This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office has cut its marine patrols by more than half after the state agency that provides the bulk of its funding lost a federal grant over Homeland Security conflicts with Oregon’s sanctuary laws.
The Oregon State Marine Board lost a $2.2 million grant and was forced to cut its support of marine patrols to 32 agencies by 30 percent, according to boating safety program manager Brian Paulsen.
Lincoln County Sheriff Adam Shanks had expected to get nearly $243,000 from the state to help pay for the two marine deputies and two summer cadets. The marine patrol’s budget – everything from salaries and benefits to equipment and operating expenses — is $412,000 this year.
Just weeks after the county approved its budget in June, the marine board informed Shanks and other agencies across Oregon it had lost the federal grant and was cutting its support by 30 percent – or $70,800 to Lincoln County.
“It was very hard to deal with,” Shanks told the Lincoln Chronicle.
So instead of two boats with marine deputies and cadets on the water every day this summer and fall, there is one boat with two deputies working four days a week.
“We’re cutting the resource in half,” Shanks said.
The reduction is due to the loss of a recreational boating safety grant provided Oregon by the U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security. Paulsen said a new grant requirement from Homeland Security “imposed new obligations” to which the agency could not agree. The new conditions would require the marine board and grant recipients to communicate and cooperate with federal immigration officials, he said.
As the Trump administration dramatically increases its federal immigration enforcement efforts, it is turning to state and local authorities to pursue its goal of 1 million deportations per year, building out what is likely the widest-ranging immigration enforcement capacity in U.S. history.
But Oregon’s sanctuary law is in conflict with that goal — prohibiting public bodies from collecting information about an individual’s immigration status or from cooperating with federal authorities for the purpose of enforcing immigration laws.
Now four days a week
In Lincoln County, the sheriff’s marine patrol aims to have two boats on the water – primarily Yaquina Bay and the Alsea, Siletz and Salmon rivers – every day during the busy summer and fall seasons mostly doing boat inspections or responding to complaints.
“Their primary focus is boating safety,” Shanks said.
In 2024 sheriff’s Deputies Chris Barth and Dion Blake spent 716 hours on the water, 1,289 hours on shore patrols and conducted 3,340 boat safety inspections, according to the marine patrol’s 2025-26 budget request.
Now, Shanks said, Blake’s time for marine patrols has been reduced to one-quarter while Barth remains full-time. In the winter, Shanks said, Barth will have to work alone, be out of the water and mostly make dock checks.
Shanks said it is also uncertain what will happen to a derelict boat program that Blake had initiated.
“It was a pilot program that was being pushed statewide,” the sheriff said. “Now we just don’t know what that might look like.”
Shanks was able to save the position in the department by working out a last-minute agreement with the Lincoln County School District.
When he is not spending 25 percent of his time on marine patrols, Blake will be the sheriff office’s second school resource officer with $45,000 of his salary coming from the school district under an agreement signed last week by county commissioners. Blake will join Deputy James Holmes working with staff and students at Waldport and Toledo middle and high schools.
“It just happened to be an opportunity,” Shanks said. “We’re just providing more capacity at both schools.”
- Quinton Smith is the editor of Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com