What you need to know about 2018 Oregon Ballot Measure 105

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Vote YES – to REPEAL Oregon Sanctuary Law! Listen to a 30 second explanation of Measure 105.

Important facts about Oregon Measure 105 and Sanctuary policy

In Oregon

• Measure 105 is not about racial profiling, or about fear of the police, or about legal immigrants. It is about allowing state and local law enforcement officers to more easily work with federal immigration authorities in the removal of criminal illegal aliens from our communities.
   
• Oregon's sanctuary status declaration directly contravenes federal immigration law and threatens public safety. It prevents local and state law enforcement from interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This has put many sheriffs in the position of choosing whether to violate state or federal law. It's an untenable position.
   
• "I can honestly say that I have never witnessed an instance of racial profiling from any of my deputies.
  They serve and protect all who need assistance regardless of race, origin or creed." - Sheriff Tom Bergin.
   
• Enforcing immigration laws is not a matter of race. All races are equally subject to enforcement of American laws. Suggesting that enforcing immigration laws is racist is often the only argument open borders advocates have.
   
• The safety of Oregonians should take precedence over the act of shielding illegal aliens from law enforcement.
   
• It is unfair to Oregon workers to protect illegal aliens.
   
• 

  A recent FAIR study confirms the fiscal burden of illegal immigration on Oregon:¹
   
  An estimated 146,000 illegal aliens live in Oregon.
   
  Their roughly 50,000 U.S.-born children do, too.
   
  Illegal alien households add 58,000 students to local schools.
   
  The average cost to Oregonians is $6,238 per illegal alien!
   
  Taxpayers support $621 million for education, $143 million for police, legal, and corrections, plus health care and general government services expenses.
   
  Illegal immigration cost Oregon taxpayers $1.22 billion in 2017.
   
  This amounts to a burden of $789 per household headed by a U.S. citizen.
   

• 

    Read important endorser letters
              View a larger image

  18 Oregon Sheriffs have endorsed Measure 105. The Western States Sheriffs Association has endorsed Measure 105 - 16 western states, including Oregon, California, and Washington.

National facts on Sanctuary policies

• In 2013, the estimated costs of illegal immigration nationally totaled over $113 billion, with $84 billion being absorbed by state and local taxpayers (this estimate includes taxpayer money contributed by illegal alien workers).³ Some states bear more of the weight than others, often due to sanctuary policies.
   
• A Center for Immigration Studies review of these ICE records revealed that roughly 340 jurisdictions across the nation have some form of sanctuary policy (i.e. refused to honor ICE detainer requests or otherwise obstructed federal immigration officials).³ The ICE data further revealed:
   
  Between January 1, 2014 and September 30, 2014, sanctuary jurisdictions released 9,295
  aliens that ICE had sought to remove.
   
  Of those 9,295 aliens, nearly 6,000 had significant prior criminal histories or other public
  safety concerns.
   
  Of those with a prior history of concern, 58 percent had prior felony charges or convictions.
   
  2,320 of the total number of released offenders were re-arrested within that 10-month
  period, and ICE has not been able to re-apprehend those individuals.
   
• Per FAIR's estimate, in 2017 state- and local-government expenses for education, health care, public assistance, law enforcement and corrections for illegal aliens and their children cost Oregon's taxpayers $1.22 billion - $789 per household headed by a U.S. citizen.¹
   
• There is no documented evidence indicating that any illegal alien has ever been deported solely as a result of reporting a crime or volunteering information to the police. Police do not inquire about the immigration status of victims or witnesses.
   
• Illegal aliens, without disclosing their identities, can easily report crimes via law-enforcement agencies' anonymous telephone and online "tip lines."
   
• The federal government administers a number of programs that allow state and local police to seek lawful status for illegal aliens who aid in the prosecution of criminals. If illegals provide helpful information to police, they may qualify for a "S," "T," "U" or "VAWA" non-immigrant visa.⁴
   
• Most illegal aliens don't cooperate with police, even in sanctuary cities.
   
• A recent FAIR study of foreign nationals incarcerated by states and localities - the great majority of whom are here illegally - found that "their share of the prison population was 50 percent higher than the prison share of natives."⁵ And their crimes are serious: In one recent month, three-quarters of the nearly 1,000 criminal aliens confined in Oregon prisons were in for homicide, assault, robbery, kidnapping, rape, sodomy and sex abuse.
   
• Sanctuary policies make communities less safe for everyone, including immigrants they are ostensibly designed to protect:
   
  According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 68 percent of released prisoners wind up being arrested for another criminal offense within three years and 76.6 percent end up being re-arrested within five years.⁴
   
  According to ICE estimates, roughly 2.1 million criminal aliens are currently living in the United States, over 1.9 million of whom are subject to deportation.⁴
   
  Criminal gangs, which prey indiscriminately on citizens and non-citizens alike, take advantage of sanctuary policies that protect them.
   
