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East Oregonian
Friday, March 10, 2017
ICE criticizes Clatsop on immigration holds
Sheriff wants to help
but wary of lawsuits
By ERICK BENGEL
and JACK HEFFERNAN
EO Media Group
U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement has criticized Clatsop
County for not cooperating with the
federal agency’s requests to detain
undocumented immigrants.
On Tuesday, federal deportation
officers arrested a Mexican national
with prior criminal convictions,
including two for driving under the
influence of intoxicants, outside
Clatsop County Circuit Court in
Astoria after the man had appeared
for a matter related to a criminal
charge.
Explaining the incident to The
Daily Astorian, which had asked
about the arrest, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement said in a
statement: “Since Clatsop County
does not honor ICE detainers and
releases criminal aliens who pose
a potential public safety threat, and
because many of the agency’s arrest
targets provide false address infor-
mation, locating these individuals at
a courthouse is, in some instances,
the agency’s only likely means of
affecting their capture.”
Clatsop County Sheriff Tom
Bergin said, “I can’t believe they put
out a statement like that.”
The knock from Immigration and
Customs Enforcement illustrates the
tension between local law enforce-
ment agencies and the federal
government over immigration law.
Legal challenges and complaints
from human-rights advocates led
President Barack Obama to narrow
requests for ICE detainers at local
jails, but President Donald Trump
has taken a hard-line policy toward
deporting undocumented immi-
grants and wants more cooperation
from local law enforcement.
Bergin would like the sheriff’s
office, which oversees the county
jail, to work with Immigration and
Customs Enforcement. But Oregon
counties stepped back from ICE
detainers after a federal court ruling
in 2014.
Fourth Amendment
The U.S. District Court in Port-
land found that Clackamas County
had violated the Fourth Amendment
rights of a woman kept in custody
at the county jail in 2012 on an ICE
detainer to determine whether she
should be subject to deportation.
The woman had been arrested
for violating a domestic violence
restraining order, had pleaded guilty,
was sentenced, and was eligible
for release, but she stayed in jail
because of the ICE detainer until she
was released to deportation agents.
The Fourth Amendment protects
against unreasonable searches and
seizures — including detention —
without probable cause.
Clackamas County had argued
that it was following a federal
directive that was mandatory, but the
federal court ruled, and Immigration
and Customs Enforcement has
acknowledged, that ICE detainers
are not mandatory on local law
enforcement.
After the federal court ruling,
several county sheriffs announced
they would not honor requests for
ICE holds without a warrant or a
court order.
“Clatsop is not unique,” Virginia
Kice, an Immigration and Customs
Enforcement spokeswoman, said.
“All of the counties in Oregon don’t
honor ICE detainers. It’s just one of
the reasons we are utilizing leads
to go to the courthouse to make
arrests. We have to invest time and
resources.”
‘Kicking in the door’
Bergin said that if Immigration
and Customs Enforcement shows up
with “a warrant in their hands, we
will be the first ones kicking in the
door.”
But, without it, Clatsop County
could get embroiled in a lawsuit.
“Everybody’s getting sued by all
these left-wing liberal groups,” he
said.
“I would rather see every crim-
inal illegal alien removed from our
county, but at this time I have to
protect my guys,” he said.
“Now if we have a really, really
bad guy, my office is going to do
everything it can to make sure that
that person goes into custody, stays
in custody,” Bergin said.
Kice said Immigration and
Customs Enforcement would prefer
to make arrests at a secure envi-
ronment, such as a jail, rather than
outside courthouses. “It would be
safer for the bystanders, officers and
the detainee,” she said.
Courthouse arrest
The man arrested Tuesday had
been deported before, ICE’s state-
ment said. The agency’s deportation
officers “sought to arrest the man
outside the courthouse after earlier
efforts to locate him proved unsuc-
cessful.”
Immigration
and
Customs
Enforcement personnel determine
where and how to make arrests
“on a case-by-case basis, taking
into account all aspects of the
situation, including the prospective
target’s criminal history; safety
considerations; and any sensitivities
involving the arrest location,” the
agency wrote.
ICE often does not know where
suspects live, and many are not
regularly employed, Kice said.
“We’re dealing with individuals
who have a long criminal history
and who are savvy at avoiding law
enforcement,” she said.
Without providing specific
details, ICE agents informed the
Astoria Police Department of an
upcoming arrest in the city.
“ICE does call us occasionally to
tell us they are going to do something
somewhere,” Deputy Chief Eric
Halverson said. “Typically, plain-
clothes agents call us to let us know
they’ll be in our neighborhood.”
