Oregon legislation

According to the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) Inmate Population Profile dated October 1, 2014 DOC indicated there were 14,606 prisoners incarcerated in DOC’s 14 prisons (See attachment).

Not included in DOC’s October 1st Inmate Population Profile was DOC data indicating there were 1,086 foreign nationals (criminal aliens) incarcerated in its prison system (See attachment).

All 1,086 criminal aliens incarcerated on October 1st by DOC had United States (U.S.) Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detainers. The U.S. DHS–ICE is responsible for identifying whether a DOC inmate is a criminal alien or a domestic inmate. If an inmate is identified as being a criminal alien, at U.S. DHS–ICE’s request, the DOC places an “ICE detainer” on the inmate that directs DOC officials to transfer custody to ICE following completion of the inmate’s state sanction.

Criminal aliens made up approximately 7.43% of the DOC October 1st prison population (See table).
 

Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Unit-ICE inmates lists 01 OCTOBER 07rtf – 01 OCTOBER 14.rtf and Inmate Population Profile 01 OCTOBER 07 – 01 OCTOBER 14.

Comparing DOC criminal alien incarceration numbers from October 1, 2007 (985 criminal aliens) and October 1, 2014 (1,086 criminal aliens), the DOC prison system incarcerated 101 criminal aliens more than it did on October 1, 2007, a 10.25% increase (See table).
 

Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Unit-ICE inmates lists 01 OCTOBER 07rtf – 01 OCTOBER 14.rtf and Inmate Population Profile 01 OCTOBER 07 – 01 OCTOBER 14.

When comparing DOC domestic criminal incarceration numbers from October 1, 2007 (12,568 domestic criminals) and October 1, 2014 (13,520 domestic criminals), the DOC prison system incarcerated 952 domestic criminals more than it did on October 1, 2007, a 7.57% increase (See table).
 

Source: Research and Evaluation DOC Unit-ICE inmates lists 01 OCTOBER 07rtf – 01 OCTOBER 14.rtf and Inmate Population Profile 01 OCTOBER 07 – 01 OCTOBER 14.

Bringing the preceding numbers together, from October 1st 2007– 2014, seven years, the DOC prison population grew by 1,053 domestic and criminal alien prisoners; 9.59% of the overall growth was in criminal alien prisoners.

A review of the 1,086 criminal aliens in DOC prisons by number per county and percentage (%) per county equated to the following: 263-Marion (24.22%); 258-Multnomah (23.76%); 184-Washington (16.94%); 79-Clackamas (7.27%); 54-Lane (4.97%); 49-Jackson (4.51%); 29-Yamhill (2.67%); 26-Linn (2.39%); 19-Umatilla (1.75%); 17-Deschutes (1.56%); 15-Polk (1.38%); 14-Benton (1.29%); 12-Malheur (1.10%); 10-Lincoln (0.92%); 9-Jefferson (0.83%); 8-Klamath (0.74%); 7-Douglas (0.64%); 5-Josephine (0.46%); 5-Morrow (0.46%); 4-Coos (0.37%); 3-Clatsop (0.28%); 3-Hood River (0.28%); 3-Tillamook (0.28%); 3-Wasco (0.28%); 2-Crook (0.18%); 2-Union (0.18); 1-Columbia (0.09%); 1-Gilliam (0.09%); 1-OOS (0.09%); 0-Baker (0.00%); 0-Curry (0.00%); 0-Grant (0.00%); 0-Harney (0.00%); 0-Lake (0.00); 0-Sherman (0.00%); 0-Wallowa (0.00%); and 0-Wheeler (0.00%).

No member of the Oregon State Legislature should forget the uncounted crime victims and their families, no matter what their immigration status, all victims of the 1,086 criminal aliens incarcerated in DOC prisons.

A review of the 1,086 criminal aliens in the DOC prison population by numbers per crime and percentage (%) per crime equated to the following: 200-sex abuses (18.42%); 172-rapes (15.84%); 159-drugs (14.64%); 144-homicides (13.26%); 98-assaults (9.02%); 98-sodomies (9.02%); 66-robberies (6.08%); 42-kidnappings (3.87%); 21-burglaries (1.93%); 14-thefts (1.29%); 11-driving offenses (1.01%); 3-vehicle thefts (0.28%); 1-arsons (0.09%); 1-forgery (0.09%); and 56 other types of crime or a combination of the preceding crimes (5.16%).

Oregon State Legislators should not overlook the source of the preceding crimes, the country of origin of the 1,086 criminal aliens in DOC prisons.

