The Oregon Legislature is currently in its 2025 session, and Street Roots is publishing regular updates throughout its duration. For more of this ongoing coverage, visit streetroots.org.
Only 34 working days remain in Oregon’s 160-day legislative session until lawmakers are constitutionally mandated to adjourn Sunday, June 29.
Meanwhile, Tetiana Kamarali waits and worries.
“We continue to witness regular shelling, bombing and killing of innocent Ukrainian civilians,” she told members of the Oregon House Judiciary Committee March 19.
Kamarali testified on Senate Bill 703. The bill directs the Oregon Department of Human Services to provide grants to nonprofits to help immigrants and refugees like Kamarali to change their legal status and remain in the United States.
The Judiciary Committee passed the bill March 26 by a 4-2 vote (with Republicans Mike McLane of Baker City and Kim Thatcher of Keizer voting against it). It spent the next two months in the Joint Committee on Ways and Means.
It still needs to go through the committee process in the House before it can be approved by the full House and sent to Gov. Tina Kotek to sign. Only then can it address the emergency it cited when it was introduced Jan. 13.
Every moment that passes puts people’s lives at risk, Kamarali said.
“Our current situation doesn’t allow us, as working and taxpaying residents, to feel safe, which only deepens our trauma,” she said. “We are showed that despite promises to protect Ukrainians, the current government is now reversing its decision and forcing people to return to unsafe conditions.”
Good, wrote Susan Moor of Bend in submitted testimony.
“You should not be considering sending Oregonians’ tax dollars to organizations that are intent on helping non-citizens circumvent our laws,” Moor wrote. “Only those who have entered the country legally are entitled to be here. We elected a new president to stop this on a national level.”
People often ask why immigrants don’t just apply for citizenship and get in line, testified Danny Rauda, the coordinator of social justice at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Beaverton.
“As a member of a mixed-status family, I know firsthand how costly and complicated this process can be,” he said. “I’ve accompanied family members to costly consultations, only to be told that there’s nothing that can be done.”
In many cases, he added, there is no line unless Congress creates a new pathway to legal status.
“Given the challenges faced by this community under the current administration, we cannot wait for Congress to act,” he said. “This bill takes meaningful action now.”
Lawmakers attempted a similar bill during their 2024 even-year short session, but House Bill 4085 died in the Joint Committee on Ways and Means — the same committee where this year’s bill was sitting at presstime. Another attempt, Senate Bill 703, met the same fate in 2023.
State Sen. Lisa Reynolds, D-Portland, introduced this year’s bill and was a chief sponsor on the two previous bills. She expressed optimism this year.
“This bill gives me hope at a time when immigration policy has become so divisive,” she said.
“Many of our neighbors in Oregon meet the legal requirements to become citizens or permanent residents, and they’ve done everything right and are upstanding members of our communities,” Reynolds said.
“The only thing standing in their way is the red tape and paperwork from our federal government,” she said. “This bill helps our immigrant neighbors to improve their status by providing crucial legal assistance before their case becomes critical.”
According to numbers from the Migration Policy Institute, more than 25,000 undocumented Oregonians are eligible for some form of legal status. Immigrants represent 13% of Oregon’s workforce, with 64% of them working in agriculture.
Yet many of those workers live in fear, Rev. Mark Knutson of Augustana Lutheran Church in Portland told committee members.
“That fear factor alone in this country is enough to cause all of us to act,” Knutson said.
“The mother dropping off her child at school and does not come back — what happens to that child?” he said. “The elder being cared for in a home, the caretaker goes to Rite-Aid and gets taken by ICE and does not return, that person could lay there for days. We have a reality amongst us now that’s causing fear. People across the state are worried. It’s not somebody out there. It’s us.”
Addressing immigration
Other immigration-related bills this session include Senate Bill 599 to prohibit landlords from asking about or disclosing people’s immigration status or rejecting applicants due to immigration status.
The Democrat-led bill was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee March 12 by a 5-1 vote. The bill was passed by the full Senate March 24 by a vote of 21-8 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee where a public hearing was held April 23.
Senate Bill 611 creates the Food for All Oregonians Program in the Oregon Department of Human Services to provide food to people who would qualify for federal food assistance if not for their immigration status.
The Democrat-led bill was passed by the Senate Committee on Human Services April 1 by a 3-2 vote and is now before the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. No committee meetings or floor sessions are scheduled.
Senate Bill 1119 prohibits employers from engaging in unfair immigration-related practices. The Democrat-led bill is in the Senate Committee on Labor and Business. A public hearing and work session were held April 1. No vote was taken. No other committee meetings or floor sessions are scheduled.
Legislature winds down
Time is limited for all the bills as the Legislature starts winding down this month.
A special session is possible, but not likely. Special sessions can be convened by the governor or a majority of legislators in both the House and Senate. Such sessions are called to address emergencies, but no such emergencies appear to be on the horizon.
Then again, one never knows.
Many factors defy prognostication in the waning days of a legislative session. Bills that appeared to die in committee without a public hearing or work session sometimes spring back to life with 11th-hour meetings.
However, ironclad deadlines loom. Second Chamber Deadline arrives Friday, May 23. Bills that started in the House need to be move to the Senate. Conversely, Senate bills must move to the House.
The Revenue Forecast, released Wednesday, May 12, plays a big role in this migration. Presented by number crunchers at the Oregon State Office of Economic Analysis, this month’s forecast will be used to determine the final budget for the 2025-2027 fiscal year.
