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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2019)
Hermiston lacrosse program seeks new home | SPORTS, A8 E O AST 143rd Year, No. 219 REGONIAN WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Rule change causing worry BACK TO SCHOOL GETTING UP TO SPEED Immigrant Oregonians fear signing up for social service programs By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE AND RACHEL ALEXANDER Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — A move by the federal government to restrict most legal immi- gration to those who can afford health care, housing and food on their own is sowing worry among Oregon immigrants, even those who will not be impacted by the rule, advocates say. “We have definitely seen fear, and confu- Rosenblum sion from our clients about the public charge rule,” said Beth Englander, a public benefits attorney with the Oregon Law Center. Last week, the Trump administration issued a rule saying that immigrants who use certain public benefits could have that counted against them if they are seeking legal status in the U.S. — a process that can take decades. Oregon and four other states have sued the Trump administration to block the rule, which is expected to take effect Oct. 15. “This cruel new rule punishes families for simply being immigrants,” said Ore- gon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum in a statement. “The rule will hit children and families across our state who need food and medical assistance the most.” There are many exceptions to the new rule, however. For example, the rule doesn’t apply to refugees or people seek- ing asylum. But, Englander said, she keeps hearing one phrase over and over — “it will come back to haunt me.” Even those immigrants who aren’t cov- ered by the rule fear that it could jeopar- dize them in unexpected ways, Englander said. “It’s very hard to allay people’s fears,” she said. Currently, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security considers whether an applicant for a green card will become “primarily” dependent on the government for income. Using programs such as cash assis- tance or long-term institutional care is taken into account, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. But under the new rule, an array of other benefits will be considered, such as public health care, nutrition programs and vouchers to help pay for housing. A public charge is defined in the new rule as a person receiving public benefits for 12 months or more in a 3-year period. In Oregon, the state’s health and human services agencies are publicizing See Immigrants, Page A7 Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Makenna Ramos reads through a portion of the Conscious Discipline training during a new teacher orientation on Tuesday. Ramos will be a kindergarten teacher at the Pendleton Early Learning Center this year. New Pendleton School District teachers take part in teacher orientation By ALEX CASTLE East Oregonian P ENDLETON — For the second consecutive year, the Pendleton School District will welcome a significant number of new teach- ers to its classrooms for the first day of school on Tuesday. After hiring a group of 17 new cer- tified staff that included seven teachers a year ago, several retirements and other departures led to the district hiring 34 new certified staff for the 2019-20 school year, 21 of which are teachers. In total, 27% of the district’s certified Staff photo by Ben Lonergan See School, Page A7 Josh McGraw, a kindergarten teacher at Pendleton Early Learning Center, teaches a lesson to the district’s new teachers during a new teacher orientation on Tuesday. The price of getting back to school Teachers, parents, schools preparing for school year, and it comes at a cost By JESSICA POLLARD East Oregonian UMATILLA COUNTY — From clothing to electron- ics, families with K-12 stu- dents are planning to spend a record average of $696.70 this year on back to school shopping according a sur- vey recently conducted by the National Retail Federation. Just a part of that is school supplies requested by districts, but the costs add up. A price-check of the Hermiston School District supply list reveals that parents could spend upward of $30 at Walmart sending a fifth- grader to school with every- thing on their school supplies list this year. Lists across the county tell a similar tale. It’s not a price everyone can pay, and an incoming kin- dergarten teacher at the Herm- iston School District, Celie Faircloth, knows this well. Faircloth previously taught in Ontario for the past seven years. When kids would show up without the supplies on their lists, she said, she’s found See Cost, Page A7 New fire chief makes first foray into Northwest Critchley spent three decades with Tucson Fire Department By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian PENDLETON — Jim Critchley has only been interim chief of the Pendleton Fire Department for about a week, but he’s already made a little bit of history. Critchley is the first chief to start his term at the new fire station at 1455 S.E. Court Ave. after taking over from for- mer interim Fire Chief Paul Berardi on Aug. 12. Like Berardi, Critchley spent his career in an entirely different region of the country before coming to Pendleton. In Critchley’s case, it was deep in the Southwest in the Tucson, Arizona, area, where he spent all but six months of his life prior to coming to Pendleton. Growing up in Arizona, his career ambitions weren’t aligned with being a fire- fighter, although his dream job still valued water. “I wanted to be a marine biologist, in the middle of the desert,” he said. His interests started to turn when he started attending col- lege and he realized that he might not be suited for the tra- ditional academic path. A few friends were get- ting into firefighting, and he decided to give it a try with a private firefighting company. Critchley was soon man- ning fire trucks by him- self, and he was attracted to move over to the public sec- tor when he saw the Tucson Fire Department responding to calls. “They get to bring friends on their truck,” he said. He joined the Tucson Fire Department in 1988, and by then, he already aspired to climb the ranks. Critchley said he was Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Interim Pendleton Fire Chief Jim Critchley is shown at the new See Chief, Page A7 Pendleton fire station Tuesday morning.
