innovation law lab: a senior capstone project
This page is for a Portland State University senior capstone project and is not Innovation Law Lab's official website; for the real website, follow this link: https://innovationlawlab.org/
WE ENVISION A WORLD WHERE EVERY CASE THAT SHOULD WIN, DOES WIN, EVERY TIME, EVERYWHERE. |
Innovation Law Lab is a non-profit law firm based in Portland, OR that provides pro-bono legal representation to asylum seekers.
My work at Law Lab has been focused on the Sheridan project. Sheridan, OR is home to a federal prison which, until recently, held 113 detained asylum seekers on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Innovation Law Lab made a promise to provide legal representation to each detainee who wanted it, and wound up representing over 85 individuals. Now, fewer than 10 of those represented remain in Sheridan. |
my role
My work has largely been a cross between big projects and day-to-day administrative tasks. Some examples of things I've done in my time here:
- Organized and executed large-scale cocktail party fundraiser that raised over $25,000
- Arranged transportation and access to supplies for newly released clients
- Media broadcasting for ACLU press conference
- Coordinated legal document retrieval from immigration sponsors and clients’ families
- Use of Slack and LawLab interface
- Assisted in client interviews inside Sheridan prison
- Compiled, indexed, and filed legal documents at both ICE and Portland Immigration Court
- Created procedure to return clients’ personal belongings to them after release
- Promoted from intern to administrative assistant in less than a month
- Wrote white paper and article about measure 105
- Helped run Law Lab’s social media accounts
- Grant writing
Writing Samples
Why Vote No on 105: A Lesson from Oregon’s History29OCT
Oregon has a long, shameful history of racial exclusion and oppression. When Oregon became part of the union in 1859, it was explicitly “whites only.” A few years earlier, Oregon passed the infamous “lash law,” dictating that all non-white Oregonians were to be whipped twice a year until they left the state. A 1862 law required Chinese and Hawaiian immigrants and black residents to pay an annual tax to the state; if they couldn’t pay, they were forced into road maintenance crews. In the 1920’s, the state had the highest per capita KKK membership in the country, and law enforcement and city leaders publicly affiliated themselves with the organization.
Oregon’s recent history is not much better. In 1977, police regularly detained perceived immigrants, refusing to let them go until INS could review their documentation (a process which could often take days). On January 9th of that year, Delmiro Trevino, a US citizen of Mexican descent, was interrogated at the Hi Ho Restaurant in Independence, OR. He was grabbed by a deputy and forced to stand in the center of the restaurant in front of other customers, and was released only after he was identified as a “long-time resident” of Independence.
A 2010 report to Portland’s Human Rights Commission found that Multnomah County’s communities of color had “alarming disparities across all systems and institutions, with trends worsening through time.” In 2016, statewide unemployment and poverty rates were shown to be higher for Latino than white Oregonians. In 2018, Ana del Rocia, a Latina elected official, was arrested after a routine TriMet fare check escalated based on a dispute about her name.
Oregon’s Disentanglement Statute (ORS 181A.820) helped forge a path toward a more inclusive Oregon. The statute prohibits local law enforcement from detaining or apprehending someone based solely on their perceived immigration status, focusing limited local resources and money on investigating and preventing crime. Instead of repealing ORS 181A.820, as Measure 105 seeks to do, efforts should be made to strengthen this law.
Protecting Oregon’s communities of color makes everyone safer. Research has repeatedly shown that when communities of color don’t trust law enforcement, everyone suffers. Fear of deportation prevents immigrants, documented or not, from reporting crimes and cooperating with law enforcement. The Woodburn police chief has expressed concern that his department would be negatively affected, were Measure 105 to pass, explaining “it would have a significant impact on the quality of life of our community if the majority of the population quit interacting with police.” A clear division between local law enforcement and federal immigration efforts is essential in reducing crime and protecting communities. Furthermore, research shows that disentanglement policies correspond with a higher level of economic well-being.
Measure 105 threatens a return to the show-me-your-papers era of Oregon’s racist past. Oregon is now a battleground for laws that limit local government cooperation with ICE. Measure 105 is backed by a national anti-immigrant hate group, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR is engaged in a nationwide effort to undermine and attack disentanglement laws, end birthright citizenship, and exclude immigrants and their children from full and fair participation in our democracy and social institutions. Oregon was a bellwether state 31 years ago when it passed the country’s first disentanglement law. Defeating Measure 105 will signal that Oregon will not be deterred in protecting and defending the rights of its residents.
To learn more about the history leading up to Oregon’s disentanglement law, read this comprehensive report authored by the Innovation Law Lab, “Belong: Strengthening Oregon’s Disentanglement Statute to Enhance Public Safety, Protect Fundamental Rights, and Promote Collective Prosperity.”
Oregon has a long, shameful history of racial exclusion and oppression. When Oregon became part of the union in 1859, it was explicitly “whites only.” A few years earlier, Oregon passed the infamous “lash law,” dictating that all non-white Oregonians were to be whipped twice a year until they left the state. A 1862 law required Chinese and Hawaiian immigrants and black residents to pay an annual tax to the state; if they couldn’t pay, they were forced into road maintenance crews. In the 1920’s, the state had the highest per capita KKK membership in the country, and law enforcement and city leaders publicly affiliated themselves with the organization.
