirre into a car and rushed him to Augustana Lutheran Church in Northeast Portland...

He was an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador. He had crossed the American border in 1995 and became an advocate for immigrant rights. Now, he was at Augustana seeking sanctuary from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement – the first person in Oregon to do so in recent history....

Two years later, Aguirre's first, fitful night of sleep in Augustana catalyzed the burgeoning sanctuary movement among Oregon's Lutheran churches. And it may soon have ripple effects across the country.

The sanctuary movement is nothing new. In the 1980s, houses of worship opened their doors and offered Central American refugees shelter in a time when their native countries were falling apart...

At the time, he was one of six people nationwide seeking security in a holy place. Next week, Oregon's Lutheran churches will spur a vote on the practice...

Augustana has called itself a sanctuary congregation since 1996, when the current pastor assumed his position, though Aguirre was the first and last to make use of this designation.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement likely won't touch undocumented immigrants if they're in a house of worship...

But the concept of sanctuary has critics, some of whom say it allows churches to help potentially dangerous immigrants break the law and remain in the country illegally.

In May, the U.S. Department of Justice dropped its charge of illegal re-entry against Aguirre. Sixteen years prior, he had been found guilty of selling drugs and sent back to El Salvador, but he said he stayed there for just six hours before setting out again toward Oregon.

The drug charge? Officials said he was selling heroin. Aguirre said he let two men who didn't have a place to stay into his home, and the drugs belonged to them.

As for immediately leaving El Salvador, the murder capital of the world? Well, he said, staying there was a death sentence.

Over the next decade, Aguirre worked as an organizer with a nonprofit helping day laborers find work. But a drunk driving charge in 2014 put him back on ICE's radar and drove him to Augustana that September...

But about two months ago, the United States again ordered Aguirre's deportation, said lawyer Steven Manning. The federal immigration agency still considers him an "enforcement priority due to his aggravated felony drug trafficking conviction, prior removal and subsequent illegal reentry," said spokeswoman Rose Richeson.

Manning filed a lawsuit against the removal order, and Aguirre is seeking an asylum screening to determine if he can stay in the U.S.

"He can stay until both of those are resolved," Manning said, adding, "he has a great case on both ends."

If all works out in his favor, Aguirre hopes to go into a seminary. If it doesn't, he said, he'll go back to Augustana.

"I'd like to finally become a pastor and find a way to better help the immigrant community," said Aguirre, 36. "That's my passion."

And though Aguirre no longer lives in small basement room below Augustana's sanctuary, the church has continued to fight for him — and the larger movement that Aguirre symbolizes in Oregon.

"We took on Goliath, we took on ICE," said Augustana's Rev. Mark Knutson. "We're a little church on the corner, and we're on the verge of something really incredible."

'Whereas, Mary, Joseph and Jesus were refugees'

Knutson stood before about 300 representatives of various Lutheran churches from all over Oregon during their annual assembly in May. He recounted Aguirre's story and the positive impact the man had on his congregation.

And then he called on Oregon Lutherans to declare themselves the first "Sanctuary Synod" in the nation.

The resolution, which passed overwhelmingly, encourages the state's 115 Lutheran congregations and ministries to become sanctuaries and prepare to "protect refugees and undocumented sisters and brothers from arrest and deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers."

It wouldn't have happened without Aguirre, said Oregon Bishop Dave Brauer-Rieke.

"Francisco gave Augustana the opportunity to live out their faith, and then Augustana gave that opportunity to Oregon's Lutheran churches at a whole," he said. "Whenever you put the face of a real person on an issue, it impacts us. That's very clearly the case here."...

Church leaders and community activists met almost nightly to strategize about Aguirre's situation, and they decided they'd use the long-standing church bell as a warning signal in case something went wrong. If he rang it, neighborhood volunteers would come running.

"The congregation was totally on board," Knutson said. "People here understand that you're part of the congregation, and you can't be afraid to step out in faith."

Augustana is looking to get a new clapper for its 600-pound bell. Knutson said he plans to have it made out of melted-down guns.

'The political winds'

Next week, the Oregon Synod will take their resolution from May and go before the national assembly of Lutherans in New Orleans. They'll ask the church to become the first "Sanctuary Denomination" in the U.S.

Brauer-Rieke has little hope it'll pass.

"We haven't really educated about the issue," he said. "While Lutherans nationwide are pretty pro-immigrant, there are churches from Texas and the southern states which have some pretty strong feelings about immigration."

And there are still some concerns among church leaders that participating in sanctuary puts them at risk.

"Some people were offended," Brauer-Rieke said. "They say you're asking us to do something illegal. I responded by saying that there's nothing illegal about this and we're not forcing anyone to do anything."

