More Reflections on Immigration Debate

 

This post is in part a repost from earlier this year.  The current immigration debate has made it necessary for me to add the obvious. Archbishop Sample, for instance, recently made some comments about immigration that I accept--to a point.  My central takeaway is that we must treat everyone humanely.  I am firmly in support of ICE carting out those who have a violent past.  As conveyed below, I strongly disagree with Oregon's sanctuary policies; it's part of what has brought us to where we are today.  That said, federal enforcement seems to have veered away from the worst of the worst and is dragging a wider and wider net in its sweeps.  I would say that I generally oppose the arrest of parents in front of their children unless the adult has committed felonies.  Likewise, I oppose ICE conducting enforcement actions around churches.  I also believe that ICE detention centers should be places where people are kept in humane conditions to await deportation or some lesser alternative.  I agree with our bishop that those in detention should also be given an opportunity to have pastoral visits.  We, speaking in terms of those in favor of enforcing our immigration laws, should be careful to avoid supporting actions that are unnecessarily violent in their nature--particularly against those who are not the worst of the worst by any stretch.  The children who are traumatized by these events are perhaps less likely to become the kind of people they could otherwise be; it turns them against law and order, justice at a young age.

It's ORS 180.805-810 and ORS 181A.820-181A-829 that set the backdrop for Oregon's sanctuary status.  While that's bad enough, Oregon's Dept of Administrative Services now promotes training modules that remind state employees that any cooperation with federal law enforcement (short of the existence of a warrant) places an employee's livelihood in peril.  This is somewhat challenging for yours truly for several reasons.

First of all, I grew up in Yakima, Washington, while it was being torn apart by drug violence brought north through the illegal drug trade and human trafficking.  It also happens that I nearly went to work for the US Border Patrol in Texas more than thirty years ago.  On top of this, however, I am active within the Catholic Church, which (rightly) interprets part of its mission to take care of the needy and forgotten--whether or not illegal immigrants.  However, it also does not oppose the enforcement of a nation's right to limit entry.  A particularly well-articulated expression of this, an apparent dichotomy on the surface, is found in the recent Wisconsin Catholic Bishops' Letter on Immigration.  So, that's my personal context. The Supremacy Clause is also worth mentioning here in terms of state interference with federal law enforcement.

The purpose of this post is to gather together examples and instances of when illegal immigrants were released by Oregon authorities only to re-offend--sometimes in horrific ways.  Disclosure: following this paragraph, I have employed AI.  It turns out that locating this specific information is difficult.  Several search engines and AI tools refused to cooperate--e.g., Google's Gemini.  It was as if they had protections created to avoid this kind of search; I find that disturbing.  The bottom line is that Oregon can and should do better.

1. Martin Gallo-Gallardo
In March 2018, Gallo-Gallardo, a Mexican national, was arrested in Portland on felony domestic violence charges. ICE lodged a detainer, but the Multnomah County Jail released him on bond. Seven months later, he was charged with murdering his wife, Coral Rodriguez-Lorenzo, in Clackamas County.

2. Fidel Lopez
In 2019, Lopez was convicted of sexually assaulting his fiancée's dog, leading to the animal's death. Despite an ICE detainer, the Multnomah County Jail released him after he served 60 days. ICE later apprehended him at his home.

3. Julio Gonzalez-Zamudio
A Mexican national deported four times, Gonzalez-Zamudio was arrested in Oregon in 2014 after fleeing a traffic stop with over two pounds of methamphetamine. He had prior convictions for drug offenses and violent crimes. He was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison for illegal reentry.

4. Sergio Ramos-Lopez
Deported seven times since 1988, Ramos-Lopez was arrested in Deschutes County in 2013 for trafficking methamphetamine. He had a history of drug trafficking and violent crimes. He was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison for illegal reentry.

5. Johnell Lee Cleveland
Although not an illegal immigrant, Cleveland was released early from federal prison in 2020 and quickly engaged in fraud and sex trafficking. He was sentenced to nine years in federal prison in 2024.

6. Sergio Jose Martinez
Martinez, a Mexican national deported over 20 times, was released from Multnomah County Jail in 2017 despite an ICE detainer. He broke into a 65-year-old woman's home, sexually assaulted her, and attacked another woman. Sentenced to 35 years in state prison and 92 months in federal prison.

7. Sergio Martinez-Mendoza
Also known as Sergio Jose Martinez, he committed two violent sexual assaults in Portland in 2017 after multiple deportations and release from custody. Sentenced to 35 years in state prison and 92 months in federal prison. 

