Oregon legislation

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

Almost a decade after he took an 11-year-old Keizer girl, who he claimed was his "girlfriend," to Mexico, a 28-year-old man was sentenced to 22 years and 11 months in prison.

In 2007, Raul Xalamihua-Espindola, then 19, fled to Zongolica, Veracruz, Mexico, with the girl. The crime took Xalamihua-Espindola and his victim across the United States, down to Mexico and eventually back to Oregon.

Xalamihua-Espindola pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree rape and appeared for sentencing before Marion County Circuit Court Judge David Leith on Monday.

At his sentencing, Xalamihua-Espindola spoke through two translators — one translating English to Spanish and the other translating Spanish to Nahuatl, a Central Mexican language also known as Aztec.

The victim and her family declined to attend the sentencing, but Deputy District AttorneyTobias Tingleaf said they were satisfied with the resolution reached. Tingleaf recommended three consecutive sentences, totaling to 25 years, for Xalamihua-Espindola's charges.

Members of the Keizer Police Department sat in the courtroom, finally witnessing a resolution to the years-long investigation.

"The detectives involved were relentless and did not give up," said Tingleaf, who was a law clerk in Marion County at the time of the girl's disappearance. "We are here today because of their work."

Keizer police began their investigation after the girl left a note for her parents saying she ran away with her boyfriend. The note said not to worry about the girl's well-being, but it didn't match her handwriting, according to an affidavit filed in August 2007.

The girl's friends told police she had a boyfriend named "Raul." Police determined a man of that name lived in the same apartment complex as the victim and identified him as Xalamihua-Espindola.

The girl was rescued and returned home a few months later, but Xalamihua-Espindola eluded capture until two years ago. He was eventually captured and held in a Mexican jail. In December 2015, he was extradited back to the United States.

It is often difficult to bring criminals back to the United States to face prosecution, Tingleaf said.

Keizer Police Deputy Chief Jeffrey Kuhns attended the trial along with several investigators involved in the case.

"The defendant’s capture in Mexico, extradition back to the United States and being sentenced to prison for the crimes he committed over nine years ago in 2007 is a great example of the investigators' resolve to hold this criminal accountable for his actions and bad choices," Kuhns said. "Not once did the Keizer Police Department or the many law enforcement partners who assisted stop the investigation or our pursuit of justice."

Xalamihua-Espindola, who initially pleaded not guilty, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree rape in May. One count of rape and one count of first-degree custodial interference were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Through his translators, he said he did not know what he was doing was a crime. In Mexico, young girls marrying older men is a common custom, he said.

"Are you saying that in your culture, taking an 11-year-old from her home without her parents permission to have sex with her is acceptable?" Leith asked him.

"Yes, all of that is acceptable," Xalamihua-Espindola replied.

He dropped to his knees and pleaded for forgiveness from Leith.

"It's not my role to dispense forgiveness," Leith said after hearing the defendant's appeal for mercy. "That would be for the victims of the crimes to decide."

Xalamihua-Espindola's attorney, John Storkel, argued for a shorter, concurrent sentence of eight years and four months, citing his client's lack of criminal history, his poor, humble background, reference letters, cultural differences and the two years he spent held in a Mexican jail.

Leith said he wanted the sentence to match the enormity of the crime.

"In our culture, these are among the most serious crimes that can be committed," he said, adding he did not believe abducting, kidnapping and raping children would be acceptable in any culture.

Leith sentenced Xalamihua-Espindola to eight years and four months for each of the first-degree rape counts. All but two years of the sentence will run consecutively. Upon his release, he is required to register as a sex offender.

First-degree rape is a Measure 11 offense and carries a mandatory minimum sentence of eight years and four months. Read more about Man who took 11-year-old to Mexico sentenced to 23 years

A judge in U.S. District Court in Eugene has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to give illegal immigrants in Oregon access to short-term drivers’ licenses.

The suit, filed on behalf of five unnamed illegal immigrants from Mexico, sought to restore a 2013 law, passed by the Oregon ­Legislature as Senate Bill 833, creating those new licenses. That law was overturned after it was referred to Oregon voters as Measure 88 in November 2014 and soundly defeated.

Oregon’s refusal to issue driver cards is unconstitutional because immigration regulation is done at the federal level and “is not a legitimate state interest,” the illegal immigrants’ lawsuit had argued. The refusal to issue licenses is “arbitrary” and “capricious” and is “motivated, at least in part, by animus towards Mexicans and Central Americans,” it said. The lawsuit named Democratic Gov. Kate Brown and leaders of the state ­Department of Transportation as ­defendants.

But, in a ruling released Monday, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken wrote that she lacked the authority to compel the state to issue drivers’ licenses outright. Moreover, she found, SB 833 never went into effect as an Oregon law. That means that, even if Aiken invalidated the voters’ rejection of Measure 88 as unconstitutional, “no (existing) law authorizes the state to grant driver cards,” Aiken wrote.

“As such, the state defendants are not refusing to issue driver cards because a referendum motivated by discriminatory animus prevents them from doing so; they cannot issue driver cards because no valid, existing Oregon law authorizes them to do so,” Aiken wrote.

Aiken’s ruling supported the argument made by the state attorney general’s office in its motion to dismiss.

Sarah Weston, assistant attorney general, wrote that the state “agrees that enacting a driver card program would have benefited (the plaintiffs) and would have been good policy for the state.”

But “the relief the plaintiffs seek — the enactment and implementation of SB 833 — cannot be imposed on the state by the federal court in this action,” Weston wrote.

“Just as would be the case with any other bill that failed to become law via the legislative process, if plaintiffs seek to have SB 833 enacted, they must try again via that process,” she added.

Representatives of the Oregon Law Center, which filed the suit on behalf of the five immigrants and two Latino-focused nonprofit organizations, could not be reached for comment on Aiken’s ruling Monday.

Oregonians for Immigration Reform, the chief opponents of Measure 88, applauded the decision.

“Today, the court has dismissed the meritless and frivolous case,” the group said in a statement. “Nearly a million voters said ‘no’ — and now the Court is standing with us. No driver cards for those who can’t prove they are legally present in the country.”

For many years, Oregon allowed residents to get a driver’s license regardless of his or her legal status. But starting in 2008, because of the federal REAL ID Act, ­residents have had to prove legal status to get one.

Measure 88 would have created a new type of short-term driver’s license, available to anyone who had lived in Oregon for at least a year.

Twelve states now provide drivers’ licenses regardless of people’s legal status, including Washington state, California and Nevada.

Follow Saul on Twitter @SaulAHubbard . Email saul.hubbard@registerguard.com .
  Read more about Federal judge dismisses lawsuit seeking drivers licenses for illegal immigrants in Oregon