Oregonians For Immigration Reform (OFIR) Submits 110,445 Signatures To Repeal Sanctuary Law
By Shari Rendall | July 11, 2018
Grassroots activists in Oregon, with assistance from FAIR, took a major step last week toward repealing the state’s 30-year-old first-in-the-nation sanctuary state law. On July 6, Oregonians For Immigration (OFIR) submitted at least 110,445 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office supporting Initiative Petition 22 (IP22), which only needs 88,814 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot. If the Secretary of State’s Office determines there are enough signatures to qualify, the initiative will be placed on the ballot and Oregon won’t just have the distinction of having been the first sanctuary state, but the first state to repeal a sanctuary law.
Oregon Revised Statutes Section 181A.820 provides, in pertinent part: “No law enforcement agency of the State of Oregon or of any political subdivision of the state shall use agency moneys, equipment or personnel for the purpose of detecting or apprehending persons whose only violation of law is that they are persons of foreign citizenship present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws.” This language was first adopted in 1987 and made Oregon the first sanctuary state by decades. IP22 would repeal it completely, allowing state and local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration authorities again.
Oregon has unsurprisingly been plagued by egregious crimes committed by illegal aliens. Most recently, and perhaps most notoriously, was Sergio Jose Martinez, a criminal alien who sexually assaulted a 65-year old Portland woman and assaulted another woman. Instead of honoring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detainer, Portland Sheriff Mike Reese, citing Oregon’s sanctuary law, released this criminal alien previously deported 20 times.
OFIR’s signature-gathering campaign kicked off with IP22 being approved for circulation back in October of 2017. Since then, they’ve been aggressively criticized by everything the open-borders crowd could throw at them, from threats of violence to questionable investigations of signature gatherers to even a threatened trademark-infringement lawsuit by the University of Oregon over two very clearly distinguishable letter “O” logos. Yet despite all that, they got the job done with a sizeable cushion of additional signatures to hopefully clear the Secretary of State’s validation process. The validation process, which began July 9, could take several weeks.
OFIR should be commended for all their hard work and courage – but this is just the first step. If IP22 makes it onto the November ballot, the voters still must approve it. OFIR will need to prepare for the onslaught of open borders opposition, with a wide swath of the social justice organizations, including the ACLU, Causa, One Oregon, and Rural Organizing Project, gearing up to oppose them.