News Articles, Op-eds, and Letters

A group of illegal aliens and two non-profits are suing the State of Oregon saying their constitutional rights were violated when voters struck down a ballot-initiative that would have given them driving privileges. Those opposing their efforts also argue that federal taxpayer funds are being illegally used to pay lawyers for the plaintiffs.

Familias En Accion and Los Ninos Cuentan and five illegal aliens are suing the Oregon Governor Kate Brown, numerous members of the Oregon Department of Transportation Commission, and the Administrator of the Driver and Motor Vehicles Division...

Oregon voters resoundingly rejected a ballot measure that would have granted driver cards to illegal immigrants.

Measure 88 was trailing by a more than 2-to-1 ratio late Tuesday, with 68 percent of voters against it and 32 percent in favor.

The measure would have given the Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division authority to issue driver cards for Oregon residents who couldn’t prove their legal status in the United States, but could prove their identity and date of birth and show at least one year of residency in Oregon.

Opponents of the measure worried the...

Voters in Oregon overwhelmingly rejected a law passed in 2013 that would grant driver’s license cards to illegal aliens. (Oregon Live, Nov. 5, 2014) Ballot Measure 88, which put Senate Bill (“S.B.”) 833 up for voter approval, was defeated by a landslide of 68% of voters in favor of vetoing S.B 833, with only 32% in support of the law. (Id.) The defeat of Measure 88 marks a huge victory for true immigration reformers in Oregon and nationwide. Currently, eleven states grant driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. However, activists in Oregon were the first state to hold their elected...

The most laughable argument in favor of Measure 88 — the proposition to extend driving privileges to illegal aliens — has to be the contention that giving illegal aliens driver's cards will compel them to buy insurance. Who in their right mind thinks people who illegally enter the country and happily use fake identification to gain employment and leech into government programs will voluntarily buy insurance?

It didn't work in New Mexico or Tennessee. The experience of licenses to illegals in Tennessee was so horrendous they quit doing it, and Gov. Susana Martinez in New Mexico has...

Those who support Measure 88 claim issuing driver cards to illegal immigrants will make us safer. Really?

Then please explain why Oregon sheriffs, whose primary job is to protect us, oppose the measure.

The claim that Measure 88 is good for business has a ring of truth to it, especially for those whose businesses employ illegal immigrants and take advantage of them by providing substandard wages.

Driver cards give an appearance of credibility and trustworthiness by providing a de facto government document.

The requirement that applicants must prove residence in...

Ministers and some of their parishioners often quote the Bible as justification for citizens of other countries to break U.S. immigration laws and preach that U.S. citizens should “welcome the stranger” — meaning illegal immigrants. Other Bible scholars disagree. One of them, The Rev. James Edwards, points out: “It displays questionable judgment to rigidly construct an immigration policy for 21st-century America based on a handful of Scripture passages taken out of context or from particular instances of migration spanning centuries, vastly different nations and kingdoms, wholly different...

The recent Ebola scare has talk radio hosts yammering, speculating the president's open borders policy will allow the virus to spread.

And though Ebola probably will not spread that way, a number of other diseases will, and indeed have.

The mysterious Enterovirus (EV-D68), has earned the moniker of "the open borders virus." With its polio like symptoms EV-D68 has left a number of children paralyzed or dead. The Centers for Disease Control recently announced an outbreak in Denver, a city many consider to be a de facto sanctuary city for illegal aliens.

In another...

David Cross, Special to the Statesman Journal 9:04 p.m. PDT October 31, 2014

Oregon's voters at the Nov. 4 general election will have a chance to vote on Senate Bill 833, which appears before them as Ballot Measure 88.

The passage of Ballot Measure 88 would require the Oregon DMV to grant to persons "who cannot prove legal presence in the United States" a special state-issued identification called a driver's card.

In reaction to the state driver cards' legislation, sheriffs across the state have stepped forward to oppose the ballot measure.

The Sheriffs of...

I agree with Donald Moberg of North Bend. My wife went through the same thing as he did when we arrived in Oregon. A copy of her birth certificate was rejected and she ended up requesting another from San Diego with the raised seal.

Don mentioned, “Should need more proof than a green card.” Most of us would agree on that very thing. If one has a “Green Card” they are in the U.S. legally and should be able to drive. Where it gets confusing is the word immigrant. Are they here legally or not. Don, truth be told, Measure 88 was written up for the illegals in our country. The legal...

Supporters of driver's cards like Gov. John Kitzhaber, all the Democrats in the Oregon State Legislature and some agribusiness-service-sector Republicans turned a blind eye to the state's unemployed in 2013 when they passed and signed into law Senate Bill 833 — now awaiting a decision by the state’s voters re-titled Ballot Measure 88.

An evaluation of the seasonally adjusted unemployment numbers.....September 2014” revealed the National unemployment rate at 5.9 percent — Oregon’s unemployment at 7.1 percent.

The State of Oregon Employment Department (DOE) report from October...