This is a rewrite of a post I made last week on My Own Humble Blog Columbiablues.com. It's different in two major respects: First, it's assumed at Columbiablues that you know who Wayne Mayo is and what measures 5-190 and 5-191 are (not to mention where the hell Columbia County,Oregon is) I'll introduce them all beneath the fold. Second I have scans of the two measures and the applicable Oregon state law on my blog. I'm not going to photobucket the scans-if you want to look at them you can see my post here
I feel this is an important issue because it illustrates how the right wing distracts the left and forces us to use our resources with uncoordinated, yet systematic attacks.
Now-on to my post:
Columbia County is a rural county just northwest of Portland, Oregon (Bill in Portland Maine is all the way hell and back across the damn country). It's bounded by the mighty Columbia river on the east and north, Clatsop county to the west (just as rural all the way to the Pacific), with Multnomah county (think Portland) and Washington county (think Nike, Intel and the silicon forest) to the south.
Columbia County's main industries are wood products (lotsa trees), gravel (some primo shit here!), nurseries and farms (the sweet corn is coming in soon! Hot Damn!).
While it's rural, as I said, where I live in southeast Columbia County, there's also the fact that it's become (and becoming more so) a bedroom community of Portland, Not Maine. It's got about a 2-1 registration advantage of Democrats over republicans with about the same amount of Independents as republicans. The county went a bit for Hillary in the primary, but as rural as it is, I've yet to see the elusive Puma we've all been hearing about.
Now, the housing crisis hasn't hit Oregon as hard as many other places in the country. Chalk that up to the fact that we're a little behind the times here, we have an "urban growth boundary" around our cities and towns to prevent sprawl and we're still benefiting(?) from an influx of economic refugees from California. So, we're we're not doing too bad here, at least in south Columbia county (the rest of Columbia county is another story, but that's another story). I will point out that there is a subdivision at the head of my country road that is ready to go. It has electricity, water, sewer, it even has the roads platted out. When they got that done about 4 months ago, they just stopped. Dead. So, when I say it's not too bad here, that's subjective. The value of my home has supposedly dropped more than 7% in the last year (doesn't really matter, since I'm not selling), but after 10 years of double digit growth in home prices, it's not a disaster like in other parts of the country. That may change, but for now they're still building, just not as much.
Now, I've struggled as to whether I should even introduce Wayne Mayo, but he's central to the narrative and, if you google a little bit, you'll realize he's a bit of a hero on just about every anti-immigration blog on the toobs.
Wayne is a local construction contractor, and he's upset that the big jobs have been going to big home builders. So, his solution is to blame "immigrants". The county commissioners refused to buy in, so he "took it to the people".On we traipse...
Measure 5-190 would impose a $10,000 fine on any business found to be employing undocumented workers.
Measure 5-191 mandates a 4X8 plywood sign saying ‘Legal Workers Only’ at construction sites.
So Wayne Mayo’s got his two anti-immigrant measures on the November ballot, by turning in the required number of signatures.
There are so many things wrong with these measures, on so many levels, that I’ve had a hard time even starting to write about it.
I’m Serious, Damn It!
The reasons extend to Hazelton, Pennsylvania and Riverside, New Jersey, to Arizona and south of the border; Mexico, South and Central America. The reasons extend to the federal government and the courts and it looks like the Supremes will have the final say on issues like this. The reasons also extend to Oregon state law.
Let’s start there, shall we? I’ll expand on the other issues in later posts. It’s the only way I can keep it all straight.
And please bear with me-I want you to see the scans of the documents that I picked up from the Columbia County clerk. The first 2 pages are Ballot Measure 5-190 (the Ballot Title was changed). The third page is Ballot Measure 5-191. These are what will be on the ballot in November. The last page is the applicable state law. You can skip down to the bottom for my (layman) analysis (or you can read them all, but that makes you as big a dork as I am).Sigh. So where the hell do I start with this?
I guess I’ll start with this; from Ballot Measure 5-190:
The "county attorney" would investigate complaints as directed by the measure.
Just what the hell is the "county attorney"? Again, I’m just a guy, but for the life of me, I can’t find a "county attorney"! There’s a District Attorney and I’m sure there’s plenty of lawyers that advise the county on the legalities of what they want to do or not do, but what’s the "county attorney"? I guess nobody else knows either, since they actually had to "qualify" the term with "quotation marks". Color me confused.
And then there’s the very next sentence:
Any action brought against any employer will require notifying the federal government and local law enforcement.
