Portland, ORE. — Tonight, Portland City Council adopted the Protect Portland Initiative Resolution (the “Resolution”) and codified Sanctuary City Status protections (“Sanctuary City Ordinance” or “Ordinance”) by unanimous vote.
The Resolution provides critical executive direction: it tasks the City Administrator with clarifying and designating non-public areas in City buildings, and it urges the Mayor to ensure that no City resources are used for immigration enforcement, except where legally required. It also establishes a vital operational framework by which the City can respond to federal abuses of power including the unwarranted deployment of militarized federal personnel or troops to Portland.
The Sanctuary City ordinance begins to translate some of these directives into binding city law. Together, the Resolution and Ordinance build the legal infrastructure needed to uphold Portland’s values of justice, fairness, and community care – including for our immigrant and refugee neighbors – and ensure City policies align with the full spirit and intent of Oregon laws including statewide immigrant and refugee sanctuary laws.
"Now more than ever, with budget cuts happening continuously, it is critical for the city to ensure all local resources are being put towards local needs and local initiatives,” said Mercedes Elizalde, Director of Advocacy at Latino Network. “Our local resources, including money and public employee time, must be spent on livability, community and culturally thriving, health and wellbeing. We do not have money or time to waste on a political agenda that does not center or provide care for all Portlanders."
"Tonight, people representing faith communities, local businesses, organized labor, community-based organizations, educators, public safety, veterans, and more spoke out against federal government overreach and abuse of power,” said Jessica Maravilla, Policy Director of the ACLU of Oregon. “By unanimously passing the Protect Portland Initiative and Sanctuary City Ordinance, Portland City Council stood strong to protect local communities from a White House that is intent on targeting and harming Portland with federalized troops, militarized federal law enforcement, and ICE.”
Full text of the Resolution can be found here and the Sanctuary City Codification can be found here.
About the ACLU of Oregon: The ACLU of Oregon is an affiliate of the national ACLU, which has affiliates in 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. The ACLU of Oregon is a nonpartisan, nonprofit membership organization with more than 48,000 members and donor supporters statewide. The organization works in the courts, in the state legislature and local governments, and in communities to defend and advance our democracy, civil liberties, and civil rights under the U.S. and Oregon laws and constitutions.
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