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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (April 14, 2017)
News Page 4 Street Roots • April 14-20, 2017 A t right, demonstrators protest the Oregonians for Immigration Reform event at the Best Western in Salem, April 8. The event featured a speech by Jessica Vaughan with the Center for Imm igration Studies, which the Southern Policy Law Center has labeled a hate group. Below, Vaughan, shown here on a recent Fox News broadcast, is a regular on the channel, pushing fo r policies that target immigrants. Anti-immigrant ‘hate group' speaker met with protests in Salem, Portland Environmental, immigrant rights groups decry visit from Jessica Vaughan BY EMILY GREEN Their findings promote anti-immigrant S T A F F W R IT E R sentiment against undocumented and documented immigrants alike. efore they could make it inside a Salem That Oregonians for Immigration Reform Best Western for their general meeting would have a representative from this group at on April 8, Oregonians for Immigration its meeting, said Diane Goodwin, “is a further Reform members passed by protesters holding example of its white-nationalist connections.” up signs in support of immigrants. Goodwin is the communications director at Oregonians for Immigration Reform has been Basic Rights Oregon, which was just one of behind repeated campaigns to pass ballot many groups protesting the event. measures targeting immigrants. One of their The damage that Center for Immigration ongoing measure efforts would make Oregon an Studies causes is far-reaching, with much of its “English only” state, and another calls for misinformation going viral in online mandated use of E-Verify for all employment. conservative circles, often making it onto the The group was also behind the successful lips of politicians and Fox TV News pundits. defeat of Measure 88 in 2014, effectively One study from the think tank claimed the denying undocumented immigrants the ability Obama administration released 36,000 to obtain driver’s licenses. “criminal aliens.” Another claimed 72 terrorists But it wasn’t just the policy agenda of have come to the U.S. from the countries on Oregonians for Immigration Reform that Trump’s travel-ban list since 9/11. Both these protesters were in Salem to decry, they were reports, while loosely based on actual data, there to denounce its guest of honor: Jessica were widely debunked. Neither passed the Vaughan. She was met by protest again three days later Washington Post’s “Pinocchio Test” after prominent Republican party members repeated when she came to Portland’s Lewis & Clark their findings. college for a panel discussion closed to the But regardless of the Center’s reports public. inability to pass a basic fact check, fringe-media Vaughan is the policy director at a think tank outlets, such as Breitbart and TheBlaze, can’t based in Washington, D.C, that according to resist widely disseminating their xenophobic Southern Poverty Law Center, is nothing short clickbait findings as news. of a hate group in sheep’s clothing, “standing at “Her organization has spread a lot of the nexus of the American nativist movement.” misinformation about immigrants,” said Laura It’s called Center for Immigration Studies, Stevens of the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra and it earned the hate-group designation Club. Stevens is also the spokesperson for a because it publishes the works of white newly-formed environmental committee that nationalists and anti-Semitic authors. took the lead in organizing the Saturday It also releases fear-mongering “studies” and afternoon protest. “reports” full of cherry-picked and misleading “Our mission is to protect the planet for all information, many written by Vaughan herself. people, regardless of national origin,” said B Stevens. “The climate crisis is already creating climate refugees, and some are already coming to Oregon from the Pacific Islands.” She said the environmental committee, which includes Climate Solutions, 350 Salem, Oregon League of Conservation Voters and many others, were there to show that Oregonians for Immigration Reform do not represent true Oregon values. By 1 p.m., about 20 protesters had already gathered at the entrance to the parking lot of the Best Western Mill Creek Inn, where Oregonians for Immigration Reform’s general meeting was set to begin in one hour. As pick-up trucks and other vehicles carrying passengers - mostly senior citizens - poured in, many shook their heads and gave a thumbs down to protesters. One man gave them the bird. Many of the groups participating in the protest are members of One Oregon, a broad, statewide coalition that formed in the wake of Trump’s election to stand against anti immigrant and anti-Muslim policies and ballot measures. Its members include labor unions, immigrant rights groups, faith-based organizations and many other advocacy and nonprofit organizations, including Street Roots. But it was member environmental groups that took the lead on Saturday, marking the first time they’ve come together for immigrant rights. One reason environmental groups are taking a stand, said Stevens, is to call out Oregonians for Immigration Reform’s tactic of “greenwashing their message of bigotry by See PROTEST, page 5
