AG Sessions will address DACA and sanctuary cities with Portland officials
United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions is coming to Portland today. On Sept. 5, Sessions announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA would be rescinded.
This news left many young, undocumented immigrants uncertain about their futures in the United States. Today, two weeks after his DACA announcement, Sessions is planning to address immigration policy to a closed meeting of undisclosed officials in Portland, Oregon, according to Willamette Week.
It has since been confirmed that Sessions will be speaking at 1 p.m. at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services offices at NW 14th and Overton in the Pearl District.
Approximately 800,000 DACA recipients have been granted the ability to live, work and study within the U.S. through the program former President Barack Obama enacted during his time in office.
Sept. 5 not only saw Sessions announcing the cutting of the Obama era policy, but also saw about a thousand people demonstrating in support of DACA recipients at Terry Schrunk Plaza here in Portland.
Sessions’ visit will likely be met with a similar size crowd when he comes into town today. As crucial details of the event—including where it will be held and who will be in attendance—are not known, organizers of the protest are scrambling to mobilize a protest at the appropriate location.
Voz Hispana Cambio Comunitario has joined with Milenio.org and Portland Resistance to coordinate the protest and find out more information about what the event will entail. The event page named “Protest Jeff Sessions in Portland” calls Sessions an immigration hardliner largely responsible for the end of DACA.
In the past, Sessions has warned sanctuary cities to expect punishment for their polices and threatened to withhold federal funding for cities whose police departments do not work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.
“When cities like Philadelphia, Boston, or San Francisco advertise that they have these policies, the criminals take notice,” Sessions said in a July 12 speech on sanctuary cities. “According to a recent study from the University of California Riverside, cities with these policies have more violent crime on average than those that don’t.”
Sessions’ public reports on sanctuary cities and their policies in relation to crime rates have been misleading. According to researchers who published the study Sessions cited, the data does not actually reflect any significant correlation between violent crime and sanctuary policies.
Mother Jones just reported that on Sept. 15, a federal judge created a nationwide injunction blocking Sessions’ move to hold back funds from cities maintaining sanctuary status.