THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 2017
COUNTY FAIR
7A
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
People wait in line for the ferris wheel at the Clatsop County Fair in Astoria last week. The fair ended Saturday. More photos online at DailyAstorian.com
Chicago files federal lawsuit
over sanctuary cities threat
By MICHAEL TARM and
SOPHIA TAREEN
Associated Press
CHICAGO — Mayor
Rahm Emanuel has taken his
fight against President Donald
Trump’s immigration policies
to court, with Chicago becom-
ing one of the first cities today
to sue the government over
what many U.S. cities argue
are illegal bids to withhold pub-
lic safety grants from so-called
sanctuary cities.
The 46-page lawsuit was
filed in U.S. District Court in
Chicago, a day after Emanuel
announced the litigation and
said the city won’t “be black-
mailed” into changing its values
as a welcoming city. He argued
it’s unconstitutional for a city
“to be coerced on a policy.”
A first order of business
now that the suit has been filed
will be to ask a judge to put a
freeze on the policy at least
until the civil case plays out,
said Edward Siskel, the head
of City Hall’s legal depart-
ment. That request for a prelim-
inary injunction could be made
within days.
Chicago officials say there
are new qualifications for a
grant that requires cities to
share information with U.S.
immigration authorities, which
they allege are unconstitutional.
Chicago has received the grant
funds since 2005, including
$2.3 million last year. They
were used for buying police
vehicles, radios and SWAT
equipment.
“These new conditions —
which would give federal offi-
cials the power to enter city
facilities and interrogate arrest-
ees at will and would force the
City to detain individuals lon-
ger than justified by proba-
ble cause, solely to permit fed-
eral officials to investigate their
immigration status — are unau-
thorized and unconstitutional,”
the complaint read. “These
new conditions also fly in the
face of longstanding City pol-
icy that promotes cooperation
between local law enforcement
and immigrant communities,
ensures access to essential city
services for all residents, and
makes all Chicagoans safer.”
Those grant amounts of
money are relatively small, but
Chicago leaders say they fear
more impactful restrictions
could be coming and so they
hope to establish in court that
such government measures are
illegal.
It is the latest round in a bat-
tle between several major U.S.
cities that opt to limit cooper-
ation with federal government
efforts to enforce immigration
law and the Trump adminis-
tration, with federal officials
threatening for months to with-
hold funding for sanctuary cit-
ies, saying they don’t comply
with federal laws.
Last month, Attorney Gen-
eral Jeff Sessions said local
governments would lose the
money if they do not give
advance notice when immi-
grants in the country illegally
are about to be released from
custody. He also wants immi-
gration agents to have access
to local jails. He has argued
that the policy makes everyone
safer.
Chicago has been a sanctu-
ary city since the 1980s, beef-
ing up its policies in the past
decade, particularly since
Trump took office.
The city prohibits police
from providing federal Immi-
gration and Customs officials
access to people in police cus-
tody, unless they are wanted
on a criminal warrant or have
serious criminal convictions.
Local police are also barred
from allowing ICE agents to
use their facilities for inter-
views or investigations and
from responding to ICE inqui-
ries or talking to ICE officials
about a person’s custody status
or release date.
Authorities contend the pol-
icy helps encourage residents
of the immigrant community
to inform police when they are
victims of crimes.
The lawsuit, which names
Sessions, seeks to remove the
immigration-related conditions
for the grant applications.
When asked for comment
about the lawsuit, the Depart-
ment of Justice spokesman
directed The Associated Press
to Sessions’ previous com-
ments, including those saying
sanctuary cities threaten safety.
“It’s especially tragic that
the mayor is less concerned
with that staggering figure than
he is spending time and tax-
payer money protecting crim-
inal aliens and putting Chica-
go’s law enforcement at greater
risk,” said department spokes-
man Ian D. Prior in an email.
Emanuel and other city lead-
ers have rejected that the city’s
policies protect immigrants
with criminal records who are
living in the U.S. without legal
permission.
Port: Process could take up to six months
Crab: Bill ‘brings
some stability’
Continued from Page 1A
managed solely by the states
instead of coming under fed-
eral oversight. The bill per-
manently extends the agree-
ment with the states to
cooperatively manage the
fishery in federal waters.
Previously, the states had to
routinely extend the agree-
ment. The most recent ver-
sion expired in 2016 without
a replacement.
“We were lucky that our
fishermen continued to honor
the spirit of the rule,” said
Dan Ayres, coastal shellfish
manager with the Washing-
ton Department of Fish and
Wildlife, about the recent
season.
“What it does is it brings
some stability to the crab
fishery on the West Coast
that was uncertain as long
as the management struc-
ture was subject to change,”
said Dale Beasley, president
of the Coalition of Coastal
Fisheries and of the Colum-
bia River Crab Fisherman’s
Association.
Under the tri-state agree-
ment, state fishery manag-
ers have been able to quickly
adjust to the cyclical nature
of the crab fishery, Beasley
said. Crab populations can
vary greatly, sometimes from
season to season.
“This is a historic event
for the coastal communities
that depend on crab,” Beas-
ley added. “It really is. I don’t
think people realize how
important this is to sustain
our coastal communities.”
Beasley worked to keep
the bill in front of legisla-
tors, traveling to Washing-
ton, D.C., himself to rep-
resent the West Coast and
testify at a House hearing in
2015, and now the fishery
will fall squarely under state
management.
He and Ayres say they are
relived the bill passed and
will be, as far as anyone can
tell, signed into law soon.
Without that tri-state plan in
place, Ayres said, “it could
really get sticky if we didn’t
have authority over what
goes on.”
Beasley believes the bill
passed in large part because
of the bipartisan champi-
ons it found in U.S. Rep.
Jaime Rep. Herrera Beutler,
R-Washington, in the House
of Representatives and Can-
twell in the Senate.
Oregon commercial fish-
ermen harvest an average of
14 million pounds of crab
each season. Washington
state harvests an average of
9.5 million pounds each sea-
son. Cantwell’s office esti-
mates that, in Washington,
the harvest brings $61 mil-
lion into the state’s economy
annually and supports more
than 60,000 maritime jobs.
Continued from Page 1A
Starr: Often speaks
at school assemblies
“The intent is to get the air-
craft as close to the runway as
possible,” Kobes said, adding
something as small as 30 feet
can make a difference to an
incoming aircraft.
Kobes said airport stake-
holders have been in discus-
sion on the issue for about a
year. A subcommittee of the
airport committee was formed
to tackle the issue, includ-
ing pilots from the U.S. Coast
Guard, U.S. Army and Life
Flight Network. The subcom-
mittee members will soon
bring the issue before the War-
renton City Commission and
seek referral to staff. Kobes
said the process could take up
to six months.
Continued from Page 1A
progressively trusted him to
help them in those efforts.
“I proved it, so they just
let you go in and do it,” Starr
said. “They know that we
know what we’re doing.”
‘Messy wreck’
Airport industrial
The airport falls under a gen-
eral industrial zone in Warren-
ton’s city code, which allows
for airport support structures
such as hangars, weather sta-
tions, fuel terminals and stor-
age buildings. The code also
allows for conditional uses
such as runway extensions and
relocations. The zone prohib-
its uses that interfere with elec-
tricity or lighting at the airport.
The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria will seek changes to Warrenton’s zoning to protect the airspace
around the Astoria Regional Airport.
Kobes said the city’s zone
has a lot of similarities with the
Department of Aviation’s, but
“basically, there’s no enabling
language in there relative to
the day-to-day operations of
the airport.”
He said the safety zone is
also meant to avoid things like
trees growing around runways
and lights shining into the air-
port, which can affect military
pilots using night vision.
Warrenton Planning Direc-
tor Skip Urling said he’s not
prepared to comment on the
Port’s proposal. According to
Warrenton’s municipal code,
legislative text amendments
require “city decision-makers
to consider applicable compre-
hensive plan policies or provi-
sions.” The proposal would go
through the Warrenton Plan-
ning Commission and a pub-
lic hearing before the City
Commission.
The accident that most
sticks out in Starr’s mind
took place about 10 years
ago near Nicolai Mountain.
A man speeding down a hill
swerved and hit a woman
who was distracted by a
mobile electronic device.
The woman and her husband
— both visiting from Canada
— were killed, and her car
was completely wrecked.
“It was a very messy
wreck, and it affected a lot of
people,” Starr said.
Some of those people —
the woman’s family — vis-
ited him one day at his yard.
A Christian family, they were
hoping to access the car’s
CD player.
“They wanted to know
what mom and dad were lis-
tening to before they went to
heaven,” Starr said.
Starr often speaks at
school assemblies, such as
the Every 15 Minutes pro-
gram, about the dangers of
distracted driving. To illus-
trate his point, he often hauls
in wrecked vehicles he has
collected, including the one
that killed the Canadian cou-
ple 10 years ago.
“People were really
amazed at how bad this car
was,” he said. “I always
wanted to make it realistic.
I know it saved a few lives
just by talking to different
people.”
After nearly two decades
in the business, Starr’s new
profession continues to roll
along.
“I still enjoy people,
which is pretty amazing con-
sidering how demanding this
job is.”