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Saturday, January 27, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 11A
Oregon Dreamers heading to State of the Union
“Since I won’t be
attending the (State
of the Union), I’ll
be sending an Or-
egon ‘Dreamer’ in
my place to remind
Trump that these
are real people with
families and jobs,
who are vital to our
communities.”
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
When Donald Trump
gives his State of the Union
address, he’ll see the faces of
24-year-old Aldo Solano of
Portland and at least 25 other
“Dreamers” who could face
deportation without congres-
sional action.
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumen-
hauer, D-Oregon, was the
first member of the House to
announce he would boycott
the
president’s
annual
speech to the joint session of
Congress Jan. 30. Instead, he
is sending Solano.
Solano said he wants to
attend the event to advocate
for passage of immigration
reform that will protect
undocumented immigrants
who came to the country as
children and allow them to
legally work and study here.
“We need to be able to
share our stories in whatever
way possible and provide
more create more exposure
for this issue. This is just
another way to do it,” he said.
In a Facebook post Jan.
22, Blumenauer wrote that
he was frustrated by the lack
of progress in protecting
“Dreamers.”
“Since I won’t be
attending the (State of the
Union), I’ll be sending an
Oregon ‘Dreamer’ in my
place to remind Trump that
these are real people with
—Earl Blumenhauer,
U.S. Representative
for a better life. At the time,
his older brother was 8, and
his younger sister was less
than 1 year old. Both of his
siblings also are DACA
recipients.
He grew up and graduated
from Woodburn High School.
Like other DACA youth, he
has almost no memory of a
home other than the United
States.
“This is my home,” Solano
said. “There is nowhere else
for me to go.”
Citing his “America First”
theme, Trump announced in
September that his adminis-
tration would stop processing
new applications for DACA
but would renew permits for
anyone whose status expired
by March 2018. The latter
Pamplin Media Group
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, and DACA recipient Aldo Solano of Portland
speak to reporters at the congressman’s office in Northeast Portland, Friday. Solano
will represent Blumenauer at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
families and jobs, who are
vital to our communities.
They deserve certainty and
protection.”
Since then, at least 24
House Democrats plan to
bring or send “Dreamers” to
the event, according to ABC
News. That number includes
Oregon’s U.S. Reps. Suzanne
Bonamici, Peter DeFazio
and Kurt Schrader, the
Pamplin-EO Capital Bureau
has confirmed.
Oregon’s U.S. Sens. Jeff
Merkley and Ron Wyden
also plan to bring recipients
of the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals program
as guests to the speech, their
spokespeople said.
Solano said he is willing
take the risk of negative atten-
tion from the administration
to advocate for protecting the
800,000 DACA recipients
from deportation. More than
11,000 of them live in Oregon.
Ending DACA would cost
the state more than $605.6
million annually in loss of
gross domestic product,
according to the Center for
American Progress.
The program, established
in 2012 by President Barack
Obama, has allowed Solano
to legally work and attend
college in the country.
Solano studies at Portland
Community College and
works as the policy director
for the Oregon Latino Health
Coalition.
Solano’s parents, who
were agricultural migrant
workers, brought him at age
6 to the country from Mexico
provision was intended to
give Congress time to pass
DACA legislatively.
Attorney General Jeff
Sessions has said the open-
ended program was “an
unconstitutional exercise of
authority by the Executive
Branch.”
Without
congressional
action, DACA recipients face
deportation.
The Trump adminis-
tration’s immigration plan
released Jan. 25 limits
family-based immigration,
among other measures, in
exchange for preservation
of the DACA, according to
Bloomberg Politics.
It gives a 10- to 12-year
path to citizenship to about
1.8 million DACA recipients,
according to multiple news
reports.
But
Democrats
and
DACA recipients are wary of
the proposal.
Since Trump took office,
more than 2,000 of his
statements have been fact-
checked as either misleading
or “in some cases, outright
falsehoods,”
Blumenauer
said. “Words don’t seem to
matter.”
Solano said he has lost
trust in the president.
“It’s hard to wrap your
head around it because he’s
going to say something new
tomorrow,” Solano said.
“You just can’t honestly trust
anything that he says.”
Oregon marijuana racketeering lawsuit settled
Controversy likely
to continue with
new complaint
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Bureau
Rural landowners in
Oregon have settled a lawsuit
filed that accused their mari-
juana-growing neighbors of
violating federal anti-rack-
eteering law and reducing
property values.
However, the question of
whether Oregon marijuana
growers can be successfully
sued under the Rackeeter
Influenced and Corrupt
Organization Act may still be
answered, as a similar lawsuit
was recently filed against
another cannabis operation.
Last year, Rachel and Erin
McCart of Beavercreek filed a
RICO complaint against more
than 40 defendants involved
in medical marijuana produc-
tion, including landowners,
growers, retailers and a bank.
Apart from lowering the
value of their 11-acre prop-
erty, the McCarts claimed
that two nearby marijuana
operations attracted unwanted
visitors, increased traffic and
generated foul odors, among
other problems.
While
medical
and
recreational marijuana were
legalized by Oregon voters,
the plaintiffs claimed their
neighbors were still subject to
RICO because the substance
is illegal under federal law.
“Given the strict federal
prohibitions against each of
those purposes, defendants
knew these purposes could
only be accomplished via
a pattern of racketeering.
