In 2017, the “No Sanctuary for Criminals Act” (HR 3003 ) would have prohibited federal, state and local government entities from obstructing or restricting law enforcement actions related tothe enforcement of immigration laws. That and a similar House-passed bill in 2015 were blocked in the then-Democrat-controlled Senate, because the Democratic Party is committed to facilitating illegal immigration.
How much? This much: the Oregon Department of Administrative Services is conducting mandatory staff training sessions to ensure that its employees do not to cooperate with Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE). Oregon’s sanctuary laws prohibit state and local law enforcement and government employees from assisting federal immigration officials with immigration enforcement. This has to stop. Of course the laws are unethical, as are similar anti-law enforcement laws around the country.
This week Oregon’s Department of Administrative Services sent an email to 11,000 employees reminding them to complete its “Oregon Sanctuary Promise” training. Debbie Dennis, deputy director of Oregon’s Administrative Services, said in the email,
“A new training will be assigned to you in Workday (starting Friday, Jan. 17) and I want to explain its importance and the timeline for completing the training. The title of the training is Oregon Sanctuary Promise and it covers Oregon’s laws relating to our status as a ‘sanctuary state.’ Many of you know that Oregon was the first state to pass a law (in 1987) prohibiting state and local police and government from helping federal authorities with immigration enforcement. This training is about Oregon law and how it affects what state employees can and cannot do. The training will help you identify if you are witnessing behavior that violates the law, and you will know what action to take. And in the rare event that any of us are approached to assist in immigration enforcement, we’ll know the steps Oregon law specifies we must take. The training takes about 30 minutes, and we have 30 days to complete it. Workday will assign it to you Friday, Jan. 17, and I ask that you make completing it a high priority, working with your supervisor if you experience any workload or other issues that hinder this assignment.”
Now that polls suggest that even a majority of Democrats want at least the criminal illegals deported and with the entire party seemingly at death’s door, making the “sanctuary” movement illegal as it should be might finally be attainable. The cities and states behaving like Oregon have always been unethical: they appear to be under the delusion that enforcing our borders is the equivalent of the Fugitive Slave Act. The progressives’ insane attitude toward illegal immigration and the Federal duty to enforce the immigration laws has been unethical from the start. When ethics fail, the law steps in, and in this case, it is high time.
I don’t think there is any mechanism for expelling a whole state, but if there has to be a test case, Oregon would be an excellent choice.
Ethics Alarms 
For my sarcastic response (since we know that Oregon is not actually being kicked out): As is typical in many states, there is a massive rural / urban divide. This is true in all of the blue states, where the cities impose their will on the rural residents. There is a very strong movement in the rest of the state to move the counties to Idaho, leaving just the Willamette Valley as “Oregon”. So long as we grant those rural residents their wish before expelling Oregon, I’m all for it. I’ll just have to move an hour South to remain an American citizen.
As for the serious response: The feds need to crucify the state and local employees. Put them in a hard spot. You know it is inevitable that someone has already screwed up and there will be more. Releasing someone who’s on a hold would be ignoring a federal order. Twist around a state employee during questioning and hit them with obstruction charge.
Since they’re all union, they’ll make their displeasure at being caught in the middle well know to the state. The unions have no lever with the feds, but they sure do with the state. No doubt there will be some who want to keep resisting, but most want to just go to work and support their family. They do not seek to get crosswise with the federal government. Those will push the state to back down or quit. Win / win either way…
Oregon and Washington are interesting phenomena. Dominated by Portland and Seattle, they are largely rural and agrarian. As many have noted, the Washington territory should have been split east and west rather than north and south when being admitted as states. For the most part, what I’ve seen of Oregon (and northern, rural California and rural Washington state, for that matter), it’s peopled by pretty rasty lumberjacks and lumber truck drivers and hardworking and wealthy farmers. Maybe Seattle and Portland could be spun off into protectorates like Puerto Rico or principalities like Monaco.
If DC and Puerto Rico want statehood, why not agree as long as two new states can be carved out of eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and northern California. Two states extra each for the Democrats and the Republicans so the balance in the Senate is not affected.
DC would be an absurd state, an PR doesn’t want to be a state. The obvious fix for DC is to give it back to Maryland. And three less automatic electoral votes for the Democrats. Awwwww…
“PR doesn’t want to be a state.”
That is the rub, ¿no? PR gets a ton of cash from the US government and has little to no obligation to the country. When a referendum is proposed in San Juan to become a state, the PR electorate whines about colonialism and US hegemony that disregards PR’s sovereignty and independence. To which, I say, “cool – you know that money we send you every year? Well, things are a bit tight and austerity measures are in order, starting with you. It’s been a great ride but, sometimes, you have to do the hard thing. Take care. Adios.”
jvb
About Puerto Rico from Wikipedia “The most recent referendum was in November 2024, with a majority (56.87%) of those who voted opting for statehood.”
If Puerto Rico really wants to become a state it is likely to vote Democrat, so the Republicans would vote against statehood. On the other hand if there was to be a new state that would vote Republican such as the proposed state of Jefferson in northern California and southern Oregon, then the Republican Democrat balance would not be affected so the politicians have less reason to vote against it.
As for DC, I agree it should be given back to Maryland except for a small area of government buildings around the White House, Capitol and the National Mall.
Is there any sort of existing statute along the lines of “conspiracy to obstruct a federal proceeding” that could be used to combat this?
And that has to be the lamest tag line I’ve seen on a state border sign. Did it edge out “Have a nice day” for the honor?
That was created by Governor Tom McCall. He wanted to include the ending “and please go home” but was over-ruled.
Yes. I was going to make a crack about how Oregonians surely would report immigrants from California in a New York minute and do everything to help the Feds run people fleeing California back across the line ASAP.
I seem to remember a little skirmish from the mid-1860s that might – just might – have been based on states telling the feds to go jump in a lake. I can’t remember what it was all about, though . . .
jvb
Is this not the same side that keeps saying America is the only country where school shootings and gang violence kills children?
Is this not the same side that whines about how America does not have universal health care?
Why are they not warning migrants (legal or otherwise) to stay away from America, lest their children get murdered in some school shooting or die because they could not get medical treatment?
This has long been one of my favorite inanities of the left: Poor people should come here from all over the world, but it’s the worst country in the world. Shouldn’t they be saying to all the sainted immigrants, “Run away! You come here at your peril. And besides, your country is by definition wonderfully diverse because it’s not full of and run by Americans.”
I wonder the same thing. For such a terrible, racist, cruel place, lots of people seem to want to come here in search of a better life. Man, it this wretched place is so bad, I’d hate to see what hell hole countries they are escaping.
jvb
Don’t forget that the courts allow this as well. It is only a Democratic State privilege to do things like this. When conservative states refuse to help the federal government violate citizen’s 2nd Amendment rights, the courts overrule them. When states want to actively aid illegal aliens in violating immigration laws…that’s fine. It isn’t even a double standard since they aren’t exactly the same thing. It is an anti-civil rights, pro-anarchy stance.