illegal aliens

BOARDMAN, Ore. — Law enforcement officers in northeastern Oregon say they chased and eventually arrested a masked man who had been reported swerving in and out of traffic on Interstate 84.

Morrow County Undersheriff Steven Myren says law enforcement cars tried to stop westbound blue SUV on Tuesday afternoon...

Spike strips that flattened the vehicle's two front tires eventually ended the chase.

...Officers found a loaded handgun on the passenger seat, a machete...

Adolfo Mendez Lopez - ICE HOLD

Read the full article.

  Read more about Officers in Eastern Oregon arrest masked man on Interstate 84

Court records indicate that Victor Torres-Elizondo, killed by a Hillsboro police officer after he fired a shot at police during a traffic stop, had a criminal history that involved multiple drug-related crimes but no violent offenses....
 

...Torres-Elizondo, 30, who also goes by Victor Torres, had multiple drug-related convictions in Oregon and Washington state during the past 10 years, according to court records....

Read more about Victor Torres-Elizondo.
  Read more about Hillsboro police officer justified in fatal shooting of man during traffic stop, DA says

What will be the biggest political story in Oregon in 2014? Lawmakers and political candidates share their predictions.

Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem: Marijuana legalization is Berger’s prediction for the biggest political story in 2014. Supporters of legalizing recreational usage of the drug have been gathering signatures to put the idea to voters in November, and Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, announced plans to pass a referral on legalization during the 2014 Legislative session.

“I think it’s coming at us like a freight train,” Berger said. “I don’t think that the Legislature is adequately preparing for that.”

Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem: Oregon has managed to avoid “polarizing fights that plague other states,” but Courtney thinks that will come to an end in 2014. The Salem Democrat worried that a series of ballot initiatives on divisive social issues such as same-sex marriage, right to work and driver ID cards for undocumented immigrants would bring in a tidal wave of out-of-state donors and caustic rhetoric.

“You will have a battle of ballot measures like you have never had before, and it will tear the state up,” Courtney said. “It will bring a political war the likes of which we have never seen before in Oregon.”

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River: Oregon’s timber counties have struggled to pay their bills for two decades since federal protections curtailed 90 percent of logging on federal forest lands, but Walden thinks 2014 could be the year the government eases those restrictions.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to increase logging on about 2 million acres of federal forests in Western Oregon in September, and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden has proposed a similar bill in the Senate.

“Our plan would provide the certainty that Oregon’s forested communities are demanding by creating jobs in the woods, improving forest health and providing revenue for essential local services like schools and law enforcement,” Walden said. “I predict that final passage of a historic forestry plan will be the biggest story of 2014 because we must help Oregonians who live in rural communities.”

Environmental opponents argue increased logging would hurt fish and wildlife while damaging the state’s growing outdoor recreation industry.

Rep. Dennis Richardson, R-Central Point: The Republican gubernatorial candidate predicted that he and his political party hopefuls would beat the Democrats in enough races to take back control of the Oregon Legislature and the governor’s mansion.

“It’s going to change the political course of Oregon back towards the middle,” Richardson said.

Democrats currently hold 16 of the state’s 30 Senate seats and 34 of the 60 House seats.

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield: “In a matter of months, the Highway Trust Fund will essentially run dry, meaning there will be no new spending to fix our nation’s crumbling infrastructure,” DeFazio said. “Without a fix, the state of Oregon alone will lose half a billion dollars in 2015, resulting in thousands of lost jobs. This issue affects anyone who uses a road to drive, ride, bike or walk but it’s going to be tough to get Republicans to agree to funding.”

House of Representatives candidate Bill Post: The Republican talk show host who is running for Rep. Kim Thatcher’s seat this year thinks the Affordable Care Act and Cover Oregon will continue as the biggest stories of 2014.

“Both will continue to be plagued by technical glitches and the price tag that those who do sign on will be shocked by,” Post said. “This story will be the one that continues from the primary in May through the General in November. It will hurt anyone attached to it.”

House Minority Leader Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte: The ranking House Republican predicted his party would make gains in the 2014 elections, and Cover Oregon would continue to be plagued by delays.

