Oregon Measure 105

I try to attend every town hall in my area by my federal and state senators and representatives. I've asked a question only once, at my state representative's public meeting, mostly because there were just a dozen or so people there and I just kinda wanted to see what she would say. I usually already know all of the positions of my state and federal representatives. I'm at these town halls mostly to make sure Trump supporters don't highjack the meeting and make it seem like they are in the majority - they are not. There's usually someone standing at the entrance to the town hall with paper signs - one is green with "agree" on it and one is red with "disagree" on it. Display of the signs is how the speaker knows what the room is thinking.

I like to live tweet town halls I attend. I tweet about questions being asked and how the representative is responding. It's my way of reminding people that their representatives are (or should be) available to answer their questions in public and that people need to take advantage of opportunities to hear directly from their elected officials. My overall message: It's easy to be "involved," and this is what it looks like.

At a recent meeting I attended, one of the audience members said that she is a survivor of sexual violence: she said that, in 2001, she was raped for 15 hours by men in the USA illegally. She asked our Representative to change her mind and support Oregon Measure 105, which will repeal Oregon's Sanctuary State Law (ORS 181A.820). Repeal would mean local police and sheriff's deputies could ask people for proof of their immigration status and arrest people for violating federal immigration law, even if they aren't being investigated for such. The woman at the event believes that most illegal immigrants are criminals, that they commit far more violent crimes than other people, and that Measure 105 will protect people - and that it would have protected her.

Her horrific experience is something that deserves our empathy and sympathy and ANGER, no question. These men that did this are beyond evil. I hope they were prosecuted. In fact, I wish them nothing but pain. But I wish all of this not because they are illegal immigrants. I wish it because they did something reprehensible beyond measure. I would feel the same way had they been legal immigrants. I would feel the same way if they were citizens that were born in the USA. Their legal status as residents or citizens in no way changes the nature of the horror they inflicted.

So, if this survivor had been raped by people where legal immigrants, would she now want all legal immigrants banned? I guess she would say, "If people are willing to commit one crime - crossing the border and living here illegally - they will commit any crime." Never mind that such is not backed up by facts. Yes, there are illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes. There are FAR more natural born citizens who commit violent crimes.

And consider the actions of these immigrants:

William Ramirez, a father of two from Colombia, was on his way to his maintenance job at a boatyard when he witnessed a man trying to gun down a Miami police officer. Ramirez drove his van into the line of fire, shielding the policeman from the shooter and pulling him to safety.

Antonio Diaz Chacon, from Mexico, was in Albuquerque and saw a young girl being abducted off the street, and unhesitatingly pursued the kidnapper to rescue the child.

Jesus Manuel Cordova saved the life of a 9-year-old boy stranded in the Arizona desert. The boy’s mother had died in a car crash, leaving him helpless — until he was discovered by Cordova, who had just entered the country illegally. Cordova stayed with the boy, keeping watch for hours until someone eventually found them and contacted the authorities.

On the day of the Boston marathon bombing of 2013, Costa Rican Carlos Arredondo rushed to help the victims just after the explosion of the two bombs. He made a tourniquet for Jeff Bauman, a victim who lost both legs. His picture in a cowboy hat next to Bauman in a wheelchair circulated around the world.

José Gutierrez, the first American soldier killed in combat after the invasion of Iraq, on March 21, 2003, was an orphaned Guatemalan who had entered the U.S. at the age of 2.

Damián López Rodríguez, a Mexican from Nogales, joined the USA military and he died on April 6, 2007, along with two other soldiers when their Humvee was hit by home-made bomb.

Some of the aforementioned were here legally, some came to the USA illegally. Can you tell which ones just by their actions? Would you really look at the people these immigrants saved or served and saved, "I don't care, I wish they had been deported and not helped you or your family"?

Fearing deportation, many domestic violence victims are steering clear of police and courts. Is that what we want, for people that commit domestic violence, many of them NOT immigrants, to get away with that crime because of fear of deportation? How does that keep us safer?

Immigrants are being scammed by NON immigrants but are reluctant to call police about the crime. How does that keep any of us safer?

When people commit crimes, they should be punished. When people prevent crimes or help people, they should be celebrated. What their immigration status is doesn't in any way make people more likely to be criminals nor heroes.

Washington County, Oregon District Attorney Kevin Barton and Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett have issued a joint statement saying they do not want the repeal of Oregon Measure 105 and that "Our community is safer when citizens and non-citizens alike report crimes and testify in court so we can arrest and prosecute criminals." I agree.

The battle between compassion & concerned-for-my-safety sides of me

The compassionate side of me wants to realistically, systematically and humanely address the conditions of growing number of homeless people in my community. They come in on an express bus from more urban areas of our metropolitan area, and I know they come here because our small town is safer than most other places, that it's easy to find a safe place to sleep or to sit quietly why the drugs flow through their bodies and feed their addiction. They are addicts and/or have mental issues, and are in urgent need intensive medical care - and cannot get it because of lack of services, waiting lists and lack of money. They are frequently targeted for sexual assault and robbery - crime victims as much, and maybe more, than they are perpetrators. They will say, "I chose to be homeless," with pride, but you know it's not true; the young people have left abusive homes, or are gay and have been thrown out, the older people have lost their job and families because of their addictions and mental issues, and they'd each love to have a safe place of his or her own. They all seem broken in some way, even when they are talking full of bravado, the result of abuse, combat trauma, chronic pain or mental disabilities. Many are suicidal, and this is their way of killing themselves - slowly, fully medicated all along the way. They are so young, or so old, and they often look like they are dying - too skinny by far, sores on their face, thick winter clothes on a sunny day. I know that they can't simply take a shower, get some clean clothes and get a job - you're an addict, you're disabled, you don't have the capacity to hold a job. And I know that if they get removed from their campsites near my house, they will just be another community's problem.

The concerned-for-my-safety side of me is angry - really, really angry. I'm outraged that I'm scared to go out of my front door after dark to walk my dog one last time, because of the times their off-leash dog has come hurtling out of the darkness towards us, or because it's frightening to see a hooded figure, hands in pockets, walking toward me on the oh-so-empty block. I'm outraged because of the needle and cans and trash I've found in my yard, and my fears of finding much worse, or my dog being harmed because of what you've left in the yard. I'm angry because I have to walk out of my house at various hours of the day and night and around the corner where my house sits and tell people sitting on my wall to please move on because they are so loud they woke me up or I can't hear my TV or they are screaming - and the reaction may be "Sorry ma'am" or it may be "Fuck you, bitch! I don't have to move!" I'm angry because I have to lock my door when I'm out in the front yard gardening in the middle of the day, because it would be oh-so-easy to slip into my side door without my seeing someone doing it. I'm angry that the bus I take stinks from the stench of so many of these people, and I have to be careful of where I sit because of what they may have left behind, and I'm too scared to listen to music or a podcast because of your fights and outbursts. I'm angry that I no longer feel comfortable walking on the hiking trail near my house because groups of homeless people emerge out of the woods or up from the creek, hungover or in the throes of the high, either way, volatile, or because you have sex under a bridge on the creek, for anyone to see. I'm angry because I'm tired of calling the police to get homeless people off my property and to stop screaming. I'm angry that I have to be afraid of pissing you off and that you will retaliate in some way because I told you to move or called the police. I'm angry that these people tried meth or opiates or heroin or crack or whatever horrible drug that no one - NO ONE - gets away with using without consequences, or are alcoholic and won't go to the oh-so-many AA meetings all around town. I'm angry because they don't really seem to want any help.

The compassionate side of me and the concerned-for-my-safety side of me are in full battle right now. I am at a total loss of what to do.