News Articles, Op-eds, and Letters

I understand that the Keizer City Council is intending to pass a resolution opposing Measure 105 (which would repeal Oregon's sanctuary-state status).

I find it incredulous that the city council would assume the opinion of the entire citizenry of this city. Not long ago our state legislature assumed that the entire citizenry of the state was in favor of drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. How did that turn out? It was overturned through referendum by the people with a two-thirds "no" vote. .

I...

I’m going to vote yes on Measure 105, to end the Oregon sanctuary law.

The Legislature was greatly in error in not sending the sanctuary law to the voters in the first place, as it raises a statewide issue. It’s a law that ignores and conflicts with federal immigration law, so isn’t good for our country.

The quickest way for any society or country to deteriorate into chaos is to create conflict among laws at various levels of government. People ignore one set of laws, then another, and just wink at laws as they see fit. The result is the lawlessness you see in some...

The News-Register’s editorial of Sept. 28 rejects Measure 105, claiming, “It’s passage would turn back the clock three decades in Oregon.” But sometimes outdated laws need to be repealed to cope with changing conditions.

Few things in Oregon or the U.S. are today as they were in 1987. Today, the U.S. has millions of illegal aliens and struggles to control immigration. So Oregon should stop hampering cooperation between local law and federal law enforcement authorities.

Measure 105 does not turn police into ICE agents, as open-border advocates falsely charge. It just enables...

Many thanks for publishing Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin's spot-on commentary ("Measure 105 would restore respect for law," Sept. 20).

Oregon's sanctuary law, writes Sheriff Bergin, undermines respect for law by telling illegal immigrants "that Oregon considers immigration-law violations so inconsequential as to be unworthy of police and sheriffs' attention." He's right. How, indeed, can the existence of a sanctuary law do anything but attract illegal immigrants to our state?

The purpose of immigration law is to protect our nation's sovereignty— our right to self-...

As the law currently stands when an illegal immigrant is arrested in Oregon, they can still be prosecuted for a crime on a state or local level. However, if the person has to spend time in jail for the crime, Oregon law enforcement agencies are precluded from alerting federal immigration officials, and half of the sheriffs in Oregon support a voter-based initiative to change that policy.

Malheur County Sheriff Brian Wolfe is among sheriffs who support Measure 105, which will appear on the statewide General Election ballot. Passage of the measure would upend a three-decade old...

Governor and Legislative candidates support Measure 105

OFIR has posted a list of Governor and Legislative candidates who support Measure 105.  You can view the list here

The list is based primarily on the Comparison Chart on Immigration from the 2018 Abigail Adams Voter Education Survey questionnaire.  We have added some information from other sources.

Good news: numerous candidates are known to support Measure 105.  There are probably additional supportive candidates.  We’ll be glad to add them to the list if they identify themselves to Oregonians for...

Reports in newspapers are still referring to “16 signers” of Sheriff Tom Bergin’s letter endorsing Measure 105, and ignoring the 2 Sheriffs who signed shortly after the letter was first released.  For your and the public’s information, there are 18 signers of the letter, representing half of Oregon's 36 counties.

Counties whose sheriffs have signed the letter are (in alphabetical order): Clatsop, Coos, Curry, Deschutes, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Wheeler.

FAIR (Federation for American...

Multiple letters opposing Measure 105 (End Oregon’s Sanctuary Policy) have recently appeared in EW and The Register-Guard. The writers appear to be working off talking points provided by one or more of Oregon’s illegal alien support groups. Let’s examine some of these:

Argument 1: Sanctuary makes Oregon safer. Eighteen of Oregon’s 36 county sheriffs beg to differ. Proponents of giving driver cards to illegal aliens (Measure 88) made the same bogus claim in 2014. Voters saw through that smokescreen and hopefully they’ll see through this one.

Argument 2: M105 would turn Oregon...

The sanctuary statute undermines respect for law in significant ways. It tells illegal immigrants that Oregon considers immigration-law violations so inconsequential as to be unworthy of police and sheriffs' attention.

CONTRIBUTED - Tom Bergin

In my third-of-a-century in law enforcement — which includes almost 14 years as sheriff of Clatsop County — the most important thing I've learned is this: Respect for the law, among citizens and noncitizens alike, is indispensable to a free society.

That's why I urge Oregonians, in November, to vote "yes" on Ballot...

WASHINGTON – On Monday, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee reversed its prior view on whether Nashville officials violated an alien’s Fourth Amendment rights by detaining him in a local jail at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In an earlier ruling, the same court had indicated that the alien’s detention violated the Fourth Amendment’s bar on unreasonable seizures because local authorities lacked probable cause to believe that the alien had committed a crime.

The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) submitted a friend-of-the-...