BY CORINNE BOYER
‘ANTI-SANCTUARY’ LEGISLATION BREWING
IN OREGON
Bill not expected to receive hearing, but petition for ballot measure underway
ouse Bill 2921 would repeal Oregon’s sanctuary state law and
mandate that Oregon law enforcement agencies assist in fed-
eral immigration enforcement. The bill would also prohibit
cities and counties from establishing sanctuary protections.
But Rep. Mike Nearman, a Republican from Indepen-
dence, who is one of the bill’s chief sponsors, says he doesn’t expect
HB 2921 to receive a hearing, instead Nearing is working on a petition
to make the repeal a ballot measure to put before the voters in 2018.
Nearman says he doesn’t like that the state’s sanctuary law prohibits
Oregon law officers from enforcing federal immigration laws. “I think
that we just need to be able to enforce the laws just for their own sake
just because we don’t need illegal people running around our country,”
he tells Eugene Weekly.
Meanwhile, on March 13, the Eugene City Council voted unani-
mously to adopt a sanctuary-type ordinance to protect immigrants and
Eugene residents. The “Protections for Individuals” ordinance prohib-
its city staff and operations from utilizing “city resources for purposes
of enforcing federal immigration law unless related to a criminal of-
fense,” according to a city news release.
Eugene Human Rights Commission Chair Ken Neubeck says the
ordinance was passed in case any changes — such as the ones Near-
man proposes — are made to the state’s sanctuary law. “This is an
ordinance, not a resolution, resolutions are much less powerful and or-
dinances are permanent.”
H
pay $1 billion per year for “illegal aliens and their children,” and
cites one of its own prior studies. One resource listed in the study
cites “constitutional scholars” without listing any names.
FAIR is designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty
Law Center. FAIR’s founder John Tanton corresponded with a
FAIR donor suggesting that she “read the work of a radical anti-
Semitic professor — to ‘give you a new understanding of the
Jewish outlook on life’ — and suggested that the entire FAIR
board discuss the professor’s theories on the Jews,” according
to the SPLC.
SPLC has documented more than twenty years of Tanton’s
ties with “Holocaust deniers, a former Klan lawyer and leading
white nationalist thinkers, including Jared Taylor (who wrote in
2005, ‘When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, West-
ern civilization — any kind of civilization — disappears’).”
Asked if Nearman knew about FAIR being a designated hate
group, he replied, “I don’t put much stock in the Southern Pov-
erty Law Center. The bar to being designated as a hate group is
pretty low for them. I stand by my data.”
Nearman adds that Oregon needs guest workers. “I’m a soft-
ware engineer by trade, so my last job, we had people who were
in some status of legal-ness working, but they weren’t citizens
or anything like that, and that’s fine,” he says. “We do that as we
have needs and as we can vet people.”
‘I don’t put much stock in the Southern Poverty
Law Center. The bar to being designated as a
hate group is pretty low for them.’
— O R E G O N S TAT E R E P. M I K E N E A R M A N
The ordinance, which goes into effect 30 days after the vote, in-
cludes a provision that forbids the city from tracking people’s po-
litical, social, religious activities. Neubeck says this is a preventative
measure in case the federal government attempts to create a registry.
Nearman says states should be “responsible for everything they
can possibly be responsible for.” The framers of the Constitution “en-
visioned a federal government that had limited powers and every-
thing else was left to the people,” he adds.
Contrary to the small-government ideology of the Republican
Party, relinquishing the state’s sanctuary law would give more power
to the federal government. Section two of the proposed bill states:
“A law enforcement agency of the state of Oregon or of any political
subdivision of the state may use agency moneys, equipment or per-
sonnel 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.”
Illegal immigration, Nearman says, is a problem. “I think by some
estimates it costs the state of Oregon $1.2 billion a year for illegal
aliens,” he says. “I’m on the budget committee for my school dis-
trict, and we spend a lot of money to teach students who don’t speak
English.”
Nearman credits that estimate to “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal
Aliens on Oregonians,” a report published by the Federation for
American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The report claims Oregonians
Money is also a concern when relocating Syrian immigrants
to the U.S., according to Nearman, who suggests the federal gov-
ernment is spending 12 times as much bringing refugees to the
United States as it would cost to resettle them “somewhere in the
Middle East.”
On Feb. 15, Oregon House Majority Leader Jennifer William-
son released a statement saying she was “appalled” at the House
Republicans’ proposed legislation: “At a time when we should
be extending a hand of compassion to those fleeing violence or
hardship, HB 2921 would instead prevent the state or local com-
munities from choosing to protect their residents.”
Nearman and the bill’s only other sponsor, Rep. Sal Esquivel,
a Republican from Medford, are also pursuing a ballot initiative
on the issue. They gathered 1,346 signatures on Oct. 20, surpass-
ing the minimum requirement of 1,000 to get a ballot title. A
total of 88,184 signatures would be needed for the petition to be
placed on the ballot to be decided on by voters.
Nearman did not bring up the petition during an interview. An
additional request for a comment was not answered.
EW reached out to Rep. Sal Esquivel on Feb. 23. An unsigned
email from his account responded, “Thank you but at this time
Rep. Esquivel is not available for an interview with Eugene
Weekly.” A second email asking Esquivel once more for an inter-
view did not receive a response.
• Join 350 Eugene Thursday,
March 16, for a spring membership
potluck and meet-up at First United
Methodist Church, 1376 Olive Street.
Bring food to share at 6 pm. At 7 pm
the meet-up will include “campaign
updates, work group news, action
break outs, music and more,”
according to organizer Betzi Hitz, as
well as recruit people to help plan the
April 29 “March for a Climate of
Safety” in Eugene. Go to world.350.
org/eugene for more info.
• City Club of Eugene will host a
forum on Can Oregon Adapt to
Climate Change? noon, Friday, March
17, at the UO Academic Extension at
the Baker Center, 975 High Street.
Speakers are Kathy Dello, associate
director, Oregon Climate Change
Research Institute; Steve Adams,
director of urban resilience, Institute
for Sustainable Communities; and
Matt McRae, climate policy strategist
for Our Children’s Trust.
• The 232-mile Pacific Connector
liquefied natural gas pipeline that
many thought was canceled after the
Federal
Energy
Regulatory
Commission rejected it last March is
back in play. Concerned citizen (and
sometime EW outdoor columnist)
John Williams says he plans to attend
community meetings the project is
holding this month. “I’d love to know
how they are going to keep it from
blowing up if a stand-replacing fire
burns across an above-ground
section of it. Also, how are they going
to mitigate the thousands of acres of
old growth they will be cutting?” he
asks. Open houses are 4 pm to 8 pm
Tuesday, March 21, The Mill Casino,
3201 Tremont Street, North Bend;
Wednesday, March 22, Seven
Feathers Casino, 146 Chief Miwaleta
Lane, Canyonville; Friday, March 24,
Oregon Institute of Technology, 3201
Campus Drive, Mount Mazama Room,
Klamath Falls.
INSTA
TWEETING
THE
GRAMS
TO YOUR
FACE
IN
CYBERSPACE
eugeneweekly.com • March 16, 2017
7