The Portland City Council voted unanimously to oppose a controversial
Arizona state law that allows police to check the immigration status of
anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.
The vote was
4-0, with city commissioner Dan Saltzman absent. The Portland resolution
allows the city attorney to assist in legal efforts by the mayors
of Flagstaff and Tucson to overturn the Arizona law. The resolution also
allows city lobbyists to push for stronger Oregon laws against racial
profiling.
Portland’s measure stops short of boycotts called by
Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities to stop travel to
Arizona and contracts with companies based in Arizona. Mayor Sam Adams
does not think boycotts are useful or legal.
Portland’s city
council is — based on their skin color — glaringly white. Still, each
member spoke eloquently about the un-American nature of judging people
on the way they talk or the color of their skin.
Commissioner Nick
Fish said he knows many people who could be "targeted" by the new law in
Arizona, including his mother-in-law, who after three decades in the
United States still speaks imperfect English, with a Spanish accent.
Commissioner
Amanda Fritz emigrated from England. She said she knows her accent “is
considered charming by folks, sometimes,” but that goodwill doesn’t
apply to all accents.
“We are serious about equal rights in
Portland, in Oregon, in the United States, aye,” she said.
Mayor
Sam Adams, who is openly gay, said the pushback his office has received
to this resolution pales compared with the pressure on the two Arizona
city mayors opposed to the anti-illegal immigration law.
“I
would encourage everyone to do everything they can to support those two
cities,” he said.
-- Janie Har