Sanctuary state
An Oregon law approved in 1987
prohibits state and local law enforce-
ment from using public money to
pursue and arrest people whose
only violation is that they are in the
United States illegally. The law does
not prevent law enforcement from
exchanging information with the
federal government on the immi-
gration status of people arrested for
crimes, or from making arrests on
warrants or court orders for criminal
violations of federal immigration
law.
In response to President Trump’s
immigration crackdown and threats
to withhold federal money from
so-called sanctuary cities and states,
Gov. Kate Brown in February issued
an executive order expanding the
law to apply to all state agencies.
COHO: Yakama Nation is working to restore MARIJUANA: Planning
commission approved
the species on the upper Columbia River
Thurman’s permit
Continued from 1A
it was an historic event, and
the culmination of decades of
work.
“It is a great honor to be
here and serve my people,”
said Quincy Ellenwood, a
member of the Nez Perce
Tribal Executive Committee.
“We do this for the love we
have of our culture.”
According to tribal esti-
mates, the number of coho that
used to return to the Grande
Ronde exceeded 20,000
adults in the late 1800s. Most
of those fish would migrate
into the Lostine and Wallowa
rivers, but by the 1980s a
combination of factors drove
the local population to extinc-
tion. Those factors included
overfishing, changes in the
habitat and introduction of
hydro dams on the main stem
of the Columbia and Snake
rivers.
Becky Johnson, who over-
sees tribal hatcheries for the
Nez Perce fisheries depart-
ment, said they received
funding from the Bonneville
Power Administration in
1988 to study how they could
reintroduce coho to the basin.
“Now, we’re in the process
of putting fish back to where
they used to be,” Johnson
said.
Once the adults return,
Johnson said they will collect
some to use as broodstock
to raise future generations of
hatchery-reared coho. Some
may return to spawn naturally
in the river.
The tribe, which co-man-
ages the fishery with ODFW,
first broached the subject in
1996. But Bruce Eddy, East
Region manager for ODFW,
said the agency was simply
too overwhelmed trying to
preserve chinook salmon and
steelhead, which had been
listed as threatened under the
Endangered Species Act.
Thursday’s reintroduction
of coho is not only a huge
accomplishment in its own
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Nez Perce tribal elder Charles Axtell, left, leads in a ceremonial song with tribal
members Neal Meshell and Quincy Ellenwood on Thursday east of Wallowa.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Dave Bronson, with the ODFW, and Bill Jackson, with
the Nez Perce tribal fisheries, prepare to release 40,000
coho salmon smolts for a fish transport truck on
Thursday east of Wallowa.
right, Eddy said, but goes to
show how far fish conser-
vation has come in recent
decades.
“We’re finally getting our
head above water,” Eddy
said. “It’s nice to be able to
spend time on something
other than chinook and
summer steelhead.”
Bringing coho back to
the Grande Ronde is just the
latest in a series of projects
carried out by Northwest
tribes across the Columbia
Basin. The Nez Perce also
maintains a coho program on
the Clearwater River in Idaho,
while the Yakama Nation is
working to restore the species
on the upper Columbia.
Both programs have
successfully rebuilt naturally
spawning coho populations,
which is what Johnson said
they ultimately hope to do on
the Lostine.
Aaron Penney, hatchery
complex manager for the
Nez Perce on the Clearwater
River, said he joined the
program as a college intern
to help restore lost fisheries.
Fishing is a big part of the
Nez Perce culture, he said,
and ties them to the land.
“Over the past 100 years,
we’ve seen places like the
Lostine where the popula-
tions have declined or gone
extinct,” Penney said. “It’s
like losing part of your soul.”
Chuck Axtell, a tribal elder
and member of the Seven
Drums religion, led a series
of prayers and songs to bless
the fish on their way to the
ocean and back. As an elder,
he said it is a blessing to see
those fish come back.
“The animals, they are us.
They are our people,” Axtell
said. “We take care of each
other.”
———
Contact George Plaven at
gplaven@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0825.
juana business owners
— three other recreational
marijuana stores are in the
process of trying to open
stores.
Kind Leaf is located at
1733 S.W. Court Ave.
Bryson Thurman is
finding the path toward
opening his own marijuana
shop a lot more onerous
than Kind Leaf did.
Having applied for a
conditional use permit to
build Thur’s Smoke Shop,
recreational cannabis store,
at 1292 S.W. Tutuilla
Road, Thurman faced a
second Pendleton Planning
Commission meeting with
vocal criticism of the shop
from local property owners.
The
commission
approved
Thurman’s
permit, but not before
hearing an hour of testi-
mony from the audience
that mostly questioned
Thur’s proximity to a bus
stop and neighborhood
children as well as its
propensity to attract traffic
to the area.
