SB 11: Immigrants with Guns

Senators Thatcher and Weber, along with Representative Diehl, have introduced SB 11, a bill requiring arresting law enforcement officers to inquire about the citizenship status of a person arrested who is also found to have a firearm. The proposed law would also require notification of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency if the person is not a U.S. citizen.

This effort to undermine Oregon’s sanctuary policies fits into a general consideration of the moment: prioritization. The sheer number of illegal immigrants in this country makes a full round-up logistically impracticable, so the deportation lobby needs to qualify which, of the limited number of folks we can deport, should go.

These Oregon legislators chose gun possession. Maybe that’s designed as catnip for their counterparts. Progressives tend not to have conservatives’ irrational fear of immigrants, but they do have an irrational fear of guns.

Therefore, this bill is just another cost that a mass deportation policy imposes on us. In addition to the inflationary effects of deporting a nontrivial chunk of our workforce, it compels Republicans to think it’s a good idea to help the federal government track gun ownership.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.