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Civil Rights

June 14, 2018

Oregon's U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, with House members Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader, demanded that the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately allow individuals being held at a federal prison in Sheridan, Ore., under the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance policy" to access legal services through free phone calls.

Issues:Civil Rights

June 12, 2018
"Separating families as a punishment for seeking a safe future for themselves and their children through lawfully-established channels is deeply abhorrent and can lead to permanent harm to the health and well-being of these children. This approach is as cruel as it is misguided, and it should be abandoned."
Issues:Civil Rights

June 12, 2018
“We are deeply concerned by reports that [Bureau of Prisons] and ICE are hindering detainees’ access to legal counsel, consular staff, and family communication in this facility. We request that you immediately allow detainees to access legal service providers through free telephone calls," the delegation wrote.
Issues:Civil Rights

June 11, 2018
Congressman Kurt Schrader, with Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Earl Blumenauer, and Peter DeFazio, sent a series of letters demanding answers to questions that remain unresolved around the management of Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon.

June 6, 2018
Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici questioned Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar about the Trump Administration’s decision to separate children from their parents during immigration proceedings.
Issues:Civil Rights

June 6, 2018

WASHINGTON — Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, denied on Wednesday that Trump administration policies were driving up health insurance costs, which many experts expect to surge again in 2019.


June 6, 2018

Oregon Democratic Rep. Suzanne Bonamici questions H.H.S. Sec. Alex Azar about the policy of separating children and parents when arrested at the border: "Is the policy of separating children from their parents in the best interest of those children?"

H.H.S. Sec. Alex Azar responds: "Individual children are separated from their parents only when those parents cross the border illegally and are arrested. We can't have children with parents who are in incarceration, so they are given to me."

Issues:Civil Rights

June 6, 2018

During a congressional hearingWednesday, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar testified in front of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce on the "policies and priorities of the U.S.


May 26, 2018

RENO, NEV.

The family of a 22-year-old train passenger found severely injured next to railroad tracks in Truckee, California, suspects he may have been the victim of a hate crime, but Amtrak said Saturday that investigators have found no evidence of foul play.

Aaron Salazar's family believes the Portland State University student, who is gay, was attacked and didn't jump from the westbound train, the Reno Gazette Journal report ed.

Issues:Civil Rights

May 25, 2018

Federal investigators are looking into age discrimination complaints against Intel, responding to allegations that the company's layoffs in 2015 and 2016 disproportionately targeted older workers, according to information reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the investigation Friday.