Anti-Immigrant Ordinance Voided in Columbia County

On April 13th, the immigrants' rights movement won a crucial and hard-fought victory in Columbia County when Circuit Court Judge Ted Grove ruled invalid as unenforceable the voter-approved ordinance requiring fines and license revocation for businesses in the County that hire undocumented workers.

The court case caps a grueling organizing and electoral campaign which began in summer 2007 when County resident Wayne Mayo first filed anti-immigrant initiative petitions. One measure proposed the fines and revocations; the other called for 4' x 8' signs stating "LEGAL WORKERS ONLY" at all construction sites in the County.

Columbia County, northwest of Portland, is also home to the Rural Organizing Project (ROP), a statewide human rights/human dignity organization and staunch immigrants' rights ally. ROP and its legal team successfully challenged the first two version of Mayo's initiatives but the third version he submitted did pass legal muster and qualified for the November 2008 ballot.

With support from CAUSA and Basic Rights Oregon, among others, ROP led the electoral opposition and put together an impressive coalition of local businesses, churches and prominent leaders, many new to ROP's cause. On election day, the "sign" ordinance lost, but the employer sanctions measure passed.

The Latino community in Columbia County is small and growing but, until recently, unorganized. ROP's campaign spurred formation of the County's first Latino organization, Latinos United for a Better Future which organized a high profile procession to the county courthouse in St. Helen's on February 18th.

The legal win has, for now, halted a major threat to all workers of "foreign" appearance, and it de-railed a potentially dangerous precedent. Mayo and his supporters are likely try to "fix" the ordinance's language and re-start the initiative process. The Columbia County struggle garnered national attention. Time magazine, published a long article (see the quote in the Editorial "Signs on the Road to Legalization").

We salute ROP and the legal team, which included the Northwest Workers Justice Project, the Oregon ACLU and the Immigration Law Group, among others.