In furtherance of that goal,
defendants pooled their
resources and achieved
enterprise efficiency that no
one defendant could have
achieved individually,” the
complaint said.
The complaint was filed
on the heels of a ruling by
the 10th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals, which ruled
that RICO claims should be
allowed to proceed against a
Colorado marijuana opera-
tion.
With the large number
of defendants in the Oregon
case, initial procedural steps
took several months before
the defendants filed motions
to dismiss the complaint.
U.S. Magistrate Judge
John Acosta in Portland
had planned to take those
requests under advisement in
early 2018, but then stayed
proceedings in the case when
the parties notified him of a
pending settlement.
On Jan. 26, the judge
dismissed the case with
prejudice, meaning it can’t be
refiled, at the request of the
plaintiffs, “without an award
of fees or costs to any party.”
Rachel McCart, who is an
attorney, did not respond to
requests to comment on the
settlement deal.
Cliff Davidson, an attorney
for a landowner defendant,
said the dispute has been
resolved but he cannot discuss
the terms of the agreement.
In light of uncertainty
about marijuana enforcement
from the Trump administra-
tion, controversies over the
crop are bound to continue,
he said.
Under the Obama admin-
istration, the U.S. Justice
Department issued a memo-
randum allowing states to
regulate legalized marijuana
as long as they followed
certain parameters, such as
keeping it out of interstate
commerce.
However, the memo-
randum was withdrawn by
current U.S. Attorney General
Jeff Sessions, who has instead
directed federal prosecutors
to use their discretion in
pursuing criminal cases
against marijuana producers
BRIEFLY
OLCC triples penalties for
underage marijuana sales
PORTLAND (AP) — The state has
announced it will temporarily increase
penalties for those who unintentionally sell
marijuana to minors.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the
announcement was made Thursday by the
Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which
oversees the state’s recreational marijuana
industry.
It comes on the heels of a statewide sting
in December in which almost 20 percent of
state-licensed marijuana retailers sold pot to
customers under 21.
The commission’s executive director
Steve Marks called the results of the
operation “unacceptable.”
In response, the commission announced
it will triple penalties for those who sell
marijuana to minors unintentionally.
Those first-time offenders will now face
a 30-day license suspension or a fine of
$4,950. The previous penalty was a 10-day
license suspension or a $1,650 fine.
The temporary rule will take effect Friday
and remain in effect for six months.
Medford woman jailed on
child neglect charges
MEDFORD (AP) — Misdemeanor
neglect charges have been filed against an
Oregon woman whose children reportedly
put drug needles in their mouths while they
were left with strangers in a motel room.
Tisha Watson pleaded not guilty at her
arraignment earlier this month. The Mail
Tribune reports Watson was booked into
the Jackson County Jail. Bail was set at
$50,000.
In court documents, police said Watson
appeared unable to provide for the two
children, one of whom is a toddler. Police
said she admitted leaving the kids with a
stranger, and that they possibly ingested a
drug at a motel in downtown Medford.
Court records show Watson has a history
of arrests on accusations of driving under the
influence of intoxicants, drug possession and
driving while her license was suspended or
revoked.
Smith hires new
communication director
Jorden Payne, a senior at Eastern Oregon
University who will graduate with a degree
in communications this spring, will serve
as Rep. Greg Smith’s new communication
director.
Payne will handle media inquiries
and coordinate community and public
outreach for Smith’s office, according to
an announcement made Thursday. Smith
is serving in his ninth term representing
District 57 in the House of Representatives.
In a statement, Smith called Payne
passionate and motivated and said he will
make “a great asset to our legislative team.”
At EOU Payne is a student body senator
and was captain of the football team for the
2017 season.
A news release sent out on Wednesday by
EOU’s Small Business Development Center
also announced that Payne will serve as the
center’s office manager and communications
coordinator. Smith, in his private job running
a consulting business, is the director of
EOU’s Small Business Development Center,
which provides free confidential advising to
potential and current small business owners.
“I’m very excited to be a part of the
EOU SBDC and working with some great
co-workers. I’m looking forward to working
with clients that are looking to start or grow
their business,” Payne said in the release.
in states where it’s legal.
Alleging violations of the
federal RICO statute is an
attractive strategy for plain-
tiffs, since it allows them to
recover triple the amount of
damages as well as attorney
fees, said Davidson.
“If you’re a plaintiff, it’s
a good way to maximize the
damages you can recover,” he
said. “It’s troubling. It’s just
another form of shakedown.”
Ten rural landowners near
Lebanon filed a lawsuit last
month alleging RICO viola-
tions against seven neigh-
boring marijuana growers and
a mortgage company that had
loaned them money to buy
property.
The complaint claims the
defendants built a greenhouse
on the property and converted
other buildings to grow and
process the psychoactive
crop, in addition to cultivating
it outdoors in 2017.
Aside from odors, traffic
and noise, the marijuana
operation has reduced prop-
erty values due to concerns
about the potential for armed
robberies and other crime, the
complaint said.
Neighbors also fear for
their safety due to pit bull
guard dogs roaming loose
and an uncontrolled fire that
resulted from the burning of
marijuana debris, the plain-
tiffs claim.
Rachel McCart is repre-
senting the plaintiffs in the
new lawsuit, which has been
assigned to U.S. District
Judge Michael McShane in
Eugene.
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