McLane added one more prediction for Rep. Carolyn Tomei, D-Milwaukie, who made headlines in 2013 when she substituted the word “love” for God in the Pledge of Allegiance. “Rep. Tomei won’t say the Pledge of Allegiance with an open mic,” McLane said. Read more about Legislators predict the year's top stories in politics

In its first four years the Obama administration deported 3.2 million aliens, averaging just over 800,000 per year. Pro-amnesty advocacy groups, administration officials, lawmakers, and lazy reporters all have claimed this is a record, but it is not. In fact, according to historical DHS statistics, this is the lowest total and annual average since the mid-1970s.

Bloomberg News reporter Bill Selway wrote this last week:

The ordinances come as Obama's administration has faced pressure from Democratic lawmakers and Hispanic backers to scale back deportations, which hit a record 409,900 in the 2012 budget year. During his five years in office, the Obama administration has sent 1.93 million people back to their home countries, close to what President George W. Bush did in eight years and nearly as many as in the 108 years before Bush took office.

The statistic in the first sentence refers to the number of deportations claimed by ICE for 2012, not total deportations. In order to achieve this "record," ICE juiced its numbers by counting certain Border Patrol cases as ICE removals, which had not been done in prior years. (Border Patrol deportations are usually counted as "returns".) So ICE's deportation record under the Obama administration is about as valid as Barry Bonds' home run record.

Because the Obama administration has blurred the lines of which agencies can take credit for deportations, the only fair way to assess their performance is to count all deportations done by all the DHS agencies. These are reported every year in the DHS Yearbook of Immigration Statistics in Table 39, which shows the number of "removals" and "returns" by all immigration enforcement agencies going back to 1927.

There we find that the total number of aliens "sent back" under first four years of the Obama administration is just over 3.2 million (not 1.93 million, as Selway wrote). This is an annual average of just over 800,000 sent back per year. Official numbers for 2013 have not been released yet, but the total will be about the same, with just over 400,000 Border patrol deportations and about 370,000 attributed to ICE.

That is nowhere near the totals under George Bush's administration, which were over 10.3 million total deportations with an annual average of 1.2 million (see the table below).

The real record for deportations belongs to the Clinton administration. Obama's total is lower than the last six administrations, even lower than Jimmy Carter's.

Sure, illegal border crossings, which generate the lion's share of all deportations, have slowed some during the Obama administration, and that's one reason why the Border Patrol is deporting fewer aliens, but the plain fact remains that the Obama administration has not deported more people than any recent previous administration – not even close. The other reason the Obama deportation numbers are low is because interior enforcement has been nearly dismantled due to executive-decree amnesties and so-called "prosecutorial discretion," which shields at least 90 percent of the illegal population from enforcement.

The most egregious reporting malpractice in Selway's article is the absurd claim that Obama's deportation numbers are "nearly as many as in the 108 years before Bush took office."

I expect the pro-amnesty advocacy groups to keep spouting bogus statistics to support their outrageous demands for an end to all deportations, but there's no excuse for reporters at national news organizations to keep accepting it at face value. Read more about Obama Deportations Definitely Not Record-Breaking

Hundreds of new laws passed by the Oregon Legislature on driving, teen tanning, animals and other issues go into effect Jan. 1, 2014....

...one new law that is not going into effect as scheduled Jan. 1:

Driver cards: The new law would have allowed Oregonians who can’t prove their legal presence to obtain four-year driving privileges. Opponents gathered enough signatures to refer the issue to voters on the November 2014 ballot. DMV subsequently suspended implementation of the program.
 

  Read more about Oregon laws on driving, teen tanning, medical marijuana, others take effect Jan. 1

...18-year-old Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros.... had driven through a leaf pile minutes earlier, she’d struck some children....driving her boyfriend’s mother's Nissan Pathfinder that evening. Her boyfriend, Mario Echeverria, 18, and Garcia-Cisneros' younger brother were also in the vehicle.

After they examined the vehicle with a flashlight, they drove it to Echeverria’s mother’s home in Cornelius. Then the three went out for ice cream.

The next day, Echeverria took the SUV to a Hillsboro car wash, where he paid for the deluxe wash that included undercarriage cleaning....

...Garcia-Cisneros faces charges of felony hit and run. Her case is scheduled for trial next month.
 

Read more about this hit and run tragedy.

  Read more about Forest Grove fatal crash: Mother of girls killed takes guilty plea from driver's boyfriend as apology