In 1987, the Oregon State Legislature passed HB 2314 which prohibited the use of state and local law enforcement resources to detect or apprehend persons whose only violation was being in the country without documentation. The bipartisan bill passed nearly unanimously. Thirty years later, the issue of so-called sanctuary laws has become an intensely partisan issue and the pioneering Oregon law has become a model for states looking to restrict local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

The historically significant documents related to the passage of the law are now available online for the public, students, educators, and policy makers. The documents and files include digitized copies of bill versions, committee meeting minutes, exhibits, and audio from committee meetings. A timeline has been created to help provide context and another way to access the documents and files. Additionally, to provide context and current relevancy we’ve included a conversation with two of the people responsible for getting the law passed.

The research for this project was conducted by Tina Ching, law reference librarian at the University of Oregon, and Shiwanni Johnson, law student at the University of Oregon School of Law. Funding for this research was provided by the American Association of Law Libraries Research Fund (An Endowment Established by LexisNexis®).

Acknowledgement

This research was made possible through the support of the University of Oregon Libraries with special thanks to Erin Stoddart, Justin Demsky, Marcie Stout, Kate Thornhill, Gabriele Hayden, and Jonathan Cain.