At least 25 people
testified against Thur’s,
compared to the two people
in addition to the applicant
who voiced their support for
the store. But Thurman was
able to utilize something his
opposition couldn’t — an
attorney.
Corinne Celko of the
Emerge Law Group, a Port-
land firm that specializes
in marijuana law, provided
most of the arguments on
Thurman’s behalf.
Celko said Thurman
had complied with all of
the aspects of state and city
law and even went beyond
by agreeing to put fencing
around his shop, designing
a sign without any mari-
juana imagery or references
and reducing his hours of
operation.
“We’re supporting
the wrong thing
here, in putting the
kids out and having
a negative effect on
them, forcing them
to change their lives
to allow this, and
that’s wrong.”
— Mark Parm, Midco
manager, on moving the
bus stop from the area
Celko’s arguments didn’t
convince his opposition,
which mainly consisted of
nearby property owners, the
Pendleton School District
and Mid Columbia Bus Co.
Midco manager Mark
Parm said moving the bus
stop away from the area to
accommodate Thur’s would
send the wrong message in
a city with declining school
enrollment.
“We’re supporting the
wrong thing here, in putting
the kids out and having a
negative effect on them,
forcing them to change
their lives to allow this, and
that’s wrong,” he said.
After
the
public
comment period closed, the
commission voted 4-1 to
approve Thurman’s permit,
with commissioner Vincent
Papol voting against and
commissioners
Terry
Clarke and Ryan DeGrofft
absent.
Despite his success with
the commission, Thurman
may not be out of the woods
yet. Those who testified
against Thur’s can appeal
the commission’s decision
to the Pendleton City
Council within 14 days of
the meeting.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
DOOLITTLE: Attendees that donate $250 can ride the B-25 bomber
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A bust of Lt. Gen. James Doolittle is
on display at the Oregon National
Guard facility in Pendleton.
“It takes a special kind of
bravery to know that you’re not
coming back to safety,” Borboa
said about the Doolittle mission.
Borboa is a staff sergeant
with the Oregon National Guard
3-116 CAV Battalion based in La
Grande and is the unit’s public
affairs representative.
Over the course of his
research, Borboa also learned that
the 3-116 is in the same brigade
as the Bravo Company, 168 Avia-
tion Regiment, which occupies
the Pendleton National Guard
Armory.
These connections spurred
Borboa to begin planning an event
to commemorate the Doolittle
Raiders in Pendleton, originally
planned as a more intimate cere-
mony that involved 50 people.
When Borboa began making
calls to begin organizing the
event, it didn’t stay small for long.
“Every time we talked with
somebody, they told us, ‘I want to
be part of that,’” he said.
The Doolittle Raiders Gala is
now an all-day event celebrating
World War II veterans.
From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the
gala will be free to the public and
feature family-friendly activities
like a classic car show, historical
re-enactments, screenings of the
documentary “WWII in a Wild
West Town,” a B-25 bomber and
more.
There will be an official
military presentation and a laying
of the wreath for the Doolittle
Raiders from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets are required for the
dinner and show portion of the
gala, which Borboa promised
would be blend of an old-fash-
ioned USO show and interactive
entertainment.
“It’s going to be personal,” he
said. “It’s not going to be people
just sitting and clapping to the
show.”
Of the 80 men who were
involved in the raids, only one
veteran — 101-year-old Lt. Col.
Richard Cole of Texas — is alive
today.
Although Cole will be unable
to attend the gala, Borboa said
it does have support from the
American Legion, the Veterans
of Foreign Wars and the 555th
Parachute Infantry Association.
Members of each organization are
expected to attend.
The 555th, colloquially known
as the “Triple Nickles,” were an
all-black team of smoke jumpers
that responded to fires across
the West during World War II
and spent six months training in
Pendleton.
While the gala is a one-day
tribute to Pendleton’s role in
World War II, the Pendleton
Air Museum wants to make that
tribute permanent.
Proceeds from the event will
go toward the museum, which is
looking to find a permanent home
for its collection.
Becky Dunlap is the owner of
Airport Antiques and a member of
the Pendleton Air Museum board.
Dunlap said visitors often visit
her store, itself a converted air
base mess hall, often ask if there’s
a museum to visit at the Eastern
Oregon Airport or at the armory.
Dunlap pointed to a World War
II-era uniform hanging in her
store and said that the museum
had no place to properly display
it.
Gala visitors will get their
chance to contribute to Pendleton
Air Museum cause.
While the museum will accept
donations throughout the event,
attendees that donate $250 can
ride on the B-25 bomber.
Dinner tickets can be bought
at brownpapertickets.com or in
person at Community Bank’s
Pendleton branch.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com or
541-966-0836.