LCC board hears comments on Douglas County anti-sanctuary resolution

Presenter: Public comments Sept. 2 asked the Lane Community College Board of Education to protect students—after Douglas County commissioners said they would not. 

Speakers also honored former LCC student Richard Riordan, who they say was expelled for exercising his First Amendment rights. Jay Smith:

Jay Smith: My name is Jay Smith. I’m an incoming LCC student, and I am here to discuss two main things.

First and foremost, Douglas County recently (the county commission, that is) passed an illegal resolution to abandon Oregon state sanctuary protections and collaborate with ICE.  They did this in secret, abandoning and banning public comment entirely on the matter.

Lane Community College includes northern Douglas County. The board can take action to protect the students that will be affected by this. We cannot stay silent about this matter. 

We are seeking—we are demanding that LCC implement some sort of way to resist this overreach and protect our undocumented community and neighbors.

I can speak from this specifically. There is a need to protect those students the most because they’re some of the most vulnerable people in our community. Their families will be targeted by this.

On the second matter: As I’ve stated before, and I will very likely say it again, Lane Community College has a serious problem with silencing student voices, especially dissident voices.

I can speak on the matter by saying that there is a student who will not be here today, who no longer can be a student at LCC because he was wrongfully and unjustly attacked and treated as though he was some sort of enemy just for speaking out.

I want to speak to the fact that I’m not currently hiding in a bush. I’m not here to ambush anyone. I am not here to say that any one person here needs to change their ways or to call out just general corruption.

I’m here today to comment on the fact that there are multiple, multiple people here who have unequivocally lost the trust of the student body.

Richard (Riordan) can’t be here today. And that’s a tragedy. And I can speak to the fact that if he were here, he would agree with my words. The board members who are guilty of this must face consequences. Thank you.

Presenter: Amelia Hampton:

Amelia Hampton: I’m going fully off-script today, speaking from the heart— speaking from the truth that I know. Today marks almost a full year since Sept. 6, the meeting where our president was, by words dragged through the dirt.

Today also marks a change of leadership, with Mr. Maldonado sitting in the chair position this year, but I ask for this year is change. Change in the tone we accept, change in the tone that we want to see in this room. Because last year I saw my female president, a woman in leadership, attacked verbally. This does not instill faith in me as a woman and as a leader.

So I urge you, Mr. Maldonado, please do not accept such unruly, such attacking behavior from folks. As it was stated previously by our previous board chair, go for the facts, not the people. And that day our president was sought after, not her actions. Thank you.

Lori Kuebler: Hi, my name is Lori Kuebler and I live in Roseburg, Oregon. And I wanted to speak tonight about the Douglas County Commissioner meeting that was on July 22. I attended that meeting, where they just disregarded the Oregon State Sanctuary laws.

Their agenda was unclear to start with. Their No. 9 agenda item, it just said ‘Presentation by Citizens Coalition.’ When we had asked the assistant for a clarification, she just said she didn’t know, wouldn’t answer emails.

At that meeting, Commissioner Tom Kress said due to the vagueness of that agenda item they would wait and take comments till after that item was addressed, and the person who spoke to that was Abbie Malek, who was also in  attendance at the J6 insurrection.

And all she was asking for was for the county commissioners to agree to enforce state, county and federal law. We did have people get up and comment that they should include sanctuary state laws along with that.

At that time, (Douglas County Commissioner) Chris Boice said he had some thoughts of his own. He came out with his prepared speech and at that time it was—it went on for a couple of minutes.

And he essentially said that everyone is in a drug cartel from Mexico on I-5, and that’s who they would be going after.

When we asked for facts and statistics, none of those were given. The meeting was just out of hand. People were screaming and hollering, and then they just agreed to pass that ordinance. They also said that federal law supersedes state law, which is untrue.

At that time, Sheriff (John) Hanlin also got up and prepared a statement saying that he 100% agreed with what they had to say. 

And I’m not sure how they could pass this ordinance. I know it was an opinion ordinance, but from all accounts, they also violated public meeting laws for the state of Oregon.

Rosa Lopez: Hi, this is Rosa Lopez. I work in Career Pathways and in Career Pathways, we have Opening Doors, which serves first-generation immigrants in workforce training. We also have basic needs care and career pathways work for short-term training. And we do a lot of work with English language learners and first-generation immigrants.