Hertz...Hurts

Hertz...Hurts.  If you're considering Hertz for a rental, I suggest reconsidering if you haven't already reserved the vehicle. If you do rent from them, I would advise you to consider purchasing their extra insurance endorsement. Our family left a Hertz rental vehicle at the Colorado Springs Airport rental lot early on the morning of September 29th. As has been our custom, our son took a slow walk around the Ford Expedition to identify any issues that should be reported; everything looked good to go. Three weeks later, I received a call out of the blue from a Hertz representative demanding $800 for alleged vehicle damage and over $400 in administrative fees. Talk about out of the blue.

Despite completely blowing the industry's chain-of-custody standards, they held to their position that I was responsible. Initially, the photos they shared only showed a "dot" of damage, but I later learned that additional photos were attached to the message. While none contained timestamping, they did show that damage had been done to the Expedition's trunk emblem. That struck me as odd, so I investigated a bit to see whether the area had seen other reports of vandalism. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. I ended up filing a police report with the Colorado Springs Police Department at the suggestion of a department employee. At least, this creates a paper trail.

For context, this isn't the first time Hertz has had troubles.  Recently, they were sued for lying about one of their cars being stolen.  It was hardly the first time either.  The Clark Howard Show recently posted an article on the company as well.  Hertz is apparently using AI now to help them locate billable dings on returned cars.  See this article in Forbes.

Meanwhile, I haven't decided which way to go on this. I have filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau (1.5 score, by the way), Oregon Department of Justice (Consumer Protection) as well as Colorado's justice department, Clark Howard's site, and two local media outlets that do Consumer Protection stories.  I am sharing some information below for contacting the company in case it might be helpful.  

If you want to avoid a few weeks of your life going to the dogs over this nonsense, though, I suggest steering clear of Hertz.

Updated as of November 13th/14th. Tried a couple additional avenues with no luck. We have other issues we need to focus upon right now, so I am going to bite the bullet and pay at this point. I have added some more contacts below. Be aware, in our case at least, the rental car company changed payment methods without our authorization. I never considered this a particularly good area to focus on, but research online does suggest this is another slimy practice.  When resigning to the Better Business' Bureau inability to negotiate with this company, I accepted their "response" in the afternoon, but I let the company have it with both (verbal) barrels.

On the evening of the 13th, I decided to bite the bullet and pay the stupid thing under protest.  Tried to register an account on the Hertz site in order to pay online, but it said that my claim number was invalid.  On the morning of the 14th, much to my happy shock, I learned the claim had been cancelled in its entirety.  Not sure what was behind the change of tune, but in my final correspondence I emphasized the company's dismal history in terms of lawsuits and complaints and being the subject of nationally syndicated radio personalities.

Gil West

CEO Email: gil.west@hertz.com 

Lawanda Huff

Director Customer Service: lhuff@hertz.com

executivecustomerservice@hertz.com

Presidentscircle@hertz.com    

Michelle Hendrix, Michelle.Hendrix@hertz.com

Recovery Specialist’s Phone Number: (844)969-8951

Recovery Specialist’s Extension: 4088

Avoid Samsung; No, Really.

For the benefit of my readers (both of them), I offer tonight's installment on consumer protection. Yes, the national news has been horrendous this week, but there's nothing like planned obsolescence in appliances to really add insult to injury.  Every evening as if on cue, our Samsung Television (Model UN40N5200AFXZA) stops working and has to either have its cache cleared in the Support / Device Care menu or our Wi-Fi network must be completely reset.  Having just dealt with an expensive Samsung fridge giving up the ghost, I'm not sure what prompted me to make this highly questionable Best Buy purchase in the first place. I must crave exciting episodes of borderline torment by household appliances.  (Talk about First World problems, eh?)

And, don't get me started on Samsung support.  The good news is you don't really need to understand them through their broken English, because they will tell you to do a hard reset on your television. This seems to be their top piece of sage advice. There's also one that appears to involve unplugging everything in the household and performing a different and mysterious kind of reset altogether.  Or, there's the one about running a cord from one's router to their television to see how that works. Considering the router is upstairs and the television is downstairs, I can't say I have tried that one yet. The one about getting into pajamas and carrying a chinchilla on one's shoulder whilst juggling is also frequently cited.

So, thinking of buying a Samsung television, Model UN40N5200AFXZA?  Don't even.  I have to go now and re-enact my own personal version of the Twilight Zone's "A Thing About Machines" episode.

