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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