A group of immigrants rights organizations are suing Multnomah County, claiming the county and its sheriff’s office are violating Oregon’s sanctuary state law. 

The suit, filed in circuit court earlier this month, claims that Multnomah County is unlawfully agreeing to hold individuals detained by the U.S. Marshals Service for violations of federal immigration law even after they have posted bail or a judge has ordered their release. 

In one case, the organizations filing the suit allege, Multnomah County held a man for three days for immigration-related reasons after a judge ordered his release. 

“In order to comply with the Sanctuary Promise Act, our local officials should not be using their resources to aid ICE in doing their job,” Marirose Piciucco, a board member at the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, said. “Because that’s a federal job, and the feds have their own resources.”

Oregon’s sanctuary state law, which was passed back to 1987, forbids local law enforcement agencies from using state resources for the purposes of immigration enforcement and from cooperating with federal law enforcement agencies in regards to immigration. 

In 2018, during Donald Trump’s first term as president, Oregon voters backed the sanctuary law—voting down a ballot measure that would have repealed the law by a margin of more than 25 percentage points. State lawmakers then strengthened the law in 2021. 

The status of sanctuary law was in the headlines again over the summer, when Attorney General Pam Bondi demanded that Oregon and other states and municipalities repeal their sanctuary laws—a demand Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek quickly rejected.

But while Oregon’s voters and elected leaders remain committed to the sanctuary law, the lawsuit in Multnomah County and events elsewhere in the state are raising questions about whether local law enforcement agencies are fully in compliance with it. 

The lawsuit in Multnomah County hinges on the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office intergovernmental agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service, a federal law enforcement agency located under the auspices of the Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice.

The U.S. Marshals have historically been responsible for assisting the federal judiciary by apprehending federal criminal suspects, protecting courthouses, managing criminal assets, and more. 

This year, however, the Marshals’ role has been expanded: shortly after Trump was inaugurated in January, the Department of Homeland Security authorized the Marshals and a select number of other law enforcement bodies to perform the “functions of an immigration officer.” 

That authorization means U.S. Marshals can act as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers would—apprehending and detaining people for violations of immigration law even if they have not committed any crime. 

This is a germane issue in Oregon because a number of county jails in the state, including Multnomah County and Columbia County, contract with the U.S. Marshals for the use of their jail cells on a per diem basis—an arrangement that can help counties finance their jail systems.

According to the lawsuit, Multnomah County entered into its agreement with the U.S. Marshals in 2019—agreeing to hold and maintain “Federal detainees,” including individuals “who are awaiting a hearing on their immigration status or deportation.” 

The suit notes that the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said in November that it will no longer incarcerate people for immigration violations, but claims that the county has held people for alleged immigration violations at multiple facilities this year and that its agreement with the U.S. Marshals remains legally unchanged. 

The plaintiffs want the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office to modify its agreement with the U.S. Marshals to remove language about holding people detained for immigration purposes and ban the county from entering into similar agreements in the future. 

“In my view, unless the contracts have been amended to reflect that that practice will no longer happen, there's always the possibility—if a new sheriff’s in town—that they go look at this contract and say, ‘Hey, we can do this,’” Piciucco said. 

A Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit, but confirmed the existence of “an intergovernmental agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service to hold federal prisoners in the Multnomah County Jail.”

The spokesperson said that the jail is generally not made aware of the reasons why people are booked and only records charges filed against people held there. 

The Columbia County Sheriff's Office similarly denied that anyone incarcerated under the authority of the U.S. Marshals at the county jail is being held for immigration-related reasons, and said the charges those individuals are facing include illegal possession of firearms and intent to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine.

“They are not ICE holds," Columbia County Sheriff Brian Pixley told the Mercury. "They're not here for immigration purposes at all. We make sure there's some sort of valid federal hold on them. They have to have a legal reason to be here."

Sheriff Pixley noted that holding someone on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security or ICE would violate state sanctuary laws.

But the ongoing relationships between the U.S. Marshals and Oregon sheriff’s offices and county jails continue to draw scrutiny—in part because, across the country, ICE and local and state law enforcement agencies routinely coordinate to facilitate deportations. 

One of the primary ways in which those local and state agencies can assist federal immigration authorities is through honoring “ICE detainers,” a practice wherein the Department of Homeland Security—which is notified whenever someone is booked into a jail—can ask local authorities to hold people for up to 48 hours to allow ICE extra time to take them into federal custody. 

The practice, which has been challenged on constitutional grounds, does not appear to be legal in Oregon under the terms of the state’s sanctuary law. But according to organizations that filed the lawsuit, Multnomah County has held people for immigration violations this year—even if the Sheriff’s Office now says it will no longer engage in that practice.

In spite of that claim, U.S. Marshals Service appears to be projecting a busy new year in the state: the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facilities’ (NORCOR) budget for 2025-2026 includes a 58 percent increase in its U.S. Marshals contract, while the Columbia County Jail’s proposed budget includes a 70 percent increase.

The increased spotlight on connections between local and federal law enforcement comes as ICE activity has surged in Oregon and states across the country in the later part of the year, with the rate of ICE detentions in the state increasing by 160 percent from May and October over what it was from January to May. 

But despite the increased threat to Oregonians, the rate of ICE detentions in Oregon remains well below what it is in numerous other states across the country. The sanctuary law, and vigorous attempts to enforce it, may be part of the reason why. 

“The resources we have should be used to keep our communities safe,” Piciucco said. “They should not be used to cause fear in our communities.”