By:Jade Rayner News Editor
The movement to declare Monmouth, Oregon a sanctuary city is one that began roughly two months ago by a concerned member of the community and has gained a growing amount of support since then.
There is no concrete definition for what it means to be as sanctuary city; it varies from place to place. For a city to declare sanctuary status, it’s stating that it will protect its citizens from unlawful prosecution from federal immigration, relating to the Oregon law ORS 181A.820 that states: “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.”
According to information provided by Western student Hector Virgen-Marquez, the proposal to make Monmouth a sanctuary city was brought to Monmouth City Council by Patty Dixon, a concerned member of the community that was trying to help other community members. She was met by a motion from city council member Laurel Sharmer, but it was not met with a second. Therefore, the proposal did not pass.
Upon hearing about this, Virgen-Marquez explained that, “Marshall Guthrie the director of the Student Enrichment Program had heard of this, and rallied a few students together to make a second proposal. He contacted students from MEChA de WOU, and UNIDOS and brought six motivated students together to propose, for a second time, that Monmouth declare sanctuary city status.” The students involved were Evelyn Guzman, Sandy Estelle, Juan Navarro, Jaime Hernandez, Aminadab Diaz and Hector Virgen-Marquez.
Additionally, Western student Erika Azua and Dr. Maureen Dolan, Professor of Sociology led an outreach committee to reach out to other members of the community, Western administrators, businesses and clergy leadership.
During the Feb. 7, 2017 Monmouth city council meeting, the six Western students brought up the sanctuary city proposal. Much like the first time with Dixon, the proposal was met by a motion from council member Sharmer, but no second was offered by the remaining city council members. “Needless to say, this was a great defeat, as we had failed to prove to our council members that this is an important topic that deserves discussion in a public setting such as this. But regardless, that only helped fuel energy to push us to try again,” Virgen-Marquez stated.
When asked what it would mean to the Western community for Monmouth to declare itself a sanctuary city, Hector Virgen-Marquez replied, “… it will show the students at Western that the city they live in also cares about them, and for those who are currently under a degree of fear – it shows that they are able to go out to the city without feeling uncomfortable and anxious of federal prosecution.”
These students will be bringing the proposal to the Monmouth City Council again on Feb. 21, 2017.
Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu
