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OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, November 25, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Tip of the hat;
kick in the pants
A tip of the hat to everyone who slept in this morning, avoiding the
Black Friday crowds and especially those “sales events” that stretched
into Thanksgiving proper.
Although everyone appreciates a good deal, we should appreciate time
with friends and family even more.
That’s what holidays should always be about, and Thanksgiving
especially so. It’s one day a year we set aside to feel
grateful for the things we have — a mountain of
food on the table and the people who have chosen to
share in the gluttony of the meal. And the leftovers
— thank God for the leftovers, the best thing about
the day after Thanksgiving.
We shouldn’t exchange the pleasure of over-
indulgence for long lines in pitch-black parking
lots, nor hustling through department stores in a
competitive rush to save a few bucks. In addition, skipping that day allows
our family members and neighbors who work in retail to enjoy the holiday
too. Nothing like having to show up at work at 4 a.m. to impede on your
enjoyment of Thanksgiving.
Simply, our national slow-food holiday is more necessary than ever. That
rat race that precedes Christmas is right around the corner, but we should all
stand firm by keeping it away from our beloved Thanksgiving.
The shopping season will get here soon enough, and people should look
to support local businesses that circulate their dollars in the local area, and
allow their employees to spend their holiday with family and friends.
A tip of the hat, too, to all the people who volunteered at one of the
many free Thanksgiving Day meals in our area.
From Boardman to Hermiston to Pendleton and
places in between, there was no reason not to join
a community meal where everyone was welcome.
Lack of family or funds wasn’t an issue.
As we said above, spending Thanksgiving with
the ones you love is important. And if the ones you
love is the community at large — people who were
strangers just the day before — then you’re well on
your way to making this world a better place.
This community appreciates it, and you surely
made some people happy yesterday.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher
Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
Dealing with the death penalty
The Oregonian
F
ive years ago, former Gov. John
Kitzhaber made an announcement
that was as bold as it was
surprising: His voice shaking with
emotion, Kitzhaber declared that he
would not allow any executions to take
place as long as he was governor.
The decision immediately halted
the impending execution of death-row
inmate Gary Haugen, who had waived
his legal appeals to protest the justice
system. But it
was also meant
to kickstart
a statewide
conversation about
the legitimacy of
the death penalty
in Oregon, a
punishment so
rarely carried out
that only two of 63
people sentenced
to die since 1984 have been executed.
Both men, like Haugen, were volunteers.
But five years and a new governor
later, the debate Kitzhaber envisioned
hasn’t begun. Meanwhile, the death-
penalty machinery continues to run, with
prosecutors seeking death sentences,
juries granting them and the state
spending millions in legal challenges,
fighting for the right to execute someone
who most likely will never be executed.
Tuesday’s anniversary of the moratorium
marked yet another year of missed
opportunity.
There is, however, no better time than
now to start changing that trajectory.
Two studies, one by the Oregon Justice
Resource Center and one by Gov.
Kate Brown’s general counsel’s office,
provide some ammunition for doing so.
First is cost: The Oregon Justice
Resource Center, an anti-death penalty
legal-services nonprofit, funded a study
to quantify the cost of the death penalty
to taxpayers, although it captured only
some of the expenses.
But the data it gathered showed that
aggravated murder cases that resulted in
death sentences cost taxpayers almost
$1 million more than those that don’t,
as The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Tony
Hernandez reported. That’s not even
including the cost of housing them in
separate death-row quarters, a statistic
that the Department of Corrections
doesn’t split out from the overall prison
population.
The second piece comes from a report
compiled by Brown’s general counsel.
The report, which includes fascinating
accounts of the preparations state
officials undertook for Haugen’s planned
execution, detail significant legal,
medical and logistical issues if Oregon
were to resume executions. Among the
chief problems: Manufacturers of drugs
used in the lethal injection sequence are
no longer making them or selling them
to prisons.
All of this helps bolster the case for
having this discussion. And while Brown
has said she opposes the death penalty
and will continue the moratorium, she
hasn’t signaled
that she will
drive the debate
any further. Her
spokesman,
Bryan Hockaday,
said her priority
now is on the
state’s budget
and that she has
not identified
any legislative
priorities relating to the death penalty.
Certainly, the $1.7 billion budget
shortfall that the state faces is and should
be her primary focus. But the projected
deficit also highlights why she and other
leaders must move the death-penalty
debate forward. The state’s spending on
such prosecutions that seek a theoretical
punishment is the definition of wasting
taxpayer money.
A good start would be in getting our
arms around what we don’t know. For
example, Lewis & Clark Law School
professor Aliza Kaplan, who was one
of the authors of the report, notes that
prosecutors don’t tally the hours they
spend on a case.
The state could direct district
attorneys’ offices to start tracking their
time per case, just as lawyers in private
practice bill clients for their work.
Similarly, the Department of
Corrections could break out the
portion that it devotes to death-row
operations, which require more intensive
management or special arrangements
that aren’t in place for the general prison
population. The governor’s report, for
instance, noted that death-row inmates
generally aren’t allowed to leave their
cells to seek medical care, requiring that
medical staff visit inmates there each
week.
Getting better data is something both
supporters and opponents of capital
punishment should get behind. It simply
makes no sense to spend millions of
dollars on a system that doesn’t do what
it says it will do. It’s equally nonsensical
to refuse to even talk about it.
Five years after a
moratorium, Oregon
still hasn’t had a
conversation about
the death penalty.
OTHER VIEWS
Attorney General Jeff Sessions
is Democrats’ worst nightmare
resident-elect Trump’s transition
“forced local ICE offices to release of
team knew that nominating Jeff
thousands of deportable criminals,”
Sessions for Attorney General
Vaughan has noted, “including Eswin
would set off controversy. Democrats
Mejia, an illegal alien with prior
and their allies in the press have at
arrests who killed 21-year old Sarah
key times in the past called Sessions
Root in Omaha, Neb., while drag-
a racist — they’re now using the
racing drunk in January of this year.
Alabama senator’s full name, Jefferson
Like many of the 86,000 convicted
Beauregard Sessions III, to heighten
criminals released by ICE since 2013,
Byron
the Old South effect — and now, as
Mejia is now a fugitive but considered
York
they oppose Trump at nearly every
a ‘non-criminal,’ because he has yet
Comment
turn, they’ve turned to race again.
to be tried and convicted for Root’s
Here’s why the effort to stop
death.”
Sessions is likely to intensify as his
President Trump could throw PEP out
confirmation hearings near. Sessions is the
the window. And that would be just a start.
Senate’s highest-profile, most determined,
The Center for Immigration Studies has
and most knowledgeable opponent of
published a list of 79 Obama policies the new
comprehensive immigration reform.
administration could change without any
Democrats are particularly anxious about
action by Congress. (The list was compiled in
immigration because of the unusually tenuous April 2016, before anyone could know who
nature of President Obama’s policies on
the next president would be.) Among them:
the issue. Those policies can be undone
1) End the embargo on worksite
unilaterally, by the new president in some
enforcement. “Experience has shown
cases, and by the attorney general and head of that employers respond very quickly and
homeland security in other cases. There’s no
voluntarily implement compliance measures
need for congressional action — and no way
when there is an uptick in enforcement,”
for House or Senate Democrats to slow or stop Vaughan notes, “because they see the potential
it.
damage to their operations and public image
There are extensive, and in some cases,
for being caught and prosecuted.”
strict immigration laws on the books, passed
2) Restore ICE’s authority to make
by bipartisan majorities of Congress. Obama
expedited removals of illegal immigrants who
wanted Congress to change those laws.
are felons or who have recently crossed into
Congress declined. So Obama stopped
the United States.
enforcing provisions of the law that he did
3) Tighten requirements for H-1B visas,
not like. A new administration could simply
including banning such visas for low-salary,
resume enforcement of the law — a move
low-skill jobs, revoking visas that are followed
that by itself would bring a huge change to
by layoffs of American workers, and other
immigration practices in the United States. No measures.
congressional approval needed.
4) Stop suing states that take action to
There are laws providing for the
support immigration enforcement, and instead
deportation of people who entered the U.S.
support such enforcement. After Arizona’s
illegally. Laws providing for the deportation
famous SB 1070 law, Obama cracked down,
of people who entered the U.S. illegally and
arguing that the federal government has the
later committed crimes. Laws for enforcing
sole authority to enforce immigration law, and
immigration compliance at the worksite. Laws also to not enforce immigration law. President
for immigrants who have illegally overstayed
Trump could choose to enforce the law.
their visas for coming to the United States.
5) Force sanctuary cities to observe the law.
Laws requiring local governments to comply
Trump campaigned extensively on the subject
with federal immigration law. And more.
of sanctuary cities, mentioning San Francisco
Many of those laws have been loosened
murder victim Kate Steinle in many speeches.
or, in some cases, completely ignored
Attorney General Sessions could enforce an
by the Obama administration. A Trump
existing law, 8 USC 1373, which prohibits
administration would not need to ask
local communities from banning their officials
Congress to pass any new laws to deal with
from cooperating with federal immigration
illegal immigration.
authorities.
If there was a presidential order involved
Those are just a few of the things a Trump
in Obama’s non-enforcement, Trump could
administration, and an Attorney General
undo it, and if there were Justice Department
Sessions, could do using executive authority.
directives involved, Sessions could undo
It’s not hard to see why Democrats want to
them, and if there are Department of
stop them.
Homeland Security directives involved, the
Of course, Democrats on the Senate
still-to-be-nominated secretary could undo
Judiciary Committee, which will handle the
them.
Sessions nomination, cannot very well say to
“It will be possible for the Trump
the nominee: “I will not support you because
administration to dramatically increase
you might actually enforce the law.” So
enforcement of immigration laws by using
they need another basis on which to oppose
what is now on the books,” notes Jessica
Sessions. That’s where 30-plus year-old
Vaughan, director of policy studies at the
allegations come in.
Center for Immigration Studies, which
Republicans, with a narrow majority in the
advocates reducing immigration into the U.S.
Senate, should be able confirm their colleague,
One of the immediate changes would be
especially since soon-to-be-former Sen. Harry
Reid nuked the minority’s ability to filibuster
to get rid of Obama’s Priority Enforcement
executive branch nominations. But before that
Program, instituted in 2014.
Known as PEP, the program made it almost happens, look for the noise and the anger over
the Sessions nomination to increase. There’s
impossible for Immigration and Customs
too much at stake for Democrats to go along.
Enforcement to even begin deportation
■
proceedings until an illegal immigrant has
Byron York is chief political correspondent
been convicted of an aggravated felony or
for The Washington Examiner.
multiple misdemeanors. Obama’s policy
P