Who needs an Immigrant Resource Center if Bellingham is free of discrimination and its harms? / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the screenshot of a portion of a Bellingham City Council Agenda bill for their June 9, 2025 meeting to view the whole document on the COB website

June 8, 2025 Dena Jensen

Bellingham City Council is scheduled to consider a proposed resolution reaffirming the “City of Bellingham as a welcoming city” for all people on Monday, June 9, 2025. After the draft resolution recites a long list of COB measures that have been taken over the last few years that can help allow the City to incrementally become a more welcoming place for marginalized community members, the following statement in the operative section is included:

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City of Bellingham is a welcoming city for all people to live, work, attend school, visit and play free of discrimination, violence and systemic barriers that threaten their safety, well-being and human rights;”

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What if we had that Immigrant Resource Center?: letter to Bellingham and Whatcom County officials / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Butterfly garlands, representing migration and created by community members, were bestowed on Bellingham City Hall in August 2022 during a call for City action to provide an Immigrant Resource Center.
The fate of the butterflies after the event was covered in the Salish Current article,
“Bringing the Butterflies Home”

March 30, 2025 Dena Jensen

I have so much gratitude for all the community efforts to call for actions from our government officials to bring home immigrants who were stolen from their Whatcom and Skagit County communities last week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. We all need to keep speaking up until their families and friends are reunited with those who have been unjustly targeted. Here is a link to information on just some of the ways we can take action: https://www.foodjustice.org/blog/2025/3/27/update-on-farmworker-leader-alfredo-lelo-juarez

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Contact City officials prior to October 24 joint meeting to urge public input on area growth / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image of a Whatcom Environmental Council social media post calling for public input on City of Bellingham’s preferred growth strategy to access the post on Facebook

October 22, 2024 Dena Jensen

I sent this email today to support the letter sent by the Whatcom Environmental Council related to their post shown above:

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Chapter One: What IAB members had to say – An imposition of indignity, the tale and trail of Bellingham’s immigration board suspension ordinance / Noisy Waters Northwest

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September 28, 2024 Dena Jensen

Link to ‘Introduction – An imposition of indignity: the tale and trail of Bellingham’s immigration board suspension ordinance’ : https://noisywatersnw.com/2024/02/23/introduction-an-imposition-of-indignity-the-tale-and-trail-of-bellinghams-immigration-board-suspension-ordinance-noisy-waters-northwest/

Chapter One

First, some fresh news

Bellingham City Council Member Hannah Stone will be presenting an ordinance at Monday’s City Council, September 30, 2024 Committee of the Whole meeting, that would dissolve the Immigration Advisory Board. People can attend the meeting which starts at 1:00 p.m., and the topic of dissolving the board is also on the agenda for the Council’s regular meeting at 7:00 p.m that night.

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‘Things are trying to suppress it, right?’: 2021 Camp 210 sweep letter from Immigration Advisory Board, a year-long timeline / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image of various annotated pages of Bellingham Immigration Advisory Board minutes to view a selection of individual pages

June 19, 2024 Dena Jensen

“Things are trying to suppress it, right?” That was a remark made by a Bellingham City Council Member to the City’s Immigration Advisory Board members back in 2021. The context and specific timing will be made clear later in this post, but the question evokes an atmosphere of oppression that too many members of marginalized communities dwell within.  

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More flaws in case made against Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board / Noisy Waters Northwest

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May 20, 2024 Dena Jensen

When government officials make a statement claiming something happened, when information available in public records shows it didn’t happen, it’s a reason for concern. When such instances of faulty statements start to stack up in the officials’ process of targeting a group focused on removing dangers from a specific marginalized community, I’d say there’s good reason for folks to be as alarmed as they can be about it.

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Still no movement from Bellingham toward dignity for Immigration Advisory Board members / Noisy Waters Northwest

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March 27, 2024 Dena Jensen

During her Mayor’s Report at the March 11, 2024 Bellingham City Council meeting, Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund had announced that at the next City Council meeting the Administration was going to bring forward a Boards and Commissions Expectations document “to establish clear expectations about the important work that these groups do.” At Bellingham’s City Council meeting this week on March 25, that did not happen.

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That’s not a fact: one recital in the ordinance to suspend Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board / Noisy Waters Northwest

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March 22, 2024 Dena Jensen

We have passed the second month now that community members, who have been serving on Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board, have not been allowed to meet to continue their work to request and analyze data to determine compliance with the Keep Washington Working Act, along with facilitating community involvement and discussions on regional immigration issues. 

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Introduction – An imposition of indignity: the tale and trail of Bellingham’s immigration board suspension ordinance / Noisy Waters Northwest

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February 23, 2024 Dena Jensen
[This introduction was corrected with information on March 20, 2024. The corrected section is noted below within the relevant section of the introduction to this series. It is placed in brackets, in italics, with the date that the correction was made.]

It took less than one minute at the end of the Bellingham City Council’s February 12, 2024 regular meeting for Council Members’ final consideration of an ordinance to suspend the City’s Immigration Advisory Board. The ordinance was approved 6-1, with recently elected, first-term City Council Member Jace Cotton casting the only dissenting vote.

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Ask Bellingham officials to adopt the ordinance proposed by the Immigration Advisory Board / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the image to access a Timeline of Board recommendations compiled by Board Members on the Immigration Advisory Board Meeting Materials page of the City of Bellingham website

February 10, 2024 Dena Jensen

The Bellingham City Council will take its final vote on whether to approve an ordinance to suspend the Immigration Advisory Board at their 7:00 p.m. regular meeting on Monday, February 12, 2024. The vote is scheduled to be the Council’s final item of business that night before open session Public Comment and Adjournment. Here is a link to the agenda: https://meetings.cob.org/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=3124&doctype=1

Since the vote has not yet been taken, however, we still have a chance to weigh in and take a David-worthy shot at the Goliath of City determination to sideline work on critical immigration issues. The suspension likely will be at least for a period beyond the six month estimate for a first report from the City administration on how post-suspension interactions about the fate of the IAB are going.

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