| schema:text
| - Officials in Lincoln County, Oregon, started receiving copies of the letter in early December 2024 and the sheriff's office condemned its contents. The author, or authors, of the message remains unknown and there is no active investigation into it because sending such a message is protected by the First Amendment. However, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office warned that acting upon the letter's instructions may violate Oregon's legal protections for immigrants.
In late December 2024, a letter called "The Brown Round-Up Part 1" was circulating online, purportedly encouraging white people to surveil and report "brown illegals" to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
One X user who shared the document wrote (archived): "This is the full letter being distributed around Lincoln County Oregon."
Snopes readers asked us to verify the authenticity of the message, which also appeared on Facebook (archived).
News outlets such as The New York Times (archived), The Guardian and The Seattle Times also published reports about the letter.
In short, t
'The Brown Round-Up' Letter
Landers said via email that he received the letter in his "personal post office box" in mid-December 2024. The sheriff added that, as far as he knows, it has circulated only in Lincoln County. Cross also said via email that he received a copy in his mailbox in the early morning of Dec. 8, 2024. The author or authors of the communication remain unknown.
Landers and Cross both
(Lincoln County Sheriff Curtis Landers)
The sheriff's office has not received complaints from residents regarding the letter, and Cross said he has not heard of any residents receiving the message, so it is unclear how widely it has circulated within Lincoln County. However, other elected officials received the note, Cross and Landers said, including Lincoln City Mayor Susan Wahlke. Snopes reached out to Wahlke and will update this story if she responds.
While Landers said his office notified the FBI of the letter's existence for awareness, there is no open investigation into the document's origins because sending it is covered by the First Amendment's freedom of speech protections.
Oregon's Legal Protections for Immigrants
Some Snopes readers asked us whether the "round-up" is actually happening.
As we have previously reported, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump did promise to begin "the largest domestic deportation operation in American history" of "illegal alien migrants." However, Landers said his office had not received any reports or complaints of white residents reporting or surveilling nonwhite residents.
It is also worth noting that while the letter itself is protected speech, actually acting on what the message calls for may be against Oregon law. In a statement condemning the letter, Landers called it "harmful, divisive, and inconsistent with the values we uphold as public servants." The statement from the sheriff's office also notes its commitment to following Oregon law, which protects immigrants from activities like those called for in the note:
We strongly advise against engaging in activities such as those outlined in this letter, including collecting or sharing information about individuals based on their demographic or perceived immigration status. In addition to valuing diversity and equity, the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office is committed to upholding Oregon law with regard to immigration enforcement. Oregon law generally prohibits the inquiry or collection of an individual's immigration or citizenship status, or country of birth, with few specific exceptions as outlined in Oregon Revised Statute 181A.823. Consistent with this, the Sheriff's Office does not inquire about, document, or share such information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These provisions are embedded in our policy manual and are essential to ensuring that our practices respect the rights and dignity of all individuals.
According to Oregon's Department of Justice, the state was the first in the U.S. to pass a sanctuary law preventing local police and government from helping federal authorities with immigration enforcement. In 2021, the state strengthened its sanctuary laws and established a statewide hotline to report possible sanctuary law violations. The state also provides a "Community Toolkit" to help immigrants understand their rights. The tool kit notes that while Oregon's laws prevent local authorities from helping U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without an order signed by a judge, the laws do not stop deportations or federal prosecutions as federal immigration authorities can still operate in Oregon.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)