enforcement

Volunteers from multiple organizations showed up Monday to observe workers in the Secretary of State’s Elections Office begin the process of certifying signed petitions for a 2014 ballot referendum.

State compliance specialist Summer Davis and her staff of two were outnumbered by volunteers with the civil-rights group Causa Oregon, one from the Oregon Safe Road Coalition, and one from Oregonians for Immigration Reform as the employees began checking signed petitions for adherence to state law. Davis said the staff was looking for compliance in areas such as whether or not the petition was signed by the signature gatherer, if the document was dated and whether it included the correct referendum number.

OFIR, which wants voters, not lawmakers, to decide whether residents without documentation should be granted driver privilege cards, needs 58,142 valid signatures to delay the January implementation of a new state law allowing the cards. The group’s Referendum No. 301, if certified for next November’s election, would prevent a law signed by Gov. John Kitzhaber in May from taking effect. If the group does not have enough valid signatures to qualify the referendum for the November ballot, the new law will begin the first of the new year. It is similar to laws already in place or being implemented in Washington, Utah, Maryland, Illinois and New Mexico.

Davis expects the state will begin comparing signatures in a representative sample to those of registered voters next week.

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California last week became the latest – and biggest – state to authorize driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. But most voters still strongly oppose letting illegal immigrants drive legally in their state.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Likely U.S. Voters think illegal immigrants should not be eligible for driver’s licenses in their state. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 22% favor allowing illegal immigrants to get licenses in their home state. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on October 4-5, 2013 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.

Read more about 68% Oppose Driver’s Licenses for Illegal Immigrants

About 300 people rallied in downtown Portland Saturday as part of a nationwide day of action to urge Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Immigrants, family members, farmworkers, union workers and others gathered at Director Park on a sun-drenched autumnal afternoon to urge lawmakers to keep families together by passing legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for more than 11 million undocumented residents.

Read the full article about amnesty and driver cards for illegal aliens.

  Read more about Hundreds rally in Portland to urge Congress to overhaul immigration policies

SALEM -- Opponents to a new law granting driving privileges to Oregonians who can't prove their legal presence submitted 59,923 signatures to the Oregon Secretary of State's office Thursday afternoon and said another 16,000 signatures would be submitted Friday.

Referendum organizers with Oregonians for Immigration Reform and Protect Oregon Driver Licenses must submit 58,142 valid signatures by 5 p.m. Friday to qualify the referendum.
 

Read the entire article about the referendum. Read more about Driver cards opponents submit 60,000 signatures, say 16,000 more coming Friday

Fast action on Saturday by Cornelius Police resulted in the arrest of two robbery suspects.

At 7:12 a.m. on Sept. 14, police responded to a bus stop at 10th Avenue and Baseline Street where a man had been robbed. The victim told police a man and woman had walked up to him and displayed a homemade weapon, which appeared to be a sock filled with gravel.

Read more.
 

Christina Vasquez - ICE HOLD

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A man has been charged by a Marion County Grand Jury indictment in the Aug. 4 stabbing of a man in Woodburn.

According to the Marion County District Attorney’s Office, Woodburn Police found Pedro Bravo-Luna on James Street in Woodburn after he was stabbed. Bravo-Luna was taken to the hospital but he died later of his injuries.

Four people were arrested on Aug. 7 and taken into Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement on unrelated charges.

After an investigation by Woodburn Police and the Marion County Homicide Assault Response Team, a Marion County Grand Jury convened and issued an indictment against one of the men arrested on Aug. 7, Mateo Torres Morales, for the murder of Bravo-Luna.

On Monday, detectives brought Torres from ICE custody to the Marion County Jail where he was arraigned on the indictment and held without bail, the district attorney said in a press release.

The same Grand Jury issued an indictment against Juan Torre-Santizo for attempted murder, attempted assault and unlawful use of a weapon against Antonio Segundo, a friend to Bravo-Luna.

  Read more about Man charged in Woodburn homicide

MADRAS, Ore. - Signs, flags, chants and drums -- the classic parts of a rally. Dozens of Central Oregonians set the beat on Sunday to begin a three-day, 42-mile walk and send a message to Rep. Greg Walden and the rest of America.

It's a march from Madras to Bend, demanding change to immigration laws.

"This is urgent, because every day, over 1,000 people are being deported," said Central Oregon Causa community organizer Greg Delgado.

For 31-year-old undocumented Bend resident Gerardo Zuniga, the message behind the walk hits close to home.

"If my family members were to be deported, that would tear the family apart," Zuniga said. "The kids, especially my little brother, would be stuck here."

It's called the "Walk for Citizenship," led by Causa, a statewide organization supporting Latino immigrant rights.

The group is headed south along Highway 97 for three days, stopping in Culver, Redmond, and finally ending the march at Walden's office in Bend.

"We need to really partner up with our Republican delegates, and make sure they are with us on this issue, because we know they're going to be important deciders for what happens, and we know he (Walden) is a key voice," said Causa Director of Civic Engagement Reyna Lopez.

Currently, Zuniga is going through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals--also known as DACA -- a memorandum signed by President Obama last year, allowing undocumented residents who came to the U.S. as children and are now pursuing education or military service to legally obtain work in the U.S.

Still. he says there's always a cloud of fear and uncertainty hanging over his family.

"My mom can't drive around," Zuniga said. "And my dad's the only one who has a license, currently. If my mom was to drive and get pulled over, she would be detained and be deported. It's a hard situation to be in."

That's the life for thousands of undocumented Central Oregonians, millions in the U.S., and a couple dozen people sporting butterflies in their walk across the High Desert.

"(Our symbol is) a migrant butterfly,"Delgado said. "The monarch butterfly is a symbol of migration -- that is natural to our human race, and it's just a beautiful symbol for us." Read more about C. Oregonians stage march for immigration reform

A man accused of killing his wife and hiding her remains in remote Marion County was formally charged Friday with murder and abuse of a corpse.

The charges against Gustavo Villanueva Gutierrez stem from a September 2012 incident in which human remains were discovered by a Mill City hunter while he was hunting adjacent to Niagara Heights Road, about four miles east of Gates.

The remains were identified as those of Gutierrez’s wife, Maribel Gutierrez-Salinas, 39. They lived in Tualatin.

Gutierrez-Salinas was last seen in February 2011, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System website.

Gutierrez, 42, was arrested in Laredo, Texas, on Aug. 26 after a Marion County grand jury handed up a secret indictment with his charges.

The Laredo Morning Times described him as a truck driver who was operating an 18-wheeler when local authorities pulled him over near Interstate 35 in North Laredo.

He was extradited to Oregon to stand trial. He is lodged in the Marion County jail without bail and is next scheduled to appear in court Sept. 29.

Gustavo Villanueva Gutierrez - ICE HOLD

  Read more about Marion County: Husband charged with murder, abuse of wife's corpse

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - After years of setbacks, Democratic lawmakers and Latino activists are on the verge of seeing immigrants who are in the country illegally granted the right to a driver's license in California. Read the full story.
  Read more about Legislature OK's driver's licenses for immigrants who are in the country illegally