So in July of 2026, Douglas County commissioners passed a resolution stating the following, in quotes: ‘Douglas County, Oregon, hereby declares its intent not to be a sanctuary county and opposes the adoption of any state laws, policies, or ordinances or resolutions that would cause it to be designated or operated as such.’

In other words, they are choosing to formally ignore and defy state sanctuary laws.

We are currently living in a terrifying time with ICE abusing their power, especially to people of color. As a Brown person and part of a mixed immigrant family, I find myself fortunate to live in Lane County, Oregon, and am also proud to be at LCC, where we have for decades taken assertive and public approach in our declaration of civil rights and social justice.

Douglas County is right down the road on I-5 and there is unfortunately no avoiding it. I take my children there for soccer games and cross-country meets. Our soccer team is almost mostly immigrant families. LCC students attend and engage in baseball games and other athletic events with Douglas County.

We see many Douglas County residents transition to LCC for studies. We also have many long-term employees with family ties to Douglas County and as such, travel through Douglas County regularly.

If I’m being honest, to me, Douglas County already feels less safe than Eugene and now will be formally less safe. To the person who just commented, the comment that someone in the commissioners stated that they wanted to get the cartel off I-5, well, that is just terrifying to think that I have to be afraid of driving on I-5.

So I know the majority of Oregon is deeply concerned about what is happening in this country right now with regards to the abuse of power by ICE. So many people feel at a loss of what they can do.

I am proud to see that LCC has placed this on the agenda, and wish to applaud this action and continued actions by the board to put pressure on Douglas County to follow state laws. 

This is something we can do and it is important that we stand up for what is right. Thank you for your efforts and commitment to protecting our students and our community.

Ky Fireside: I’m Ky Fireside. I’ve got several things to touch on tonight. 

First is racial justice advocacy. This school was asked for ICE alerts, but fought them until they became a legal requirement from the state. And you still dragged your feet with implementation.

Next. I know this is Lane, but part of the school district’s boundaries cross into Douglas County. As you’ve already heard tonight, Douglas recently decided they will not be following sanctuary state law. I request you attempt to redeem yourselves in the realm of racial justice and seek a legal solution to this Douglas County problem.

Speaking of legal solutions, you’re spending an awful lot of money on legal fees—fighting unions, violating student civil rights. That money could be better spent. 

You’ve got an administration operating with no integrity, stacking up these legal fees, which could be avoided if only there were any sense of ethics to be found. But ethics are not a strong suit here.

Nobody consented to have our data sold or shared with Linn-Benton (Community College). 

All of these issues are related. We’ve got an overreaching, tyrannical, fascist regime at the federal level, and any amount of personal data that they can gather, they will use against us. They do it already. It will continue.

Protect your students, protect their data, and protect this community. Thank you.

Jack Kimball: Hello, I’m Jack Kimball. I’m a former student of Lane Community College, and I am here to implore you to protect the students, as a few have already done to protect the students of Lane Community College. 

And in reference to the situation with Douglas County and how they are disregarding our Oregon state sanctuary law. And we do not need ICE officers targeting them, targeting students, targeting people, taking them away or anything else.

Douglas County should be respecting state sanctuary law. And I would ask that you do what you can, too, on that matter. Thank you.

Presenter: Timothy Herrera:

Timothy Herrera: My name is Timothy. And as someone who works with nonprofits who provide bilingual education services in Lane County and as a former faculty member at the U of O, I know firsthand how students put trust into colleges, how those students contribute greatly to enrich our state, and how our higher education has been a place to advocate for students of all backgrounds, and LCC needs to continue to do so.

The resolution in Douglas County violated state law. (A) Douglas County can’t opt out of Oregon law. On top of being a clear violation of our state law, the resolution was not listed on the public agenda, and the public was not given an opportunity to comment before the commissioners voted.

Our state laws are not optional. Our sanctuary law makes sure our local tax dollars are used to promote safety for all Oregonians, and not to help ICE tear our families and neighbors from our community.

Over the past year, we have seen how harmful ICE has been in our community and how these agencies are already functioning with a bloated budget. Earlier this year, Congress handed over billions of dollars of federal dollars to the DHS, ICE, and Customs and Border Patrol.

This month, three people were killed during interactions with ICE. Not only should ICE not be in our streets, we should not. We must ensure that our local resources should not be supporting this violent agency.

Our sanctuary law was passed in 1987 after decades of rampant racial profiling in Oregon, and it states that police cannot stop, detain, or interrogate you just because of how you look.

