Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said she requested a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions during his visit to Portland Tuesday. But she says she never got a response from Sessions or his staff.
The Democratic governor said during a press conference at the state Capitol that if she had been granted a meeting, she would have given Sessions an earful.
Brown said she opposes the Trump administration’s recent actions on immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children, as well as President Donald Trump’s threat to withhold federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities.
“Oregon is a state that welcomes and wants to encourage our immigrant and our refuge communities,” Brown said. “We see them as a very important part of Oregon’s cultural and economic fabric, and they’re part of what makes Oregon unique.”
Sessions met with federal employees and local law enforcement officials during a brief stop in Portland. During a speech, the attorney general said cities and states that don’t enforce some federal immigration laws need to “reconsider” their policies. That includes both Portland and Oregon as a whole.