End Oregon's sanctuary policy

Letter date: 
Friday, February 23, 2018
Letter publisher: 
News-Register, McMinnville OR
Letter author: 
Jim Ludwick
Letter body: 

On May 1, 2013, Gov. John Kitzhaber signed into law a bill to grant illegal aliens official Oregon driver cards. As soon as the ink was dry, Oregonians for Immigration Reform, with which I have long been affiliated, filed paperwork for a referendum to overturn the bill.

No one gave us a chance. Every newspaper in Oregon, including the News-Register, came out in opposition. And we were outspent 10 to 1 in the campaign.

In the end, though, Oregon voters overturned the law 66 percent to 34 percent. Thirty-five of Oregon’s 36 counties voted against driver cards for illegal aliens.  Seventy-three percent of Marion, Polk and Yamhill voters said no to Oregon driver cards for illegal aliens.

Recently, when federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese to provide the release date for multiple-time illegal alien deportee Sergio Martinez, who had been charged with 18 separate crimes, he refused. Upon release, Martinez went on to rape one woman and sexually assault another.

Martinez has since been convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison. The incarceration cost, an estimated $1 million, will be borne by Oregon taxpayers.

These brutal assaults on two women and the cost of the illegal alien’s subsequent incarceration are directly related to Oregon’s sanctuary policy, which protects illegal alien criminals from being turned over to ICE for deportation. To remedy that, Stop Oregon Sanctuaries is collecting signatures on a repeal measure, Initiative Petition 22.

Oregon voters can help protect citizen safety by signing IP 22.

A single signature sheet can be downloaded at stoporegonsanctuaries.org. Simply print out the sheet, sign it and mail it.

Jim Ludwick

McMinnville