Launching Short Stories

 

I published a little short story collection called Dark by Day, Dark by Night recently on Amazon.  Unfortunately, as a guy who attended high school in the late 1980s, some technical aspects of eBooks continue to elude me.  Thankfully, the table of contents actually functions and looks correct now.  If you caught an earlier version of the stories, this one is much improved.

They have interesting backstories.  "Stars Within the Glass" was initially acquired by a publication in Ireland, where all went well--until they began to like it a little too much.  (Reprinting in a collection without permission.) The "Blazing Darkness and Fractured Shadows" piece had its origins in a high school math class in Yakima, Washington, where I could not stay awake unless I jotted down fiction ideas.  Much to the benefit of the reader, the original version was lost in the intervening years, and it had to be rewritten from scratch.

So, without further ado, here is the new and working table of contents.  Several excerpts follow.  This story collection will be free to acquire on Amazon for a few more hours now.  PS.  One remaining (very silly) mistake remains, but I am not going to divulge it.  It will be fixed soon.  I must dislike working on Amazon's platform to such a degree that I am going a tad too quickly...

"Stars Within the Glass"

As he watched, the bottle was suddenly full to the brim of a pulsing fluorescent red liquid--at least he perceived it as liquid. Points of light, like stars, shone with a fierce brightness throughout, gliding this way and that within the confines of the glass. Bewildering lights and shadows played over the walls of the room. Strangely, the reddish light seemed to pass clean through some objects in the lab, but not others. David extended a shaking hand directly in front of one of the lights on the wall, but there was neither any shadow of a hand showing on the wall nor any faint light caught in his palm—only a sense of coldness. David was too mesmerized by the lights even to catch the strange scent of roses and pine emanating from the lit bottle. He stared transfixed at a single point of light while taking a tentative step towards where he thought the clipboard should be.

Erickson, Karl. Dark by Day, Dark by Night: A Collection of Short Stories and Essays (p. 8). (Function). Kindle Edition. 

"Blazing Darkeness and Fractured Shadows"

Derek slid into the pod’s comfortable pilot chair and watched the security squad board in an orderly fashion to the rear. They must have been tired, but they looked sharp and prepared. Even their dark blue uniforms were crisp and pressed. Each of the twelve carried a laser rifle, and Anne Jenson, who sat at the co-pilot’s station, held what was affectionately called the cannon. It was a weapon that could easily vaporize a heavy bulkhead with a single explosive shot, and it was self-charging in most environments. While it did its job well, it also posed a small radiation risk to the user. If it was necessary to use repeatedly, members of the team were trained to rotate usage among available personnel. In transit, it resembled a large shotgun connected to a collapsed heavy-duty tripod. Bright red warning symbols were visible on all its sides. Anne held it with ease. Her blond hair framed an attractive face, sternly set. Derek recalled the relationship they had briefly shared. He felt a momentary flash of guilt.

Erickson, Karl. Dark by Day, Dark by Night: A Collection of Short Stories and Essays (p. 22). (Function). Kindle Edition. 

"The Matter of a Small Gunfight"

“Don’t touch ‘em, boy,” the marshal warned sternly. “No worries, sir,” Benjamin replied. “I’ll just watch them properly.” And watch them he did. He couldn’t, in fact, avert his eyes from the pile of strange armaments. One revolver, in particular, had a handle that looked to be made out of polished white wood or perhaps ivory. Looking around furtively, Benjamin allowed himself to extend a shaking hand towards the six-shooter, but he didn’t venture more than the briefest touch. Something of the forbidden feel of the gun sent shivers down his spine. He wondered whether it had ever been used to shoot a murderer or maybe a horse thief? Someday, he hoped he would own a gun like that.

Erickson, Karl. Dark by Day, Dark by Night: A Collection of Short Stories and Essays (pp. 62-63). (Function). Kindle Edition. 

...and for the humor section.

"Take Your Trash to Work Day"

In an exciting partnership with the Portland Metro Area’s Tri-Met, Monday is Take Your Trash to Work Day!  While you can, of course, pile the garbage bags in your own vehicle when you leave for the office, may I recommend using convenient public transit on Monday?  When you climb aboard one of these luxurious and sparkling-clean buses, take your seat in confidence.  Don't worry about bothering people--sit next to anyone!  We all do our part to make Salem a better place. 

Erickson, Karl. Dark by Day, Dark by Night: A Collection of Short Stories and Essays (p. 80). (Function). Kindle Edition. 

