A letter circulating in a coastal county in rural Oregon encourages community members to track and report people of color who may be undocumented immigrants, according to the sheriff’s office, which discouraged residents from heeding the call.
In a news release on Thursday, the sheriff’s office for Lincoln County, Ore., condemned the letter and advised residents against “collecting or sharing information about individuals based on their demographic or perceived immigration status.”
The letter told people to write down the license plate numbers of cars driven by people of color in order to identify people who might not have permanent legal status. It told people to send the information to the Department of Homeland Security shortly after Jan. 21 so that the department could “round up” undocumented immigrants.
Sheriff Curtis Landers of Lincoln County said in the news release, “Targeting individuals in this manner erodes trust and undermines the sense of safety and inclusion that we strive to maintain in Lincoln County.”
The F.B.I. said in a statement that it was “aware of the offensive and racist mailings sent to individuals and organizations” in the county, which is about 120 miles southwest of Portland and has a population of about 51,000 people. It includes a portion of the Oregon coast and hundreds of acres of forestlands.
Sheriff Landers said that he received a copy of the letter in his mailbox.
It was not clear how long copies of the letter have been distributed.
While the letter itself is protected speech under the First Amendment, Sheriff Landers said that acting on the demands of the letter may violate Oregon law.
Oregon has a variety of laws in place that protect immigrants, including sanctuary-state laws, which mandate that people “may not be investigated” by the local or state authorities “for immigration enforcement purposes.”
The attorney general of Oregon, Ellen Rosenblum, also condemned the letter. “Attempts to intimidate our communities and their leaders through racist letter-writing campaigns has no place in Oregon,” Ms. Rosenblum said in a statement.
President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed to reduce the number of immigrants that enter the United States and has promised to increase deportations.
In his first term, Mr. Trump tried unsuccessfully to end the Temporary Protected Status for many countries including Sudan, Haiti and El Salvador. He also stepped up efforts to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico and to increase deportations of immigrants living in the country illegally.
Vice President-elect JD Vance promised that the administration would “stop doing mass grants of Temporary Protected Status,” which allows people to stay the United States for a period of time if traveling back to their home country is deemed to be dangerous.
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