Oregon’s recent history is not much better. In 1977, police regularly detained perceived immigrants, refusing to let them go until INS could review their documentation (a process which could often take days). On January 9th of that year, Delmiro Trevino, a US citizen of Mexican descent, was interrogated at the Hi Ho Restaurant in Independence, OR. He was grabbed by a deputy and forced to stand in the center of the restaurant in front of other customers, and was released only after he was identified as a “long-time resident” of Independence.
A 2010 report to Portland’s Human Rights Commission found that Multnomah County’s communities of color had “alarming disparities across all systems and institutions, with trends worsening through time.” In 2016, statewide unemployment and poverty rates were shown to be higher for Latino than white Oregonians. In 2018, Ana del Rocia, a Latina elected official, was arrested after a routine TriMet fare check escalated based on a dispute about her name.
Oregon’s Disentanglement Statute (ORS 181A.820) helped forge a path toward a more inclusive Oregon. The statute prohibits local law enforcement from detaining or apprehending someone based solely on their perceived immigration status, focusing limited local resources and money on investigating and preventing crime. Instead of repealing ORS 181A.820, as Measure 105 seeks to do, efforts should be made to strengthen this law.
Protecting Oregon’s communities of color makes everyone safer. Research has repeatedly shown that when communities of color don’t trust law enforcement, everyone suffers. Fear of deportation prevents immigrants, documented or not, from reporting crimes and cooperating with law enforcement. The Woodburn police chief has expressed concern that his department would be negatively affected, were Measure 105 to pass, explaining “it would have a significant impact on the quality of life of our community if the majority of the population quit interacting with police.” A clear division between local law enforcement and federal immigration efforts is essential in reducing crime and protecting communities. Furthermore, research shows that disentanglement policies correspond with a higher level of economic well-being.
Measure 105 threatens a return to the show-me-your-papers era of Oregon’s racist past. Oregon is now a battleground for laws that limit local government cooperation with ICE. Measure 105 is backed by a national anti-immigrant hate group, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR is engaged in a nationwide effort to undermine and attack disentanglement laws, end birthright citizenship, and exclude immigrants and their children from full and fair participation in our democracy and social institutions. Oregon was a bellwether state 31 years ago when it passed the country’s first disentanglement law. Defeating Measure 105 will signal that Oregon will not be deterred in protecting and defending the rights of its residents.
To learn more about the history leading up to Oregon’s disentanglement law, read this comprehensive report authored by the Innovation Law Lab, “Belong: Strengthening Oregon’s Disentanglement Statute to Enhance Public Safety, Protect Fundamental Rights, and Promote Collective Prosperity.”
Five things you should know about Measure 10524OCT
The full text of the ORS 181A.820 statute can be found here.
- Measure 105 seeks to repeal ORS 181A.820, Oregon’s disentanglement law, frequently called the state’s “sanctuary” law. The statute is 31-years-old and was passed with broad bipartisan support and support from law enforcement. It allows local law enforcement to investigate crime and to seek out information about suspects, while directing their resources away from biased policing, racial profiling and immigration enforcement activities. By prohibiting the use of local resources to detect or apprehend immigrants whose only alleged violation of law is an immigration violation, the statute provides clear guidance to law enforcement serving Oregon’s diverse communities.
- ORS 181A.820, the law Measure 105 would repeal, was passed in response to rampant racial profiling in rural communities. Prior to the passage of ORS 181A.820, it was common practice for law enforcement to go to areas with significant Hispanic populations and arbitrarily arrest and detain people until they could prove their citizenship or legal residency. In 1977, Delmiro Trevino, a US citizen of Mexican descent, was publicly interrogated by a group of police officers at the Hi Ho Restaurant in Independence, Oregon. Trevino reported the incident to attorney Rocky Barilla, who filed a class action lawsuit based on Oregon law enforcement’s racially discriminatory practices. The lawsuit paved the way for the creation and subsequent adoption of Oregon’s disentanglement statute.
- Measure 105 was authored by an out-of-state anti-immigrant think tank called the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR boasts close ties to white supremacist organizations and has long track record of supporting anti-immigrant initiatives. Measure 105 is just one of several initiatives that FAIR created to repeal disentanglement laws nationwide; Oregon is the only state that put it on the ballot, making our state a battleground in the nationwide fight to preserve these laws.
- Measure 105 is only supported by two organizations, yet opposed by over 400 organizations and law enforcement professionals. The principal supporters of the measure are FAIR and Oregonians for Immigration Reform (OFIR), both of which have been designated anti-immigrant hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Opponents of the measure include over 400 law enforcement professionals, district attorneys, advocacy groups, and businesses, including the ACLU of Oregon, AFL-CIO, Nike, and Columbia Sportswear.
- If Measure 105 is passed, it will have disastrous effects on community safety. Repealing the disentanglement law leaves space for racial profiling and discrimination, and decreases trust between communities of color and local law enforcement. Research has consistently shown that when immigrant communities do not trust local law enforcement, they are less likely to report a crime if they are a victim or a witness, thus leading to a widespread public safety crisis.
The full text of the ORS 181A.820 statute can be found here.