Thread: Immigration Enters Race for Governor (Oregon)

Immigration enters race for governor

Intense national debate is reflected in Oregon politics

BY JOSEPH B. FRAZIER
The Associated Press


April 2, 2006

From day-laborer encounters to tucked-away farm labor camps, to restaurant kitchens and nursing homes, construction sites and nursery farms, Oregon's burgeoning illegal-immigrant population treads a slippery path.

They need visibility to work and obscurity to avoid arrest and deportation. With estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center of perhaps 175,000 in Oregon, up from 25,000 in 1990, that's an increasingly tough balance.

Undocumented residents comprise about half of the state's Hispanic population, nearly 5 percent of all Oregonians. Exact numbers are impossible to determine. Nobody stands up to be counted.

In Oregon, the new wave of illegal immigration has become a major campaign issue, reflecting a debate that is occurring across the country.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Saxton is pushing a hard line that includes withholding of state social services, education and drivers' licenses from illegals, and advocating deportation. Saxton contends that Oregon cannot afford to serve the undocumented population, that "illegal is illegal" and should be treated that way.

"Illegal aliens cost Oregon taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars every year" in uninsured health costs and education, Saxton's radio ads say.

Republican gubernatorial candidates Kevin Mannix and Jason Atkinson have somewhat softer views that still include tougher rules.

'Carousel' support ends

A controversial move by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat, brought him into the debate as well. Kulongoski ended active state participation this year in the mobile information centers, or "carousels," sponsored by the Mexican Consulate.

Kulongoski, who had supported the carousels, denied a change of policy but said the sessions had become limited to Mexican nationals and that the state could not be selective. The Mexican Consulate said the decision had been made a year ago.

(No, this decision was made after Oregonians for Immigration Reform brought a lot of public attention to the fact that the State of Oregon was spending Oregons tax dollars to let illegals know at these carousels what tax payer benefits they could get, at tax payer expense!!)

Portland pollster Tim Hibbits said that although Republicans have been the most vocal about illegal immigrants -- especially Saxton -- it also is an issue among some Democratic voters.

"Most of the heat is from the Republican right," Hibbits said. "But it is not correct to say there is no traction in other quarters."

He said polling suggests that, "correctly or incorrectly," some working-class Democrats sense an economic threat.

"It's not the cut-and-dried issue you might think," he said.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that there are about 12 million undocumented people of all nationalities in the country. That number has more than tripled since 1990. In Oregon it has increased seven-fold.

Nationally, the House has passed a tough bill that stresses enforcement, treats undocumented workers as felons, provides for border fences and has no guest-worker provision. A Senate version might accommodate guest workers.

Melting pot starts to boil

Opposition to illegal immigration in some quarters is intense.

"We can't allow everyone to come into this country. We can't have this melting pot turned into a chamber pot allowing in a criminal element," said Rick Hickey of Salem, the vice president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform.

He disputes charges of racism.

"We're not against immigrants," he said. "We're against illegal immigrants."

The group claims illegal immigrants bring fraud, drug trafficking and other crime.

Fernando Sanchez Ugarte, the Mexican consul based in Portland, said young immigrants sometimes run afoul of the law because they have trouble making the transition to a new culture.

"Many feel discriminated against because of language or for being from somewhere else. They join together. There is peer pressure to do what they should not do," he said.

Still, he said only about 10 percent of the state's prison population is Hispanic, about equal to the Hispanic population of Oregon.

Some problems, he said, are culture clashes.

"If a boy is 18 or 20 and he likes a girl who is maybe 14 or 15, he speaks to the parents and they go to a house together until they can save money for the kind of wedding they want," he said.

"They may live together for a year or two, the kids do exactly as they did at home. But here there are accusations of abuse of a minor. We have many in jail for that. ...These are rural, indigenous people. The boy may be good, clean, working, decent. It's not abuse. But that's hard to understand here."

(OK, so having a sexual relationship with a minor is a cultural issue? Now, let's see if that would wash in the courts with an American man? Nope it does not, it is considered a sexual offense and the man is then considered a sex offender, at least in our culture. See this is what happens when we start white washing issues with the "culture" card!)

Issue is vote-getter

Political observers say the reason illegal immigration has become a campaign issue in Oregon is that some politicians see it as a way to get votes.

"The conventional wisdom is that you have to move further to the right with (Kevin) Mannix in the race for the nomination," said Russ Dondero, who teaches political science at Pacific University in Forest Grove.

But Dondero is among those who argue that immigrants -- who are here legally and otherwise -- have become crucial to Oregon's economy.

"This is the force willing to work in the fields and nurseries, these are the folks local employers have recruited," Dondero said.

The state's undocumented population varies with the season, although Oregon is decreasingly part of the migrant stream that "follows the crops," said Ramon Ramirez, who leads the Woodburn-based Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United, or PCUN, a labor union and social-services center.

"They used to migrate to here," Ramirez said. "Now they migrate from here. They may go to work in Florida, North Carolina, New York. But they come back here."

Ramirez said most undocumented workers pay Social Security and other taxes but probably won't see the benefits.

He said the rise in illegal immigrants isn't hard to understand. Trade deals, especially the North American Free Trade Agreement, he said, has opened Mexico to American competition in a way that has shattered that country's agricultural base.

"They had to come here and look for work on farms," said Ramirez.

He says he can't help but sense racial undertones.

Many services denied

Oregon law provides some services to undocumented residents, such as drug and alcohol services, mental-health programs, education and food coupons through the Women, Infants & Children program, and emergency need-based payments to victims of domestic violence.

Some programs, such as the state's Child Protective Services, are federally mandated to serve everyone.

Saxton, in his campaign ads, notes that Oregon is one of about 10 states that do not require evidence of U.S. citizenship to get a driver's license. Lawmakers have decided against requiring proof of U.S. citizenship out of concern that making it more difficult for immigrants to get driver's licenses will only encourage them to drive without a license.

Unemployment and workers' compensation benefits are not available to undocumented workers in Oregon, and applicants are cross-checked by computer, using Social Security numbers, when they apply.

Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment of Oregon's public-school population, but the state is barred by federal law from asking whether the parents are here legally.






Copyright 2006 Statesman Journal, Salem, Oregon

So why is it so important to obey one federal law, not asking if your parents are here legally, yet it is ok to disobey federal immigrantion laws ? This is hard for me to comprehend, it seems to me these people and our government is toatlly ignoring any laws that would see these people deported back to where they belong,therefore picking and choosing the laws they like and ignoring the ones they don't like!