O.K., so that’s a little more clear. Our mythical county attorney notifies-um-ICE? Or the FBI? How about FEMA, because this IS a disaster waiting to happen. The "county Stazi Guy attorney" also has to notify "local law enforcement".
Ouch. It seems that at this point measure 5-190 runs smack-dab into ORS 181.850:
(1) No law enforcement agency of the State of Oregon or of any political subdivision of the state shall use agency moneys, equipment or personnel for the purpose of detecting or apprehending persons whose only violation of law is that they are persons of foreign citizenship present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws.
So, what’s a local law enforcer to do? My guess is absolutely nothing. Oregon law is pretty clear on this. The cops can’t go after somebody simply because they’re here illegally. They have to break another law first (anything-from spittin’ on the sidewalk to murder-but a law has to be broken).
To put it another way, a cop has to have a reason to pull you over, even if he has to make it up (this has happened to me; I was followed by one of Our Finest and finally pulled over because my license plate was "registered to a Ford pickup". When I objected (I bought my truck new and had just re-registered), I was told to "stay calm" and, after checking my license, registration and insurance, I was left to go on my merry way, with an apology. I think they were actually looking for drunk drivers-I was coming home from the late shift and it was 2am.The point is this: if I had been drunk, I’m sure I would have gotten a dui, even though the reason for pulling me over was bullshit! But I digress. Let’s get back to our analysis, shall we?)
By the way, if the "county attorney" is the District Attorney, then he’s "law enforcement". And if it’s just our local Stazi Guy being payed out of the funds that normally pay for your roads, water, sewer, schools, etc because;
This program would funded by the county’s general fund
I’d still have to say this is law enforcement. Only, it’s coming out of other vital services, so, which service do you want to cut to hunt down those waskuwy iweegal awiens? Wayne seems to be trying to weasel around ORS 181.850, but I’m just not seeing it.
Then there’s this:
The county commission would be required to hold hearings on violations.
Huh? Is the county commission a court? Will they mete out punishment? If not, then what’s the sense of having them hold hearings?
Wayne, Wayne, Wayne! Don’t you believe in efficient government? ’cause this ain’t the way to get there. This is a dozen lawsuits waiting to happen.
I mean, let’s back track to the first sentence of 5-190’s Statement and look at this:
This measure would make it illegal for any employer to knowingly or intentionally hire unauthorized aliens
"Any employer". Part of Wayne’s spiel is that these ballot measures apply only to construction sites. Maybe 5-191 does, but this is what ballot measure 5-190 says. "Any employer".
That means any of our local nurseries. That means any of our other local businesses. That means that if I am not satisfied with a meal at any one of our fine dining establishments and I notice what I think is an "illegal" in the kitchen, I can turn them in! And the restaurant have to prove that the "illegal" is really "legal" and that they did not "knowingly or intentionally hire unauthorized aliens"-that is, unless they sue the county for breaking Oregon State law! Me, I’d sue the county’s ass off and I’d win. It also means that if I’m pissed off at a certain construction company, because they are more efficient and professional than I am, I can make an anonymous phone call and shut them down because;
The measure sets out a system of penalties. These include fines of up to $10,000, suspension of licenses and suspensions of building permits.
So, if you’re a business, and you get "the call" informing you that someone has complained about you having brown people working, whacha gonna do? Me, I’d sue the county’s ass off. And I’d win.
One last thing. I’ve talked to several business people and they’ve all mentioned the same thing-that federal law is very clear: you can’t give out an employee’s information without a court order (a warrant?). So that means our "County Stazi Guy Attorney" has to go to court and get a warrant for the employee’s info based on the fact that someone doesn’t like the look of him (or her). Would a judge grant this? I don’t know. But I’d sue the county’s ass off. And I’d win.
The sister measure to 5-190 is 5-191. That's a diary until itself and since I can only post one diary a day, I'll post that one tomorrow. There's also several more diaries that I'm working on relating to this.
I want make sure that I give hat tips to Columbia County Citizens for Human Dignity (ccchd). They're the ones spearheading the effort to derail this travesty. They've just spent a buttload of money to get their arguments into the voters pamphlet, so don't be afraid to go and give them some love! I've given to them, but being unemployed (thanks George), I've got more time than cash, so I'm doing some door to door and this. After all, I'm just a guy.
Shout out to my local paper, the South County Spotlight! They've just reported this today. It seems that the county agrees with me. These measures are illegal. But for different reasons. 'S'all good.