The self-declared counties of origin of the 1,086 criminal aliens in the DOC prison population by numbers and percentage (%) per country equated to the following: 873-Mexico (80.39%); 32-Guatemala (2.95%); 19-Vietnam (1.75%); 16-El Salvador (1.47%); 12-Cuba (1.10%); 11-Honduras (1.01%); 10-Russia (0.92%); 10-Ukraine (0.92%); 8-Federated States of Micronesia (0.74%); 6-Laos (0.55%); 6-Philippines (0.55%); and 83 from other counties (7.64%).

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 ($87.08) per day (See link).

http://www.oregon.gov/doc/GECO/docs/pdf/IB_53_Quick_Facts_06_14.pdf

The DOC’s incarceration cost for its 1,086 criminal alien prison population is approximately ($94,568.88) per day, ($661,982.16) per week, and ($34,517,641.20) per year.

Even taking into account fiscal year 2013 United States Federal Government State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) award of $2,146,935.00, if the State of Oregon receives the same amount of SCAAP funding for fiscal year 2014, the cost to incarcerate 1,086 criminal aliens to the DOC will be at least ($32,370,706.20) (See link).

https://www.bja.gov/Funding/13SCAAPawards.pdf

None of preceding cost estimates for the DOC to incarcerate the 1,086 criminal aliens include the dollar amount for legal services (indigent defense), court costs, nor cost estimates to cover victim assistance.

An unfortunate fact, the State of Oregon is not fully cooperating with the U.S. DHS–ICE to fight crime committed by criminal aliens who reside in Oregon.

In year 2007, a United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) report titled “Cooperation of SCAAP (State Criminal Alien Assistance Program) Recipients in the Removal of Criminal Aliens from the United States, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General Audit Division, Audit Report 07-07, October 2007, Redacted-Public Version” identified the State of Oregon as having an official “state sanctuary statute,” ORS 181.850 Enforcement of federal immigration laws (See link).

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/OJP/a0707/final.pdf

The USDOJ, the federal governments top law enforcement agency, identified Oregon as a “sanctuary” for criminal aliens.

An Oregon law, Oregon Revised Statue 181.850 (ORS 181.850), Section (1), prohibits Oregon law enforcement (Oregon State Police (OSP), county sheriffs, city police departments) from asking immigration status of anyone residing in the State of Oregon “for the purpose of detecting or apprehending persons whose only violation of law is that they are persons of foreign citizenship present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws.” Under ORS 181.850, Section (2), Oregon law enforcement October exchange information with U.S. DHS–ICE . . . “in order to: Subsection (a), “Verify the immigration status of a person if the person is arrested for any criminal offense;” or, Subsection (b), “Request criminal investigation information with reference to persons named in records of the” U.S. DHS–ICE . . . (See link).

http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/lawsstatutes/2013ors181.html

The State of Oregon should no longer be classified by U.S. federal government law enforcement as having an official “state sanctuary statute” for criminal aliens, nor should Oregon be a sanctuary for criminal aliens to kill, rape, maim or abuse Oregonians. Read more about Seven Year Report: Criminal Aliens Incarcerated Oregon Department

Measure 88 would have allowed permits for those proving skills, but not legal presence.

Voter rejection of Measure 88 last week scraps a law allowing Oregon to issue four-year driver cards regardless of immigration status.

Legislators passed Senate Bill 833 last year, and it would have taken effect Jan. 1 of this year. But it was put on hold after opponents, with financial help from Nevada businessman Loren Parks, gathered enough signatures to put it to a statewide election.

Voters rejected Measure 88, 66 percent to 34 percent. For the law to take effect, “yes” votes had to prevail over “no” votes.

So the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division will not implement the law, which would have allowed four-year cards — half the term of a regular eight-year license — to those who passed driving knowledge and skills tests, but otherwise could not prove legal presence in the United States.

Under a 2005 federal law, states must require such proof before issuing driver’s licenses that can be used for federal identification purposes, such as boarding a commercial aircraft or entering a federal building. The law allows states to issue other forms of driver identification, which must be clearly marked.

Oregon lawmakers wrote the proof-of-legal-presence standard into state law in 2008.

Opponents say that a driver’s card would have conferred a privilege on people who are in the United States without legal papers.

The manager of the opposition campaign was Cynthia Kendoll of Salem, who also is president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform.

"Across the board, voters said 'no' to the crazy idea of granting special benefits and legal documents to those who have broken the law to enter our country illegally," Kendoll says. "Voters do not want Oregon to become a magnet for people who break our laws."

Ten states — including California, Nevada and Washington — have or will issue alternatives to driver’s licenses. California’s law takes effect on Jan. 1.

Washington is one of two states that does not require proof of legal presence for driver’s licenses, but it issues an “enhanced” license that can be used for federal identification purposes and travel to and from Canada. Most U.S. citizens must use passports to do so.

Andrea Miller, executive director of Oregon immigrant-rights group Causa, says the defeat of Measure 88 does not resolve the problem of undocumented immigrants without driving permits.

