Immigration Reform

President Donald Trump’s move to mobilize the National Guard in California against the wishes of the state’s governor is playing out in yet another court battle over constitutional powers. In Washington state, Democrats have watched the events unfold with anxiety.

“This is devastating,” said Vanessa Gutierrez, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project’s deputy director. “We’ve had to stop taking new cases. We don’t know how many kids and young adults now have no legal help.”

Colleges and universities are no longer protected from immigration raids, and Oregon’s higher education institutions are preparing for the worst.

The governor said his administration “will do everything we can possibly do to address those significant harms” tied to President Trump’s immigration policies.

Immigration advocates consider children the most vulnerable migrants in the country. But most of the unaccompanied minors who have settled in the Pacific Northwest in recent years have no access to legal representation, leaving them on their own to navigate a system seeking to deport them.

Opponents of Oregon's "sanctuary law" are collecting signatures to put the issue on the ballot, and feelings are already running high on both sides.