Critics fault jail for violating law by holding immigrants
SALEM, Ore. — Pro-immigrant activists and the legal director of the ACLU of Oregon say officials appear to be breaking state law by holding people for federal immigration authorities at an Oregon jail where several of the detainees last week ended a hunger strike over what they called horrible conditions.
They say the deal between the Northern Oregon Regional Corrections Facility, or Norcor, and a federal agency violates a 1987 Oregon law prohibiting law officers in Oregon from spending public dollars, resources or personnel “for the purpose of detecting or apprehending persons” whose only crime is being in the U.S. illegally.
The Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association says that law does “prohibit Oregon police officers from acting as immigration enforcement officers.” But Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum’s communications director told the Associated Press that the law doesn’t apply in this situation.
“State law forbids using law enforcement resources to detect or apprehend people who have not committed a crime, but may be in violation of immigration laws,” Kristina Edmunson said Friday in an email. “It doesn’t appear that Norcor resources are being used to detect or arrest people, so the 1987 law would not be applicable.”
Some, if not all, of the detainees were transferred to the facility from the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention facility in Tacoma, Wash.
The relationship between the jail and ICE has existed for some time, but it gained prominence last week after a halfdozen ICE detainees went on a hunger strike.
“Conditions are abysmal,” said Mat Dos Santos, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon. “The food is composed mainly of bread with little nutritional value. They don’t even get issued socks. They have to purchase them. The live in worse conditions than those people being held as criminals.”
But Bryan Brandenburg, administrator of Norcor, said the detainees get full sets of clothing and that the menu meets dietary and nutritional requirements.
Brandenburg said the jail does not violate Oregon law because it doesn’t detain immigrants but only receives them from ICE because the agency’s own facility in Tacoma is often overflowing.