“The need for action is real, and the need continues,” she says. “Measure 88 proved that there is a new and emerging voice in Oregon politics, a proud voice that can bring diverse groups together in ways never seen before in this state. A voice that understands that Oregon is much stronger together than it is apart. And it is one that is here to stay.

"Our communities organized in a way and at a scale we haven’t seen before in this state.”

Oregon can still issue licenses to people with temporary authorization to live in the United States. The license is limited to the authorized stay, not to exceed eight years.

Oregon also can issue licenses to those approved under the federal Deferred Action-Childhood Arrivals program, which defers deportation of those born elsewhere but arrived in the United States as children. They qualify for renewable two-year work permits, and most states — including Oregon — consider them as legally present for purposes of issuing driver’s licenses.

Three-quarters of DACA participants are from Mexico.

Participants have had to have lived in the United States since 2007, and must have been age 31 or younger as of June 15, 2012.

Spokesman David House says Oregon DMV does not keep track of DACA applicants for licenses, but the agency estimated that 16,000 in Oregon would have been eligible to apply for such status back in 2012. Read more about Vote scraps driver-card law

Voters in deep-blue Oregon overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure on Nov. 4 to give drivers' licenses to the state's illegal immigrants — a judgment that President Barack Obama should consider when contemplating executive amnesty, nationally syndicated radio talker Lars Larson told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner on Newsmax TV on Tuesday.
 

Watch the video of Lars Larson's interview. Read more about Lars Larson: Even Liberal Oregonians Oppose Immigrant Amnesty

Last week's election gave me hope for Oregon.

Not because of the overall results. They were unsurprising.

Rather, I am heartened that thousands of Oregonians voted for individuals and issues, instead of along straight party lines.

If you look at county-by-county election results, you'll see vast differences. For example, Marion and Polk counties voted for Republican Dennis Richardson for governor but Democrat Jeff Merkley for U.S. senator.

Measure 88, which would have made driver cards available to undocumented Oregonians, passed in only one county — Multnomah — and lost overwhelmingly statewide. Meanwhile, Measure 89, the state Equal Rights Amendment, was approved statewide amid support in Northwest, Southwest, Central and Northeast Oregon counties. Measure 90, the open or "top-two" primary, lost in every county.

As for Measure 91, legalizing marijuana, Polk and Marion counties voted against it but it passed statewide. Its support was in the Portland metro area, the coast, and Lane, Deschutes and Jackson counties. The measure barely failed in Josephine County.

I worry about what legalization will mean for Oregon.

But I am reassured that Oregonians displayed individuality and independence on Tuesday.

Other thoughts:

• This election season produced some of the worst-run campaigns I've witnessed.

One was Republican Monica Wehby's ill-fated attempt to unseat the liberal's liberal, Jeff Merkley.

Every candidate, especially a challenger, should learn from Wehby's mistakes:

1. Hire top-notch campaign staff. My sense is that staffers and consultants who understand Oregon do better than outsiders.

2. Know the issues before you even consider running. Wehby displayed a stunning unfamiliarity with most state and federal matters, which was a key reason that the Statesman Journal Editorial Board endorsed Rep. Jason Conger over her in the Republican primary.

3. Have a solid — non-plagiarized — plan for what you would do if elected. That plan must be understandable, significant and pragmatic. Give voters good reasons to vote for you. Opposition to the opponent is an insufficient reason.

4. Practice debating; master the art of debate and of back-and-forth politics, instead of taking criticisms personally. Both Kitzhaber and Richardson generally impressed me in this regard.

5. Expect your personal life to become public, so know your flaws and skeletons and reveal them before your opponent and the media do.

6. Respect the opponent. Set that standard for your campaign staff and volunteers.

By the way, the Merkley campaign's incessant attacks on Wehby bugged the heck out of me. One Merkley aide was even texting me on weekends to complain about Wehby.

• Some pro-Measure 88 campaigners looked down on the opponents, and it showed. The pro campaign got outwitted and outworked. The opponents had dug far deeper into the potential impacts of the driver cards.

• As with other journalists I know, I am basically a-political. I registered with a political party simply so I could vote in primary elections. I cannot afford to get invested in the outcomes, because my job is to deal with whichever side prevails.

So it was surprising to get a nasty, accusatory post-election email from a campaign consultant who's been around long enough that he should know better: Losing one's temper is not the optimum way of building credibility.

Which brings me to this tip, which is suitable for non-election consumption as well: Never put anything in an email that you wouldn't want to see on a billboard.

Or in a newspaper.

More information

To view statewide and county-by-county election results, go to oregonvotes.gov/results/2014G/index.html.
  Read more about Oregonians voted for people and issues, not party lines

Enough is enough. An important bloc of voters made their voices heard on Tuesday. Their message: Quit rewarding people who violate our immigration laws. They chose a sovereign nation over an illegal alien sanctuary nation, and they told politicians in both parties loud and clear: Put Americans first.

