(NewsNation) — Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield believes the importance of “sanctuary city” laws cannot be overstated.
Rayfield joined “The Hill” to discuss Oregon’s status as a sanctuary state and a Wisconsin judge being arrested and being charged Friday with felony counts of obstruction for allegedly helping an immigrant without documents avoid arrest after he appeared in her courtroom.
“I do worry when you have situations like this, that it does cause problems with the credibility, you know, in these different dynamics,” Rayfield, a Democrat, said of Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan’s arrest.
“And so I think it is incumbent upon all of us to talk about the public policy reasons, the community safety reasons, access to important services is why we have these laws in place.”
As it pertains to the case against Dugan, Rayfield believes it is largely a “factually dependent” situation.
“You do have to follow the laws in our country, and so in this space, I think it’s going to be very interesting to see whether the facts as outlined by the US government are actually accurate. And I think that’s going to be what’s really telling under these circumstances,” he said.
In Oregon, it is against the law for state and local law enforcement or public agencies to participate directly or indirectly in immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant.
“What we want is our immigrant communities, even legal residents, who can be put into a state of fear based upon the Trump administration’s actions, we want them going and talking to law enforcement about crimes that are going on in the community, because we really want to focus on improving safety in our communities,” Rayfield said.