People make Oregon home because of the dream of what we all want to live safely, care for their families, and contribute to our communities. Many have faced unimaginable circumstances and are fleeing persecution and violence.

Oregon is the oldest sanctuary state in the country. And so today, what will the board do to protect our students, our communities, and to reform Oregon’s sanctuary policies?

And then with my last minute, I just want to make a comment to something that was addressed earlier about the monument being put up at Alton Baker.

Presenter: He was responding to public comments by David Igl, who has cited U.S. Census data to contest that Eugene was a sundown town. David has also strongly criticized the use of public funds to share that narrative on a monument near the Ferry Street Bridge. Timothy Herrera:

Timothy Herrera: I am really supportive of that monument and I’m glad LCC is too and I just want to clear up any misinformation.

Oregon had exclusionary laws for Black communities in our Constitution, and after that there was other exclusionary laws around land ownership. 

In addition, in the ‘ 30s, right before the Ferry Street Bridge community was created, the KKK was really prolific in the ‘30s and it was one of the largest headquarters here in Oregon and nationwide.

And that is not the first time Eugene has displaced Black communities as well. So it’s a really important history. And I’m glad LCC is supporting that. Thank you.

Presenter: Will Garrahan: 

Will Garrahan: Hi, my name is Will. I am a law student studying sociology. I’d like to congratulate a board member who campaigned on accessibility for all and his continued demonstration of his commitment to accessibility for students by banning a student from Lane Community College for exercising his First Amendment right. 

He’s the exact kind of public official we need right now at Lane Community College—someone who silences freedom of speech while fascists are dismantling our higher education system.

I’d also like to say thank you to our tireless dean of student disengagement for signing off on this. That’ll be all.

Presenter: Lane Student Government Association President Braydon Michael Olson:

President Braydon Michael Olson: I come here today after a very long last couple of days, but educating days, spending a student leadership retreat out with many LCC leaders, where we met with many other community college leaders from around the state.

And they taught me a lot of things. Some of these things I want on everybody’s mind today before we start the academic year.

A few of the most important are respect and the practice of humility. In spring, my successor will prepare to step into my role, and as I help them, I will have to prepare them for the disrespect they will face.

We, the students, have noticed a pattern, a pattern of how the student president is treated; a pattern of how student groups are treated, and a pattern of how students themselves are treated. The basis of this disrespect lies in a lack of humility. 

It’s high time that the people of this campus have learned to humble themselves. Time after time on campus, I have heard the answer to a problem be, ‘It’s worse somewhere else,’ or ‘It’s out of our control,’ which effectively blames someone else. And then the problem is forgotten.

This is disrespectful, not only because that concerned student hasn’t forgotten and has come to me looking for a new solution. It’s disrespectful to those experiencing the problem because you lack the humility to help them. 

And I will not say I’ve been a perfect case, but I have learned the balance of power and to have a humble attitude. It’s because that I put myself out there to listen and to learn. I remember the people who elected me, and I remember that I’m not the president of the students, but the students’ president.

I learned and saw how students don’t turn their backs on problems. They help. Others went down. They are creative problem solvers who do not take ‘It is what it is’ from anyone.

Best scenario I could give is, if any day Vice President (Amaya) Peralta of ASUO called me and said, ‘Please, I need your help,’ I would say, ‘You call OSU and I will call Linn-Benton. And we’ll tackle this problem together here on campus or in Salem at the Capitol if necessary.’

We do this together because students, people don’t expect us to solve a problem by pushing down another. And to accomplish goals at the expense of others is disrespectful to the people who put you here, the people who’ve entrusted you with the power to change.

And I don’t speak just to board members. I say this to every leader in the room. We have all been offered the option for a quick solve at another’s expense. Us real leaders ignore it. 

And if you can’t do that respectfully, you don’t belong in this room. I implore you all to learn and change. And if you don’t, at least have the humility to step down.

I also say this to the folks in the room that have expertly learned the passage of nodding their head in agreeance with a lot of the things that the student body president says up here. And many of those are egregious in their disrespect that they have caused for myself, the past president and President Sophie (Gibson).

And I ask, to you and those who have caused harm for our students, to learn humility and truly have the courage to step down if you can’t. Thank you.

Presenter: At Lane Community College Sept. 2, public comments draw attention to actions by Douglas County, and ask that the board treat students with more respect.