Malheur County Sheriff Travis Johnson does not hide his frustrations when it comes to immigration policies throughout Oregon.
Senior Reporter, Don Nelson, took a drive with the Sheriff to listen and better understand his issues with the State of Oregon and its adversarial stance against the federal government.
"It is very frustrating when there's not clarity in how to enforce the law," said Johnson. "If there's criminal activity, we have to take care of it, and we cannot report any of that to the Feds."
That's because in 1987, the State of Oregon became the first state to pass a law prohibiting state agencies and law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant.
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It's something Sheriff Johnson feels has driven a wedge between his department and their federal partners.
"The State of Oregon has made it very clear that if you do help federal law enforcement in enforcing immigration, we're coming after you; they've made that very clear."
Ride along with Malheur County Sheriff Travis Johnson
Johnson says that even though the Feds understand the challenging position facing local law enforcement officials in Oregon, the Trump Administration continues to hold back funding for sanctuary states, which in turn negatively affects sheriff's offices like Johnson's in Malheur County.
When asked what consequences his office has felt as a result of being a sanctuary state, Johnson replied, "They've made it very clear that we're a sanctuary state, and they cut that funding; that money [has] dried up. We took a 30 percent hit to our Marine [Patrol] program this year."
Johnson also wants to make it clear that the focus needs to be on the criminal aspect, including drug and human traffickers in both Oregon and Idaho.