• In a country of 325 million containing perhaps 20 million or more illegal immigrants, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's interior enforcement-and-removal agents number only a few thousand - 5,800 in fiscal year 2016 and is barely more than that today.^6,7
   
  State and local law enforcement are much more likely to encounter criminal illegal aliens than are federal ICE agents. That means, given current estimates, illegal aliens outnumber ICE agents by 2,000 to 1. Thus, state and local law enforcement is a vast potential force multiplier in immigration law enforcement.
   
• In the United States today, immigration is the primary cause of national population growth. Census Bureau projections show that America's population will increase from 325.5 million in 2017 to 403.7 million in 2060. That's a staggering a 78.2 million (24%) increase in just four decades.
   
  If there were no net immigration, U.S. population would still be 3.4 million larger in 2060 than it is today. Therefore, 74.8 million or about 96% of the projected increase in the U.S. population by 2060 will be due to future immigration.⁸
  
   

Why Oregonians should repeal the state's Sanctuary law

Oregon's Sanctuary law - Oregon Revised Statute 181A.820 reads - in part:

The law perpetuates the idea that illegal entry, by itself, is a low-tier crime unworthy of police and sheriffs' attention. It works to normalize and legitimize illegal immigration. Attorney Charles Smith writes: "The routine violation of immigration law within the interior of the country breeds contempt for the law in general, for the institutions of the United States, and, ultimately, for the United States itself." When elected officials force police and sheriffs to turn a blind eye to immigration violations, they compound that contempt.

The law handcuffs police and sheriffs in their ability to fulfill their primary responsibility: protecting those within their jurisdictions from crime. People who willingly violate laws pertaining to a nation's very sovereignty will be prone to break and undermine other of its laws as well.

Illegal entry is a precursor to other crimes - crimes that harm everyday Oregonians. For one, illegal entry precedes unlawful employment, via which illegal immigrants get and keep jobs that Oregonians - especially the lower-skilled among them - need.

As well, writes public-policy analyst Marti Dinerstein, illegal aliens "routinely commit crimes related to their illegal status. These include fraudulently obtaining U.S. birth certificates, Social Security numbers and driver's licenses."

Statistics support the contention that illegal aliens commit disproportionate crime: a recent Federation for American Immigration Reform study of foreign nationals incarcerated by states and localities - the great majority of whom are here illegally - "found that their share of the prison population was 50 percent higher than the prison share of natives."

Illegal aliens and their children drain Oregonians' pocketbooks. Per FAIR's estimate:

in 2017 state- and local-government expenses for education, health care, public assistance, law enforcement and corrections for illegal aliens and their children cost Oregon's taxpayers $1.22 billion -- $789 per household headed by a U.S. citizen.

All this spending on behalf of illegal immigrants and their children means less money available for, among other vital public services, police departments and sheriffs' offices. Notes FAIR: "By giving [illegal aliens] a place to live and work where they can go undetected, sanctuary policies encourage further illegal immigration that only serves to increase these costs."

"The authority of local and state law enforcement to enforce immigration law is an inherent power of local and state jurisdictions," notes Smith. In United States v. Vasquez-Alvarez (1999), the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals recognized what it called the "pre-existing general authority of state or local police officers to investigate and make arrests for violations of federal law, including immigration laws." In United States v. Santana-Garcia (2001), the same court affirmed that federal law "evinces a clear invitation from Congress for state and local agencies to participate in the process of enforcing federal immigration laws."

To the detriment of Oregonians' safety, ORS 181A.820 circumscribes Oregon police and sheriffs' "inherent power" and "pre-existing general authority," and negates Congress' "clear invitation" to them, to enforce immigration law.

In summary: Illegal immigration, though a federal offense, harms Oregonians at the local level - the level at which police and sheriffs work. Oregon police and sheriffs must stop sheltering criminal aliens, stop ignoring ICE detainment requests, and stop claiming ICE should first go to court and "get a warrant." Those are stalling devices serving only to legitimize illegal immigration, debase citizenship, endanger citizens, and threaten the sovereignty of our nation.

Local police and sheriffs should be able to cooperate seamlessly with federal authorities on immigration issues as they already do on other federal-state issues.

References and Data on Sanctuary Cities and Mass Immigration

Learn more:

• FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about Stop Oregon Sanctuaries Measure 105
   
• What Makes Oregon a Sanctuary state?
   
• Multimedia about Stop Oregon Sanctuaries Measure 105
   
• Important Measure 105 endorser letters
   
• Graphic: The fiscal burden of illegal immigration on Oregon, FAIR. Print this one-page sheet
   
• Sanctuary Policy is Bad Public Policy, FAIR. Print this one-page sheet
   
• Arguments in favor of Ballot Measure 105 - Oregon Secretary of State Voters' Pamphlet, Oregon General Election 2018.
  Navigate to: Measures -> Measure 105 -> Arguments in Favor
   
• References and data on Sanctuary Cities and Mass Immigration, Stop Oregon Sanctuaries
   
• References on sanctuary policies for illegal aliens, Oregonians for Immigration Reform

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