The bishop isn't discouraged. He just hopes to put the idea out there so more action is possible later on. After all, he said, the issue is one that's part of the denomination's DNA: Following World War II, one in six Lutherans worldwide were refugees or displaced persons.

"There are many Lutherans for whom these immigrant stories are no more than a grandma and grandpa away," Brauer-Rieke said.

The movement is not without critics. It came under fire last year after a 45-year-old man from Mexico, who was deported five times, was arrested for killing a woman in San Francisco, where he was protected under sanctuary.

"It creates problems when organizations like churches take it upon themselves to prevent ICE from doing their job, especially when it's a job that protects the public at large," said Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Washington, D.C-based think tank Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates limiting immigration.

But people like Knutson promise to continue offering protection in the church. He's seen what happens when legal hurdles force immigrants to return to dangerous countries....

Unless there's comprehensive immigration reform, Knutson said, the movement will keep growing.

"Listen to the political winds," Knutson said. "Unless we change our laws, there will be a thousand people seeking sanctuary in the upcoming years." Read more about Oregon man's story propels sanctuary movement among Lutheran churches

The shooting deaths of three Oregon residents, a woman and two men on Monday, June 27, 2016 in Oregon’s Marion County draws attention to the number of criminal aliens now incarcerated in the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) prison system for crime of homicide.

Late last month, on Wednesday, June 29, 2016 Bonifacio Oseguera-Gonzalez, age 29, a resident of Woodburn, Oregon, made his first appearance in a Marion County Circuit Court where he was charged with three counts of aggravated murder in a shooting deaths of Katie Gildersleeve, age 30, a resident of Lincoln County, Ruben Rigoberto-Reyes, age 60, and Edmundo Amaro-Bajonero, age 26, and one count of attempted murder in the wounding of Refugio Modesto-DeLaCruz, age 27; all the men were residents of Marion County.

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson Virginia Kice alleged triple murderer Mexican national Bonifacio Oseguera-Gonzalez has been deported six times between the years of 2003 and 2013.

Bonifacio Oseguera-Gonzalez has been incarcerated at the Marion County Correctional Facility (MCCF) in Salem, Oregon since the time of his arrest on June 27th.

The number of criminal alien inmates with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requested immigration detainers incarcerated in the DOC prison system for the crime of homicide is displayed in the tables below.

The DOC on June 1, 2016 had 954 criminal aliens incarcerated in for various crimes, 136 aliens (14.25 percent) were incarcerated for the crime of homicide.

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

  Read more about Illegal aliens who murder the residents of Oregon

Second charge of attempted aggravated murder added regarding June 27 shooting

Bonifacio Oseguera-Gonzalez has now been charged with a second count of attempted aggravated murder in addition to three aggravated murder charges for a fatal shooting last month east of Woodburn.

On July 8, a grand jury indicted Oseguera-Gonzalez on the attempted aggravated murder charge for “intentionally attempting to cause the death” of witness Jesus Zavaleta-Bahena. This is in addition to three counts of aggravated murder and another count of attempted aggravated murder with a firearm.

According to a probable cause statement, Oseguera-Gonzalez admitted to having shot four people on the morning of June 27 at a berry farm on Killiam Road.

Two of the victims — Ruben Rigoberto-Reyes, 60, and Edmundo Amaro-Bajonero, 26 — were found dead at the scene and another —Katie Gildersleeve, 30 — died hours later at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland. Refugio Modesto-DeLaCruz, 27, suffered serious injuries but is expected to survive, according to Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials are still investigating and have declined to comment on a motive.

An additional case against Oseguera-Gonzalez has resurfaced from an incident in Marion County from 2009, for which there has been an active warrant for his arrest. In that case, he was charged with knowingly giving a false name to a police officer and unlawfully operating a motor vehicle without insurance.

After his arraignment June 28, the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency released a statement stating Oseguera-Gonzalez had been deported six times between 2003 and 2013

One of those times he was deported was following his 2009 arrest, according to an email from Virginia Kice, western regional communications director for ICE.

She also noted that Oseguera-Gonzalez voluntarily returned to Mexico in 2003, but was then arrested by ICE officials in October 2007 and deported two months later.

In November 2009, following his Marion County arrest, Oseguera-Gonzalez was taken into ICE custody and deported two weeks after that. The fourth and fifth times he was taken into custody and repatriated was in 2010, with both arrests being made in southern Arizona. In 2013, he was arrested again in southern Arizona.

“At that time, CBP-Border Patrol presented him for federal prosecution and he pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of illegal entry,” Kice said in the email. “After fulfilling his court imposed 180-day sentence, which included credit for time served, ERO (enforcement and removal operations) removed Mr. Oseguera to Mexico through El Paso.”

A status check in the murder case is scheduled before Judge Susan Tripp at 1:15 p.m. July 14.

Lindsay Keefer contributed to this story.
  Read more about Murder suspect indicted as details of his past emerge