Oregon legislative leaders have found themselves on the defensive following President Trump’s renewed calls for Congress to overturn sanctuary laws and his repeated threats to withhold federal funding from jurisdictions that maintain them. Amid the debate, Democrat state Rep. Ricki Ruiz joined Lewis & Clark Law School’s Immigration Student Group (ISG) on Thursday, Jan. 29, to host a public event examining what it means for Oregon to be a sanctuary state.
Rep. Ruiz, who represents East Portland and Gresham, addressed the room on issues ranging from checking federal overreach, defending immigrants’ rights and reasserting state sovereignty. After an introduction from ISG Vice President Salvador Salazar Can, Ruiz stepped up to the podium.
Throughout the discussion, Ruiz repeatedly returned to the ongoing struggle between federal immigration enforcement and state law.
“The real question is, when enforcement expands, will we respond with action or with silence? I’m going to tell you what silence looks like, because it’s been happening for a long time. It looks like not knowing the harm and doing nothing, calling it federal jurisdiction and moving on, because a lot of my colleagues are doing that, letting fear become normalized,” he said.
In his opening, Ruiz made clear that sanctuary laws do not bar immigration enforcement within a jurisdiction. Rather, in Oregon, sanctuary status means state and local law enforcement agencies and public institutions are legally prohibited from assisting in federal immigration enforcement, directly or indirectly, unless presented with a judicial warrant.
While Ruiz acknowledged that Oregon law enforcement continues to abide by sanctuary laws, he said the start of the Trump administration’s second term (and ensuing immigration enforcement policies) has coincided with a heightened sense of fear in the community.
“There’s been an increase in arrests in courthouses. There’s been detentions during routine check-ins. Families are being separated while seeking medical care,” Ruiz said. “What brings me to pieces is children are asking when they will go home after being detained. Fear doesn’t stay contained.”
Ruiz went on to say that this environment has caused people to “civically disengage,” explaining that when people feel afraid of federal law enforcement, they stop going to school, avoid stores and hesitate to call police when help is needed, effectively drawing away from public life.
Ruiz claimed in one instance, a school in his district saw a 70% decrease in attendance after a student and their family were detained by ICE. In the district as a whole, Ruiz said, the number of students has declined by 20% since the start of the Trump administration last January, though public school enrollment has declined nationwide during the same period.
Although the specific figures could not be independently verified, national data indicates that immigration enforcement has increasingly affected children.
Recent data fromThe Marshall Project,, a nonprofit news organization focusing on criminal justice, indicates the number of children detained by ICE daily has increased six-fold since Trump took office for a second time. For Ruiz, who has a four-year-old daughter, the recent detentions of five-year-old Liam Ramos in Minnesota and 7-year-old Diana Crespo-Gonzalez in Portland hit close to home.
“What I want to bring to my daughter, and also that’s what I want to bring to the children that are next in line, is the freedom of them to be children, and that’s the best that we can strive for, that’s us being here and doing this work,” Ruiz said.
For Ruiz, the issue of immigration is especially personal. Ruiz said both of his parents immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s as children.
“Both of my parents migrated from Michoacán, Mexico in the 1980s. My dad and mother were both agricultural workers, and they decided to pursue the dream out here for various reasons. One, it was that they wanted to see a better future for their family. They found themselves in the same cycle through their parents, through their great grandparents, and they wanted to break that cycle. Number two, they were also fleeing violence, and that was not sustainable for what they saw themselves in 30 to 40 years,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz said his father came into the U.S. early enough to qualify for amnesty under the Immigration Reform and Control Act signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. His mother, he said, missed the deadline for amnesty by about three months and remained undocumented for the rest of her life.
With the Oregon Legislature’s short session set to begin next week, Ruiz said he hopes to advance legislation aimed at pushing back against the federal government and reasserting the state’s sovereignty. While immigration enforcement is handled at the federal level, Ruiz said that does not absolve state lawmakers of responsibility to act.
“A sanctuary law, without enforcement, without funding, without political courage, it’s not a sanctuary — it’s just symbolism,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz pointed to several bills currently in the works in the state house aimed to protect Oregonians from what they say is increasingly harsh deportation enforcement. Lawmakers have proposed measures that would make it easier for people to sue federal agents, prohibit federal agents from concealing their face and withhold certain payments to the federal government in response to threats to cut federal funding for sanctuary states.
Ruiz said he is concerned that immigrants are not receiving proper legal services and support, and he encouraged LC law students to play an active role in addressing this issue, whether through immigration law, or other means.
“I think for all of you, whether you pursue your own criminal law practice, immigration law, or you become a state representative and put me out of business, there’s so many paths that you can take to fight. … That can be state policy and legislation, impact litigation, legislative council, community lawyering, nonprofit leadership or local government roles. The sky’s the limit, we need people like you to be ready and fight,” Ruiz said.
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