As reported by The Post Millennial, the Oregon employees were urged via email to complete an online training entitled “Oregon’s Sanctuary Promise,” training them to recognize behavior that would “violate the law,” in the state should they be approached by ICE.
The email from Oregon’s Deputy Director of Administrative Services Debbi Dennis obtained by the outlet read in part:
"A new training will be assigned to you in Workday (starting Friday, Jan. 17) and I want to explain its importance and the timeline for completing the training. The title of the training is Oregon Sanctuary Promise and it covers Oregon's laws relating to our status as a 'sanctuary state.' Many of you know that Oregon was the first state to pass a law (in 1987) prohibiting state and local police and government from helping federal authorities with immigration enforcement."
"This training is about Oregon law and how it affects what state employees can and cannot do. The training will help you identify if you are witnessing behavior that violates the law, and you will know what action to take. And in the rare event that any of us are approached to assist in immigration enforcement, we'll know the steps Oregon law specifies we must take," the Oregon official wrote. "The training takes about 30 minutes, and we have 30 days to complete it. Workday will assign it to you Friday, Jan. 17, and I ask that you make completing it a high priority, working with your supervisor if you experience any workload or other issues that hinder this assignment."
Post Millennial’s Katie Daviscourt published a post to X Saturday, revealing the training slides in detail and writing, “I have obtained documents of Oregon's sanctuary training that instructs state employees not to cooperate with ICE. This includes ordering law enforcement to deny federal immigration requests about illegal migrants in custody for violent crimes.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Additionally, the state of Oregon has a ‘Sanctuary Promise Hotline’ where state employees are urged to report federal immigration authorities. <a href="https://t.co/VrgStfQHIS">pic.twitter.com/VrgStfQHIS</a></p>— Katie Daviscourt 📸 (@KatieDaviscourt) <a href="https://twitter.com/KatieDaviscourt/status/1880798165215203490?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 19, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The cited “Sanctuary Promise Act” requires “all requests made by federal agencies to state and local law enforcement and government agencies regarding immigration enforcement to be documented, reported, and denied," in contradiction to the Supremacy Clause in Article VI of The United States Constitution, and likely queuing the state up for a Supreme Court challenge.
The Supremacy clause establishes the authority of Federal law over the Oregon law in this instance plainly, stating: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
