Washington County jurisdictions less willing to support protections for immigrant crime victims, says report

Several years ago, Portland attorney Patrick Sherwood’s client reported to police that she was assaulted as a 17-year-old. She wanted her assailant brought to justice, but as a member of a family at risk for deportation, she was vulnerable. She sought protection by requesting police sign off on a certification for what’s called a U visa application.

The United States allows immigrants who are victims of certain crimes to apply for a U visa if they are “helpful” to law enforcement.

In the case of Sherwood’s client, police denied the application twice.

If the city of Portland’s ombudsman hadn’t intervened in 2022, urging Portland Police to sign off on the certification, Sherwood expects his client and her family would have been deported by now.

Now, three of the largest law enforcement agencies in Oregon’s most diverse county are denying these requests at a rate significantly higher than the statewide average. The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission recently released U visa certification denial and acceptance data for 2025.

Across the state, law enforcement agencies approved 77% of U visa certification requests they received last year. But in Washington County, the sheriff’s office, Hillsboro Police Department and Beaverton Police Department had a combined average approval rate of 24%.

Immigration attorneys and advocates say that low approval rate could have a significant impact on public safety in Washington County.

“Police departments often report that if they don’t have cooperation from the broader community, it makes it very hard to do their job,” said Mercedes Elizalde, the director of advocacy at Latino Network. “This is one of those ways that we make it possible for community members to stay present in the local community to provide that support for investigation.”

Requests denied

Congress established the U visa program in 2000 through bipartisan legislation, intending for it “to strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking of aliens and other crimes, while also protecting victims of crimes,” according to U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services.

For a crime victim, the first step in applying for the program’s temporary protection is requesting a sign-off from local law enforcement, sometimes called a U certification. The certification affirms that the reported crime qualifies for the U visa program and that the victim has been “helpful” to law enforcement.

Last year, immigrant crime victims made 897 requests to local police and prosecutors in Oregon, up from 712 in 2024. Law enforcement approved 687 of last year’s requests. The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission began tracking U certification approvals and denials by local law enforcement in 2022 as a result of new state legislation.

In Washington County, one of the areas hardest hit by last year’s immigration crackdown, at least 197 people requested U certifications from local law enforcement.

The Hillsboro Police Department, serving the county’s largest city, approved six of the 28 certification requests it received in 2025. In Beaverton, the county’s second largest city, police approved five of 19 requests.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office approved four of the 15 requests received, with three still pending at the time the commission report was released in August.

At the same time, the county’s immigrant community faced an onslaught of aggressive federal immigration enforcement. According to data from the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition, Washington County accounted for 33.5% of total statewide ICE arrests from July through December 2025.

In Hillsboro, a public information officer said of 22 denied requests, 14 were forwarded to the Washington County district attorney’s office and one to the Multnomah County Juvenile Department. The rest, Hillsboro PD said, either didn’t involve a qualifying crime or the victim didn’t help the police sufficiently.

The Washington County DA approved requests at a higher rate: 85 approvals of 120 requests.

In an email to OPB, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said the office received 16 requests last year, but two were duplicates. An official there said four were referred elsewhere, three were granted, and the rest — nine requests — were denied “for ineligibility or the absence of a qualifying crime.”

The Beaverton Police Department did not respond to inquiries about its lower-than-average approval rate.

Local immigration attorney Rodrigo Fernandez-Ortega said forwarding requests to the DA’s office for crimes that were reported to local police is not necessary. The extra time involved can extend the already lengthy approval process through the federal government, he said.

Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security lay out the criteria needed for law enforcement to sign off on the U certification. Those requirements include, “The victim has been, is being, or is likely to be helpful to law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, or other government officials in the investigation or prosecution of the qualifying criminal activity.”

The guideline also states that a current investigation, filing of charges or prosecution are not required to sign the law enforcement certification.

“In my experience it is uncommon to hold up a review of certification until it gets to the DA. My understanding is that best practice would have this paperwork reviewed earlier in the process, and the DA’s engagement is usually at a later stage,” Elizalde said.

Fernandez-Ortega and Elizalde say that this “helpfulness” requirement is meant to set a low bar. Police need only verify that the victim made a report or was willing to talk with police.

Lack of training can lead to misinterpretation, denials

Elizalde noted misinterpretation of the helpfulness requirement contributed to a lower-than-average U certification approval rate for the Portland Police Bureau a few years ago.

Attorney Patrick Sherwood said the city of Portland’s ombudsman discovered the low approval rating after his client filed a complaint with the ombudsman’s office.

The complaint alleged Portland Police did not pursue her case after she reported being assaulted and that the police declined to sign off on the U certification. PPB later reopened the case and signed off on her certification request at the ombudsman’s urging.

“It really ended up benefiting that family who probably would have been removed by now if PPB hadn’t approved the application,” Sherwood said.

Working with Latino Network, Elizalde said PPB and the ombudsman discovered that officers lacked the proper training for the U certification program. That lack of training led officers to misinterpret the requirements for the program, she said.

“They raised the bar themselves for no reason,” she said. “To try to say, ‘Not everybody who applies for a U visa gets it, so is this person really deserving? Will the DA actually prosecute this case?’ They were introducing these additional criteria in their mind and using that as justification,” she explained.

Elizalde and Fernandez-Ortega emphasized that the role of local law enforcement is not to approve the U visa. Law enforcement’s certification is simply one step in a much larger U visa application sent to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Latino Network worked with PPB to improve its U certification training and review protocols. In 2025, Portland police approved 192 of the 207 requests they received.

Elizalde suggested that Hillsboro and Beaverton police departments and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office may need a similar review of their training and protocols.

Sherwood, however, noted that many agencies like Hillsboro, Beaverton and Washington County lack an ombudsman’s office.

Retired legislator Jeff Barker was one of the chief sponsors of the original 2019 bill that codified U certification reporting requirements for Oregon law enforcement agencies. Barker, a Democrat from Aloha, said the rejected certifications could have an outsized impact given the county’s diversity.

“There’s a large Hispanic community out here for sure,” the now-retired lawmaker told OPB. “We need to protect the victims.”