August 11, 2024 Dena Jensen
Last week, the Riveters Collective, an organization which “promotes effective progressive civic action in Whatcom County and neighboring communities,” sent out a newsletter containing a call to action to contact Bellingham officials requesting a progress update this month regarding the Immigration Advisory Board. Contact information was provided where people can reach officials.
In their newsletter, Riveters Collective noted that they had sent their own letter to City officials. Here is a link to a copy of that letter: https://riveterscollective.org/2024/08/letter-to-city-council-re-iab-workgroup-progress-update/.
I also wrote an email, which I sent today. Not only do we need all hands on deck to support our immigrant friends, family, and neighbors, it is essential that the City has all hands on deck, including immigrants and other marginalized communities, to help tackle critical crises, dangers, policies, practices, and building community well-being.
Below is my email. Addresses to which it was sent are at the bottom of this post:
Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2024 at 04:36:31 PM PDT
Subject: Regarding an update on the status of the Immigration Advisory Board
Dear Bellingham City Council and Mayor Lund:
August 12, 2024 will mark 6 months past the date when City Council Members approved the ordinance to suspend the meetings of the Immigration Advisory Board. Prior to the vote to suspend those meetings, the City administration presented a draft document listing next steps. Within the timeline section of that document, there was a recommendation to Council to request an update on progress in six months.
I checked the agendas for the August 12, 2024 regular Council and and committee meetings and didn’t see any update listed, and I have not heard that Council has yet made that request.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to discern any City action publicly taken related to the next steps that were proposed to occur directly related to IAB meetings, other than the development and an initial discussion of a draft copy of the Advisory Group Expectations document which occurred on April 8, 2024, 4 months ago.
I recently transcribed the Mayor’s comments from the January 29, 2024 Committee of the Whole meeting in response to Council Member Cotton’s suggestion of receiving an update in 3 months from that meeting and urging a sunset clause on the timing. (His suggestion did not proceed on to becoming a motion.)
“I’d just like to bring for consideration from Council, is that we have approved the working group, which I am personally happy about because I’m deeply committed to making sure that that is a successful product, that it is – my intention is that we will be coming back to you with a robust progress update. When that happens though, will be dependent on the vote that you have yet to take on the ordinance because what has happened now is that we have committed staff resources to a robust working group and if we do not move to suspend – we have talked about about limited staff resources.
“We’ve heard from our communications director and our deputy that this has been her biggest single issue over the last year. As a new mayor this has been the biggest issue before me. I want to make sure that we’re not doubling down on – I want to make sure that we pick a path and we are committed to that path.”
In other words, the Mayor identified that the workgroup and having resources necessary to make it successful were dependent on the decision to suspend IAB meetings, and if that were the Council’s decision, that is what would allow a timely, robust progress update. The Mayor highlighted that according to the Communications Director/Deputy Administrator and herself, a comparatively high amount of administration focus was being given to the IAB during the year leading up to that Committee of the Whole meeting, and therefore there was a need for committing to either the path of the IAB meetings continuing or that of a successful robust working group.
Subsequently, with the ordinance to suspend IAB meetings approved by the Council on February 12, 2024, it seems reasonable to have believed the development and activation of the workgroup would be proceeding in place of the IAB meetings – including the one for that month of February – which were no longer scheduled and which would, for an undetermined period of time, not be receiving City resources to operate and support that work.
From the Mayor’s remarks, it appeared to me, that if Council Members agreed to suspend meetings, a commitment had been made for ample staff resources to allow the workgroup to not only be formed, but to be successfully taking actions soon enough that it would be feasible to offer a timely and robust report.
Unfortunately, I have found no signs that the workgroup has been formed to date. There also has not been a presentation given to Council on details related to the Immigrant Resource Center after their decision to suspend meetings of the IAB. Regarding the resource center, also at the January 29, 2024 Committee of the Whole meeting, the Communications Director/Deputy Administrator had stated, first, that while the work on the IRC could still continue, both Mayor Fleetwood and Mayor Lund had asked for her to hold off on work on that project until a resolution had been accomplished, presumably about whether or not to suspend the meetings of the IAB. Additionally, in the interest of time that day, she requested to come back at a different time with an update about the project.
I fear that so far, according to public records and other information I have been able to obtain, negligible progress has been made that would make good on numerous Council Members’ assurances that their desire in suspending meetings of the Immigration Advisory Board was to improve the ability of the board to achieve more successful results from their work and for the work on the IRC to continue during the suspension.
Regardless, it will be valuable to prevent further delay and to offer a chance for trust and hope to grow between the City and community members. All of you, the members of the immigrant community who are facing direct dangers and impacts, members of the Immigration Advisory Board, and members of the public are worthy of a public discussion about the status of the Immigration Advisory Board. The need for more responsive and transparent communication had been a consistent message from the members and supporters of the Immigration Advisory Board throughout the three and a half years of their meetings. This message carried through to their last meeting before they were suspended, in January of this year.
It is now time for the City officials to share with each other and the community what barriers there have been to numerous next steps taking place related to the Immigration Advisory Board and the Immigrant Resource Center, and especially, what it will take to expedite honoring the stated intent of Council Members for the purpose of the suspension of IAB meetings, along with commitments identified by Council Members to the IRC, and by the Mayor to the workgroup.
Sincerely,
Dena Jensen
Birch Bay, WA
This email was addressed to the following addresses:
To: ccmail@cob.org <ccmail@cob.org>; Daniel C. Hammill <dchammill@cob.org>; Jace A. Cotton <jacotton@cob.org>; Hannah E. Stone <hestone@cob.org>; Michael W. Lilliquist <mlilliquist@cob.org>; Hollie Huthman <hahuthman@cob.org>; ehwilliams@cob.org <ehwilliams@cob.org>; Lisa A. Anderson <laanderson@cob.org>; mayorsoffice@cob.org <mayorsoffice@cob.org>
Cc: G. CC. Immigration Board <immigrationboard@cob.org>; Janice L. Keller <jkeller@cob.org>; council@co.whatcom.wa.us <council@co.whatcom.wa.us>; Satpal Sidhu <ssidhu@co.whatcom.wa.us>; WREC <wrec@chuckanuthealthfoundation.org>; phab@co.whatcom.wa.us <phab@co.whatcom.wa.us>; Robert Mittendorf <robert.mittendorf@bellinghamherald.com>; Denver Prett <denver.pratt@bellinghamherald.com>; Cascadia Daily News <ronjudd@cascadiadaily.com>
noisy waters northwest 
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