Asylum seekers and refugees have a legal right to be in Oregon, and good policy is to integrate them as fast as possible so they don't become homeless or turn to crime and so they become self-sufficient. Policies such as Oregon's Sanctuary State law protect crime witnesses. Giving immigrants driver's licenses gets them into the workforce. Providing them legal services and coordinating with welcome centers gets them processed and through the system faster, meaning these "handouts" actually save the taxpayers money. Immigrants pay $100 Billion in taxes and are less likely to become incarcerated than US born individuals. No, they're not committing mass voter fraud (although I've found the moral outrage of about voter ID hypocritical given the OLCC's carding policies).
In order to address the destabilizing effects of mass migration, we need to fix our broken foreign policy. The current wave of migration from Venuzuela is due to our sanctions on that country as part of a covert regime change. The wave of migration from Haiti under the Temporary Protected Status law is because the Central Intelligence Agency assassinated president Jovenal Moise causing widespread civil unrest. The Drug war is the root cause of the cartelization of Latin America, where Honduras is practically an American narco-state occupied by Palmerola air base and propped up by a corrupt government installed by a 2009 regime change. The list goes on, and some of the most ardent supporters of our corrupt and imperialistic foreign policy in both the Democratic and Republican parties are some of the first to cry foul on border policies.
A one-size fits all sanctuary policy needs to evolve with changing immigration patterns, and instead of digging in our heels, we need to listen to criminologists and be ready to adapt. Venuzuela, for instance, opened up its prisons after the Biden administration granted Venezuelans Temporary Protected Status. This has led to organized crime patterns by Venuzuelan gangs in the US mostly targeting peaceful migrants. This is new, and it is unclear whether sanctuary policies will make it worse or better.
Immigrants bravely left their familiar surroundings in search of a better life. Many are fleeing extreme poverty and violence and often make very hazardous and difficult trips to make it to Oregon. Those who come as families often have stronger family units than We should not classify undocumented immigrants as criminals - and many, if not most, do have documentation and are awaiting their case to be adjudicated in the very unfair federal immigration courts. Although Democrats like to scream about Trump, mass and inhumane private detention centers actually started under Obama and still operate under Biden. These detention centers are major political donors, and the Federal congress would rather spend billions to arm Nazis in Ukraine to prolong a proxy war than invest in our domestic immigration courts.
One area of Oregon state policy that could be improved is connecting immigrants to English as a Second Language services. We spend millions on community college bonds but then charge outrageous tuition that is unaffordable for immigrants who are looking to get jobs and integrate with our society.
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