DEI in the Context of Oregon State Priorities (A Guest Blogger)

 

As a way of introduction, what follows is a guest blog.  Before starting, though, I did a public records request of the state about a year ago concerning how many employees were working in a DEI capacity and associated payroll.  I was politely told to pound sand.  Today's blogger combed the internet to create an engaging visual and an accompanying short post on the topic.  First, however, an illustration that shows one of my concerns with DEI.  During the Great Potato Famine in Ireland, there were about a million souls lost in the home country and another million fleeing abroad to Britain, Canada, and the USA.  They would often arrive on our North American shores sick as dogs and without a penny to their names.  They began accepting the absolute worst jobs the nation had to offer from digging canals (Erie Canal, for instance) to constructing railroads.  Mass graves of Irish laborers are often found in the areas of these construction projects.  The startling truth is that even slaves held a monetary value to their "owners," but the Irish...they just kept coming.  They became seen as disposable people.  A somewhat similar history befell the immigrating Chinese.  If you have read my novel The Blood Cries Out, you learned about the ambush of a large number of Chinese miners along the Snake River in May 1887 (not too far from today's Imnaha, Oregon).  The point is that there were many different immigrant groups treated deplorably, yet DEI completely ignores the ones that don't conveniently fit its narrative.

Oregon’s DEI Staffing: A Costly Distraction from Core Services

In Oregon, the state’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has led to the establishment of specialized positions within government agencies. While these roles are often portrayed as essential for fostering an inclusive environment and carrying out the respective mission of each agency, the reality raises significant concerns about their necessity and impact.

The primary question is: Are these DEI positions effectively serving the public, or are they diverting resources from essential services? With state budgets under constant scrutiny, allocating funds to roles that may not directly contribute to public welfare is a contentious issue. The effectiveness of DEI initiatives in achieving tangible outcomes remains debatable, and without clear metrics, it’s challenging to assess their value.

Moreover, the creation of DEI roles can inadvertently lead to a culture of compliance rather than genuine cultural change. Agencies may focus more on fulfilling DEI quotas and meeting regulatory expectations than on addressing the supposed underlying issues of inequality and exclusion. This approach risks reducing complex social challenges to checkboxes on a form, rather than fostering meaningful dialogue and systemic reform.

In conclusion, while the intention behind DEI staffing is to promote fairness and representation, the actual impact on Oregon’s governance and public services warrants closer examination. It’s crucial to ensure that efforts to enhance inclusivity do not come at the expense of the state’s primary responsibility: delivering effective and efficient services to all its citizens.

A Few Words on Why I'm Not a Trekkie

I am releasing a short story collection on the market shortly, and several fall into the science fiction genre. This being the case, I am offering a link to my blog (from the collection's introduction) where I might more easily digress briefly about my feelings on the Star Trek franchise. Below is the paragraph I opted to remove from the introduction of my collection, as it was a tad distracting from the content as a whole.

Appliances Gone Wild

 It's been a somewhat rough spring and summer at the Erickson household.  Sometimes we think our appliances coordinate breakdowns just for personal impact. First, our front-loading washing machine gave up the ghost.  This was followed quickly by our Samsung refrigerator requiring parts that were not even available anymore.  This was surprising, as we purchased this expensive appliance less than ten years ago.  The appliance sales and repair company confided that Samsung makes no secret of not making its parts widely available for more than a few years.  They said that this is done to help ensure new appliances are purchased to replace the broken ones.

Most recently, we have an Electrolux dryer.  It's about a year and a half old, which I would ordinarily still consider new.  Repair technician came out last week to replace a broken roller (causing a pile of lint to accumulate within the dryer).  When the work was done, he tried to turn it on. Long story short(er), it apparently needs one or two boards that are bad.  The total repair cost is almost the cost of a new appliance.  Now, I am potentially fortunate, as I am working with a credit card company on an extended warranty protection, but this is still not a sure thing.  The card benefits company is calling me almost daily for updates, tells me everything looks good one morning, then someone else calls to demand more information the same afternoon.  I won't know how things are going to go until next week at the earliest.

So, this is a refrigerator, washer, and a dryer within a few months.  Is this all an example of planned obsolescence?  I think that's a good part of it--particularly with Samsung, which I will never trust again for a major appliance.  There's more to it, though.  While this just based on my experience and those I know, new appliances seem to be suffering from a lack of quality control and pride in workmanship. While companies like Bosch seem to have a better grip on creating quality products, many of the other big players seem to have been forced into creating energy saving devices that are severely lacking in build quality.  If you consider the economic and environmental impact of having to purchase "disposable" appliances every couple years, one can't avoid seeing that, while they may be energy saving on one hand, there is nothing remotely positive environmentally speaking of creating..cheap garbage for the American public.  Come on Electrolux and Samsung, you can do better!