Oregon State Police sued for sharing data with immigration agencies

Rural Organizing Project, a statewide nonprofit based in Cottage Grove, filed a lawsuit May 5 against Oregon State Police in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleging that the agency is violating the state’s landmark sanctuary laws and sharing Oregonians’ personal data with federal immigration agents.

The nonprofit is asking the court to direct OSP not to share information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other immigration agencies, including driver’s licenses, driver history, driver’s license photographs, vehicle registration data, Social Security numbers and law enforcement records.

ROP claims that federal immigration agencies have repeatedly accessed Oregonians’ information over the past year. They point to two systems OSP operates: the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System and the state’s Law Enforcement Data System.

The complaint said data provided to OSP by NLETS in February showed authorities involved in immigration enforcement accessed Oregonians’ data more than 1.4 million times in the preceding year. ICE alone queried Oregon for the data 176,576 times, the complaint said. Homeland Security Investigations within the Department of Homeland Security queried 21,363 times, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection and DHS accounted for the remainder, the complaint said.

Those numbers do not include all queries of Oregonians’ data, lawyers added, as ICE and HSI agents in Oregon will access the same information separately through the LEDS terminal.

The complaint says OSP has the technical capacity to block immigration enforcement agencies from both systems, but has declined to do so.

U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, along with U.S. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, and Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon, called on states across the country to stop sharing drivers’ data with federal immigration agencies in a November 2025 letter.

Other states, such as Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New York, have stopped allowing federal agents to access their residents’ data, according to NLETS testimony to Congress in 2025, the complaint added.

The suit says NLETS provided OSP a spreadsheet listing the specific identification codes ICE uses in late 2025, after an OSP official asked how other states had blocked the agency in the system.

But in February, the complaint said, the agency indicated it would not restrict federal immigration authorities’ access to data via LETS or require federal authorities to use “Reason Codes” that would allow OSP to screen whether the query is for immigration-related purposes.

In a response sent to the Oregon Law Center on Feb. 1, replying to its tort claim notice, OSP said it had taken “reasonable steps” to improve its LEDS agreements with immigration authorities to require compliance with Oregon’s Sanctuary Law. Their letter said terminating the LEDS user agreements, which OSP signed with ICE and DHS in December 2025 and February, would prevent the federal agencies from accessing criminal justice information related to criminal investigations and other governmental purposes.

“If OSP terminated the user agreements, they could be obstructing ongoing criminal investigations,” the letter from OSP said.

OSP also said it did not have the ability to modify the NLETS system.

“Federal agents are storming into our communities, targeting people based on how they look, and disappearing our neighbors,” Martha Ortega, director of Immigrant Centers at Rural Organizing Project, said in a prepared statement. “Oregon State Police are helping them do it. When the state gives our private information to ICE, it is breaking the law and breaking Oregonians’ trust. How many families have been torn apart by Oregon State Police giving their names and photos to federal agents?”

The lawsuit cites testimony in federal court, detailed in a story by The Oregonian, where ICE agents spoke of staking out a neighborhood and randomly running vehicle license plates to find vehicle owners’ names and birthdates for the purpose of immigration enforcement.

“Oregon’s law has clearly prohibited this kind of information sharing for almost 40 years,” said Heather Marek, attorney at Oregon Law Center, which is representing the nonprofit. “Oregonians need Oregon State Police to respect the law and protect their data, immediately and permanently.”

In an email, a spokesperson for Oregon State Police said it would not be making any public comments related to the lawsuit while litigation was pending.

“OSP is committed to following Oregon Sanctuary Laws and has not taken any actions that would violate those laws,” Cpt. Kyle Kennedy added.

But, ROP said in its lawsuit that although the LEDS user agreements prohibit ICE-ERO and HSI from sharing data for immigration enforcement purposes, OSP cannot ensure compliance with the sanctuary laws nor can it reasonably assume compliance given the broader context of the current administration and activity.

More than 6,000 HSI agents have been assigned to immigration enforcement duties, for example, the lawsuit said.

“In the current political and legal context, an agreement to provide resources and information to HSI is an agreement to provide resources and information to support immigration enforcement,” the complaint said.

Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com on X @DianneLugo or Bluesky @diannelugo.bsky.social.