Gov. Tina Kotek discusses legislative priorities in the 2026 short session in a meeting with reporters at the Oregon State Capitol on Jan. 28, 2026. (Photo by Mia Maldonado/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
Gov. Tina Kotek and mayors of 31 cities have a message for the federal government: Stop all immigration enforcement in Oregon until recent violent incidents in Minneapolis, Portland and elsewhere are fully investigated.
Kotek and the mayors sent aletterto Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House border czar Tom Homan on Thursday, saying they represent communities that are afraid of and morally opposed to federal officers’ tactics.
“The actions of your officers are not making our communities safer,” they wrote. “Parents are afraid to take their children to school. Families are avoiding health care. People are scared to go to work or even go to the store for essentials, let alone support a range of small businesses. The actions of your officers, especially the use of lethal force, are damaging local economies and hurting the people we are responsible for protecting and serving.”
Most of the 31 mayors who signed onto the letter represent cities in the Portland region and Willamette Valley, but it also includes signers from the coast, Central Oregon and Rogue Valley.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Eugene Mayor Kaarin Knudson, both of whom have navigated recent incidents of federal officers using tear gas on protesters outside federal buildings in the state’s largest and third-largest cities, signed the letter. Salem Mayor Julie Hoy, whovoted in Decemberagainst declaring a state of emergency over increased immigration enforcement in Oregon’s second-largest city, did not.
While most of the mayors who signed come from liberal-leaning cities, the list of signers also includes the mayors of the deeply Republican city of Detroit, which President Donald Trump won by 45 points in 2024, and Carlton and Dayton, two small Yamhill County cities he won by double digits.
The letter included a commitment to the state’s decades-old sanctuary law that prohibits local governments from using their resources to enforce federal immigration law. Oregon voters upheld that law by a 2-to-1 margin in 2018.
“Our message to our immigrant and refugee communities is unequivocal: We stand with you. You belong here,” it ended. “Our message to your administration is equally clear: Current practices must change immediately.”
Commented