Tag: Civil Rights

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley has led 48 U.S. Senators in calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on the Trump administration’s treatment of children coming across the Southern border. Following yesterday’s Trump Executive Order, new questions have been raised about whether the children who have

Washington, D.C. – Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Earl Blumenauer and Kurt Schrader today demanded Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen immediately reverse the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy that’s left asylum seekers dumped in federal prisons. The Oregon lawmakers said their letter

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following up on his deep concerns about the Justice Department’s new “zero tolerance” policy that is driving family separation at the border, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley spoke with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions via phone this morning. In response to Sessions’ statement to Hugh Hewitt that he would

PORTLAND, OR – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, with House members Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader, on Monday demanded that the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately allow individuals being held at a federal prison in Sheridan, Ore.,

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley today pressed the Trump administration for answers on how children who have been separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border are being treated while detained. Last Sunday, Merkley visited the border to investigate the Trump administration’s cruel new child separation policy and

MCALLEN, TX – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley today visited the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas, demanding answers from immigration officials about the Trump administration’s cruel new policy of separating children from their parents at the border. “This cruel treatment of children and families arriving to the U.S. is completely un-American

Washington, D.C. –Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today they are co-sponsoring legislation that would protect the safety and well-being of minor children left alone and vulnerable after their parents have been arrested or detained by U.S. immigration authorities. “Innocent children shouldn’t face a sudden and mysterious sense of abandonment when

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley today announced his cosponsorship of a landmark bill to end the federal prohibition on marijuana. Senator Cory Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act would remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances, making it legal at the federal level. Merkley has been a leader within

Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, today issued the following statement after the Senate Judiciary Committee’s announcement that the committee will hold a confirmation hearing for the nomination of Ryan Bounds to serve on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: “It’s a shame the US