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State enforcers target terrorism over immigration

Illegal immigrants get less focus than other law priorities

GABRIELA RICO
Statesman Journal

September 5, 2005

What is the federal government doing to enforce immigration laws in Oregon?

Dale Hillman, the supervisory special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Investigations in Portland, oversees all of Oregon and Southwest Washington. He explains the work of the 39 agents assigned to this region.

Question: What is Immigration and Customs Enforcement?

Answer: Prior to Sept. 11, (2001,) INS agents dealt exclusively with people involved with immigration matters, and customs agents dealt with things and the people associated with those crimes: porn, drugs, contraband. INS reported to the Department of Justice, and Customs reported to the Department of Treasury. After the merger, we took on both responsibilities and now have one chain of command.

Q: What is your function in Oregon?

A: We work within our agency and with the FBI to run down any information on aliens that might be here and may harm the U.S. -- stopping terrorism before it happens. We follow up on everything, no matter how small. Our priorities are:

Export control: Stemming the illegal export of items. For example, a stealth fighter-bomber's gyroscope part might be produced here in Oregon. Well, there are engineers all around the world -- Iran, Iraq, Pakistan -- that would like to get their hands on that technology.

Financial crimes: Money can be used to finance terrorist organizations. There are a lot of financial shenanigans going on. Other than crimes of passion, people commit crimes to make money.

Drugs -- We have a big corridor here. Meth is easier to make in Mexico and smuggle here, and we have marijuana from Canada. We hardly ever see Mexican marijuana here. People prefer the Canadian marijuana, also known as "BC Bud." BC Bud is more potent and more accessible. Because of its high price, people traffic in it, thus, we see more of it.

Child pornography -- it's unbelievable the volume both in and out of the state ... to and from places like Russia, Germany and Australia.

Human smuggling -- we are looking into reports that people, when they come here, have to traffic in drugs or something in order to pay off their smuggling debt.

There's document fraud and marriage fraud.

What we focus on here is when someone breaks a federal law, if they are not a U.S. citizen.

Q: Is ICE actively looking for illegal immigrants?

A: No. We have big-picture priorities.

Q: But haven't illegal immigrants broken a federal law?

A: They have technically violated the law, but entry without inspection is an administrative matter.

Q: Do you investigate employers who hire illegal immigrants?

A: Yes, it is in our jurisdiction, but the sheer volume and number of aliens that have to be dealt with precludes these types of investigations. We've adopted temporary standards that have to do with critical infrastructure. What if everyone that manned the dam was an illegal alien? A tree farmer is not a real problem in that context.

We do the best we can, but Oregon has made it easy. First, you have agriculture -- that's the first thing that's going to drive people here. Then, Oregon is the only state west of the Mississippi that allows illegal aliens to get a driver's license and police aren't allowed to communicate with federal officials. This state is like a sanctuary. State officials and the citizens of Oregon need to make a decision.

We could take every, single agent we have and attempt to remove every illegal alien, if we knew where they all were, but it's not possible.

There's only so much you can do.

grico@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6815