SALEM – Attorney General Jeff Sessions' visit to Oregon on Tuesday did not include a meeting with Gov. Kate Brown, despite her request to talk with him.

So as Sessions denounced sanctuary policies at an event in Northwest Portland, Brown shared her thoughts instead with reporters in Salem. The governor and lawmakers are in the capital this week for interim legislative hearings.

"If I had the opportunity to meet with the attorney general, I would tell him that his position on DACA is absolutely counter to Oregon values and Oregonians," Brown said, referring to the Obama-era program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. It protects unauthorized immigrants brought to the country as children from deportation. Sessions announced earlier this month that the Trump administration would end DACA.

Brown said she was "appalled by the position of the attorney general" on the program, which shielded 11,000 unauthorized immigrants in Oregon. "He clearly did not have time to meet with me and hear my strong views about how I feel about making sure that dreamers are able to go to school, to work and to lead lives in this state."

The governor said her staff never received a response to her request to meet with Sessions. She did not know whether that was unusual, and pointed out that several other members of the Trump administration have taken time to meet with her.

Brown also reiterated her support for Oregon's 1987 sanctuary state law and noted that she signed an executive order earlier this year that expanded on the law by forbidding state agencies and employees from helping federal immigration officials locate or apprehend immigrants in the country illegally.

Sessions has criticized the Multnomah County jail's handling of the controversial Sergio Martinez case. Martinez had been deported 12 times and had multiple run-ins with law enforcement. The jail and Sheriff's Office refused a request by immigration officials to notify them of Martinez's release after he was arrested in December, and he has now been accused of attacking two women in July.

Another point of disagreement between Brown and Sessions is the state's legal pot system, which Brown did not bring up on Tuesday. Sessions has asked Brown how she will address problems outlined in an Oregon State Police report earlier this year, for example that marijuana grown here continues to fuel the black market in other states. Brown has defended the state's pot program and publicly discredited the analysis by her own state police.

-- Hillary Borrud

503-294-4034; @hborrud