Legislators get two such forecasts during their six-month regular sessions held every odd-numbered year.
A March forecast is used to determine how much, in broad terms, lawmakers have to spend for the upcoming biennium. This year, budget forecasters projected an ending balance of $2.59 billion.
Their forecast also included a $1.72 billion personal kicker and a $993.1 million corporate kicker. The May forecast refines these figures and helps lawmakers make their final budget decisions.
Given all the variables, determining which bills still stand a chance can be dicey. A record 3,200 bills were proposed during this 83rd Oregon Legislative Assembly.
GOP bills DOA?
Democrats control 36 seats in the Oregon House of Representatives, while Republicans control 24. In the Senate, Democrats control 18 seats to Republicans’ 12.
Bills introduced by the Legislature’s Democratic majority are getting harder to track. They’re moving targets. Many have gone through public hearings and could get committee work sessions and full floor votes in the House and Senate before the Second Chamber Deadline.
Some have been referred to other committees before going to the floor, making predictions about their ultimate fate hazy.
Looking at the bills hanging on by the barest of threads, most of them were introduced by Republicans. However, this could be good news for marginalized Oregonians such as immigrants, refugees and farmworkers, as well as low-income renters and people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
Republican targets
Senate Bill 491, for example, is a Republican bill that directs police to notify federal immigration agents when a person is arrested for drug offenses. State Sen. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, introduced the bill Jan. 13.
It was promptly assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee and hasn’t been seen since.
Smith co-sponsored six bills this session. His Senate Bill 359 would allow people to complain to the Oregon Department of Environment Quality if they believe unsheltered people are dumping waste into state waters.
Introduced Jan. 13 and sent to the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment four days later, that could well be its final resting place. No events are scheduled to save it from destruction by Second Chamber Deadline.
Many Oregon Republicans saw an opportunity with a U.S. Supreme Court case last year to crack down on people sleeping on public property.
Justices ruled in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson June 28 last year that local governments can impose civil and criminal penalties for camping on public land without violating people’s protection under the Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment.
State Sen. Mark Meek, R-Oregon City, introduced House Bill 593 January 13 to repeal House Bill 3115 from the 2021 legislative session. House Bill 3115 established objective reasonableness as a statewide standard for city and county laws regulating people experiencing homelessness on public property.
Meek’s bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee and has yet to see any daylight. Democrats outnumber Republicans on the committee four to two.
A similar fate met a nearly identical bill introduced by Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham of The Dalles. He introduced Senate Bill 645 January 13, but it was sent to the Senate Housing and Development Committee, rather than the Judiciary Committee. However, it appears dead as well.
Meanwhile, in the West Wing of the Capitol, Republican state representatives Dwayne Yunker of Grants Pass, Kevin Mannix of Salem and Ed Diehl of Stayton tried to overturn the 2021 law with House Bills 2432 and 2445. Both appear to have died in the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness.
Anti-immigration efforts
Conservative lawmakers apparently fared little better in attempts to extend the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.
Senate Bill 486, another Smith-sponsored bill, tried to repeal Oregon’s prohibition on the use of public resources to help federal immigration agents. It appears dead in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
On the House side, state Rep. Werner Reschke of Crater Lake saw his House Bill 2192 languish in the House Judiciary Committee. It would have required public bodies that collect people’s personal information to monitor their immigration and citizenship status.
State Rep. Vikki Breese Iverson, R-Prineville, introduced House Bill 3142 to exempt farmers from paying unemployment insurance taxes for immigrant workers on H-2A visas. Despite a February 12 public hearing by the House Committee on Labor and Workplace Standards, it remains moribund.
Choosing sides
Many Republicans also introduced bills to support landlords.
Mannix serves on the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness. He sponsored House Bill 2297 to require tenants to pay accruing rent or face eviction.
He also joined fellow House Republicans Virgle Osborne of Roseburg, Lucetta Elmer of McMinnville and Court Boice of Port Orford in introducing House Bill 2305 to allow landlords to evict tenants after the third violation of a rental agreement or third late rent payment.
Unlike other Republican-led bills, House Bill 2305 received public hearings — on February 17 and 19. It has not been heard from since.
Republicans also tried to repeal rent limits this session. Smith sponsored Senate Bill 496, but there are no signs of life as it sits in the Senate Committee on Housing and Development.
Street Roots contacted the office of House Minority Leader Christine Drazan and Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham for comment on the Republican legislative efforts. However, no one from either office responded.
A ticking clock
However, some Democrat-led bills on housing seem to be faring little better. State Rep. Farrah Chaichi of Beaverton sponsored House Bill 3767 to allow cities to control rent. The bill is sitting in the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness with no committee meetings or floor sessions scheduled.
Whatever happens — or fails to happen — by Second Chamber Day on May 23, there will soon be considerably fewer bills before the Legislature.
Jane Izmirlian, a midwife from Lake Oswego, has her fingers crossed for Senate Bill 703, which would help immigrants and refugees change their legal status and remain in the United States. She submitted written testimony on the immigration bill as she tried to sum up what’s at stake.
“As I sit at a woman’s bedside, waiting for an innocent baby to come into this world, I wonder, ‘Into what world are you coming, little one?’” wrote Izmirlian. “What can I do to protect you other than ensuring gentle passage into this life?
“Let’s pass SB 703 and stand up to the insanity that is happening in our country right now.”
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This article appears in May 14, 2025.