Will D.C. listen?

These voters are tired of politicians creating magnets for illegal immigrants. They're tired of preferential treatment for defiant border-crossers, visa overstayers and deportation fugitives. They're tired of the heavy costs and consequences of the government's systemic refusal to protect its borders and fully implement interior enforcement.

Pay attention, both parties in the Beltway: These aren't voters in a red-state bastion. They're fed-up voters in bright blue Oregon -- a whopping 941,042 of them, to be exact -- who overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure to provide special driver's licenses "without requiring proof of legal presence in the United States."

When Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber and radicals in the state legislature tried to push through illegal alien driver's cards against the will of the people, the people struck back and forced a full public vote and electoral accountability.

"Citizens expect our lawmakers to uphold our laws, not work at finding ways to circumvent them," said the group Protect Oregon Driver Licenses. "Oregon is the only state in the country that (gave citizens the) opportunity to vote on giving driver cards to those who cannot prove legal presence in the United States." If only every state had the power of initiative and referendum. Ten states, including California, Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont and Washington, plus the District of Columbia, "have had the law forced upon them with little or no recourse available to them."

Listen up, D.C.: The Oregon proposal went down in flames by more than a 2-to-1 margin. More voters weighed in on Measure 88 than any other single candidate or question on the ballot, including the campaigns for governor, U.S. senator and marijuana legalization.

Who supported Measure 88? Entitled ethnic lobbyists, immigration lawyers, American worker-betraying labor unions like the SEIU and UFCW, the ACLU, the militant Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, agricultural interests, NARAL, far-left church leaders, soft-on-illegal-immigration newspaper editorial boards, and some business-pandering Republicans.

Pro-amnesty actress and Barack Obama campaign finance bundler Eva Longoria's "Latino Victory Project" forked over $50,000 to the pro-Measure 88 PAC. The open-borders campaign raised a whopping $500,000-plus from its deep-pocketed Big Government/Big Business/Hollywood patrons.

Who opposed the referendum? Grassroots citizens and a majority of common-sense sheriffs in Oregon who were outspent 10-to-1.

The police, sheriffs and border patrol agents who opposed Measure 88 forcefully connected the dots between immigration enforcement and homeland security. As I've reported repeatedly over the years, driver's licenses are tickets into the American mainstream. They allow residents to establish an identity and foothold into their communities. They help you open bank accounts, enter secure facilities and, yes, board planes.

Remember:

--The 9/11 hijackers obtained some 364 separate pieces of identification, including driver's licenses, in order to conduct their murderous business. Hijackers Hani Hanjour and Khalid Almihdhar conspired with illegal alien day laborers at a Falls Church, Va., 7-Eleven to obtain government-issued photo IDs. Three other hijackers obtained IDs at an Arlington, Va., DMV.

--In Boston, suspected al-Qaida agent and illegal alien Nabil al-Marabh obtained a license permitting him to drive semi-trucks containing hazardous materials, including explosives and caustic materials.

The anti-Measure 88 law enforcement officers were joined by Derek Hernandez, vice president of the Western Region National Border Patrol Council, and Maria Espinoza, national director of The Remembrance Project. Espinoza is a Mexican-American activist whose group "is dedicated to honoring and remembering Americans who have been killed by illegal aliens." As she pointed out to Oregonians, "Americans are neither allowed nor do they expect being able to provide unverifiable documentation when applying for licenses, jobs, voter registrations, loans or any of the many activities requiring proper identification. Why should illegal aliens be afforded this ill-begotten privilege?"

Pro-Measure 88 advocates disingenuously argued that the law was "pro-public safety" because it would allow Oregon to know who is living in the state. But Espinoza correctly notes that Mexican government offices embedded in the U.S. continue to issue shady "matricula consular" identification cards "without proof of identity, in their efforts to achieve quasi-legal status for Mexican illegal aliens in the United States."

As President Obama and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce conspire in Beltway backrooms to provide tens of millions of work permits for illegal aliens through administrative fiat, the new GOP majority on Capitol Hill better heed the defeat of Measure 88.

Cynthia Kendoll, president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform, spoke for law-abiding voters across the country who are "sick and tired of big business, special interest groups and unions controlling our government." They're tired of government-manufactured chaos, government-sponsored double standards and government-imposed benefits for millions of law-breakers who supply cheap labor and cheap votes to bipartisan special interests. Illegal alien driver's licenses are a catalyst for politically driven amnesty, Mexico's poverty exportation plan and corporate wage suppression.

American voters of all backgrounds, political affiliations and incomes don't want any part of that racket. Enough. Read more about Make D.C. Listen: Voters Reject Illegal Alien Rewards