Bill requiring schools to alert families, staff about ICE on campus moves forward in Oregon Legislature

Article by Libby Dowsett & KGW:

SALEM, Ore. — An Oregon bill aimed at increasing transparency around immigration enforcement at schools is now moving through the legislature.

House Bill 4079 would require all public schools and universities to notify students, families and staff if federal immigration agents are on campus. 

Lawmakers have said word spreads quickly about immigration enforcement near schools, including in the case of a Beaverton father who was detained while dropping off his child at preschool in July. But some are pushing for a better system to ensure information about immigration activity near schools is accurate.

"When there's immigration or rumors ... of immigration actions, even around schools, that they'll see absences increase for two or three days afterwards," said the bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Sarah Finger McDonald, D-Corvallis. 

McDonald said the bill's goal is to reduce fear and confusion, especially in immigrant communities, by requiring schools to send out alerts when there's confirmed ICE activity on or near school campuses, as well as to leave at least one school official trained to identify and verify judicial warrants on campus. 

"We're not asking them to confront ICE," she said. "We're asking them to ask questions of people who are showing up on the school campus, and they would do the same for anyone who shows up on school campus who is unexpected."

But not everyone agrees this bill is necessary or even safe. One opponent who submitted public testimony to the Senate Committee to Education wrote, "It is not now, nor ever has it been, a local school district's function to interfere with ... Any law enforcement official."

As for requiring schools to send out alerts, Oregon Republican Rep. Ed Diehl of East Salem argued the bill creates an unnecessary mandate, saying, "Local school districts already have the freedom and authority to establish policies that protect students."

McDonald said schools could use their current communication systems, just like the system used by the West Linn-Woodville school district in October to inform parents and students that federal agents were spotted near Wood Middle School. At the time, federal agents claimed they were conducting surveillance of a neighborhood and that they thought they were on public property at the time; parents were still informed.

But McDonald said this bill ensures those alerts will be sent out.

"There's a lot of concern about how the fear — and very justified fear — in our communities is impacting the ability to show up at school and learn," she said.

McDonald said she expects the bill to move out of committee and head to the full Senate for a vote before the end of the short session.