Oregon State Police hold a line behind Portland Police officers during a May Day demonstration outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., on May 1, 2026.
Mathieu Lewis-Rolland for OPB
According to a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit Rural Organizing Project, state police have allowed federal immigration officials to access law enforcement databases to acquire Oregonians’ data.
The lawsuit, filed last Tuesday, claims that Oregon State Police has violated Oregon’s sanctuary laws by allowing federal immigration authorities to access two databases that contain sensitive information such as drivers license photos and Social Security numbers.
We’ll hear from Martha Verduzco Ortega, the director of Immigrant Help Centers at the Rural Organizing Project, with more details.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle studio at OPB this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. According to a lawsuit filed by the Rural Organizing Project, Oregon State Police have allowed federal officials to access law enforcement databases as part of their immigration enforcement actions. The nonprofit says that in doing so, state police are violating Oregon’s sanctuary laws. Martha Verduzco-Ortega is the director of Immigrant Help Centers at the Rural Organizing Project. She joins us now. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.
Martha Verduzco-Ortega: Thank you so much for having us. We’re here to share some information with you.
Miller: Can you remind us what Oregon sanctuary law says, what it prohibits?
Verduzco-Ortega: It was a law that was passed in 1987, nonpartisan, and it prohibits state and local governments from using their staff, facilities or other resources to assist federal immigration enforcement. And voters overwhelmingly reaffirmed the support in 2018, and the legislators strengthened it in 2021.
Miller: This lawsuit is specifically about federal access to two different databases. What should we know about these databases?
Verduzco-Ortega: The databases that they’re using to share information, and their agreements that are in between Oregon State Police and Immigration Services, is NLETS [National Law Enforcement Telecommunication System] and LEDS [Law Enforcement Data System], which is where we get criminal background checks and access to our driver’s license database.
Miller: What kind of information of Oregonians is in these two databases, LEDS and NLETS?
Verduzco-Ortega: In LEDS there is your criminal background, and then in NLETS is driver’s license, driver history, driver’s license photographs, vehicle registration data, and law enforcement records.
Miller: What exactly led you to file this suit?
Verduzco-Ortega: Well, the Rural Organizing Project is a statewide nonprofit, and we work to build rural communities that are safe, welcoming and inclusive. We’ve worked on the sanctuary, making sure that the government is accountable and not sharing information with the Oregon sanctuary law, and so we don’t want Oregon State Police to be sharing our private information with Immigration.
Miller: An ICE spokesman told OPB, “ICE does not comment on specific law enforcement tactics or capabilities.” Oregon State Police in their own statement to us said that the agency was aware of litigation “related to federal immigration enforcement access to Oregon records,” but they said they could not make comments about a pending lawsuit. They did add this though: “OSP is committed to following Oregon sanctuary laws and has not taken any actions that would violate those laws.”
What’s your response?
Verduzco-Ortega: ICE agents have testified in federal court that they target entire communities and they run vehicle license plates to find vehicle owners’ names and birth dates for immigration enforcement, so they have made statements and there’s been many news reports. Congress did a letter in 2025, and then at least four other states – Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York – they’ve stopped allowing federal agents to access their resident status. I mean, there is a lot of information that has proven that ICE agents do use our information to get a hold of...
Miller: One of the contracts between Oregon State Police and ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations side, states this: “All users agree not to share data derived from this system for the purpose of federal immigration enforcement.” That is written into the contract that state police and the feds signed. So what evidence do you have that ICE, in Oregon, is in fact using data from these systems for federal immigration enforcement?
Verduzco-Ortega: Oregon Law Center has gotten information that federal immigration authorities accessed Oregonians’ data more than 1.4 million times in the last year. ICE detained 1,100 community members, and then OSP has overturned information to ICE using the Oregon State Police database.
Miller: How are other states handling data sharing agreements? You talked briefly about this, but I want to come back to it. It’s an important piece here.
Verduzco-Ortega: Well, there’s other states that are not… I mean, we’re fighting back so that this doesn’t happen, because they’re storming into our communities, they’re targeting people, they’re profiling us based on how we look, how we talk. I mean, they’re disappearing our neighbors. I think it’s all over the news how it’s affecting the whole U.S. when ICE uses our information to just target.
Miller: What’s the timeline for this suit right now?
Verduzco-Ortega: Well, we just filed it. It was just filed on April 30, so it’s just starting.
Miller: You know, I mentioned at the beginning that you are the director of Immigrant Help Centers at the Rural Organizing Project. What has that meant over the last year and a half?
Verduzco-Ortega: Well, we opened this Immigrant Help Center about two years ago, with the hopes of assisting people with navigating our regular systems within our communities – making doctor’s appointments, helping them pass their driver’s license test, helping them become U.S. citizens, renewing their green cards.
And instead of that, we’ve had to focus on rapid response services and assisting people with getting food to their homes because they’re so afraid to come out. We’ve had to develop big rapid response teams because we know that ICE comes into our community in unmarked vehicles, they speed through town, they chase people, they cause accidents. I mean, we’ve been focusing on creating coalitions to protect our immigrant and refugee communities instead of actually helping people with basic needs.
Miller: Have you seen a decrease in calls in the last few months? There has been less visible activity, it seems, but I’m wondering if that’s led to a decrease in calls to your help center?
Verduzco-Ortega: Yes, well, we are in the Gorge area where we’re connected to the PIRC hotline, so we’re the Gorge Regional. So yes, the calls have diminished a bit, but people are still afraid.
Miller: Martha Verduzco-Ortega, thanks very much.
Verduzco-Ortega: Thank you, Dave.
Miller: Martha Verduzco-Ortega is the director of Immigrant Help Centers at the Rural Organizing Project.
“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.
If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.
