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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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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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.
August 9, 2021 Dena Jensen
So! I have some additional news about the ICE Enforcement & Removals Operations office in Ferndale. It’s been known that such Immigration and Customs Enforcement locations exist in our local communities but it is challenging to find out where they are. Community members learned about an address in Ferndale and showed up there today for a Dignity Vigil to say we want ICE OUT of our Whatcom County communities!
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July 17, 2019 Dena Jensen
On Monday, July 15, 2019, Bellingham City Council’s Justice Committee met in Council Chambers at City Hall, with their one focus being, “Deliberation Regarding Work-Plan Items Related to Immigration.” I will work on publishing notes on this meeting soon. But first, I did want to draw people’s attention to a particular statement of City Council Member April Barker’s at that meeting. Council Member Barker serves on the Justice Committee, with Council Member Pinky Vargas, along with Council Member and Justice Committee Chair Hannah Stone.
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June 28, 2019 Dena Jensen
Continue reading“If the person you are voting for does not have a very specific way of how they are going to implement the Keep Washington Working Act at the local level; if they are not in absolute agreement that they will fight for a sanctuary ordinance in Whatcom County; if they are not very, very clear that they will support sanctuary for undocumented families, they are not a progressive candidate.” – Rosalinda Guillen
March 6, 2019 Victoria Matey and Maru Mora Villalpando
On February 25th, 2019 the City of Bellingham, in Washington State, reviewed the ordinance–#2017-02-008 and BMC Chapter 2.25 regarding immigration matters in the city. Two years ago, undocumented students and community members advised the city not to collaborate with federal immigration officials in order to make Bellingham a safer city for everyone by addressing racial profiling. Instead, the city passed an ordinance that not only dismissed everything the undocumented community was collectively working towards, but also passed an ordinance supposedly to protect the undocumented community with zero enforcement and accountability, and with no promise of keeping our community safe from immigration enforcement families being torn apart.
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December 11, 2018 Press Release NWDC Resistance
Screen shot of the 10/25/18 letter from the Public Health Advisory Board to the Whatcom County Health Board proposing the resolution for which PHAB was seeking support from the Whatcom County Council on 11/07/18
October 3, 2018 Julia Berkman
Vicky Matey and Olga Araceli sit beneath an antler chandelier at the Cabin Tavern in downtown Bellingham, drinks and bright purple on-brand stickers in hand, and pose for a photo. The red light from a neon sign behind them frames their heads like a halo. Continue reading
noisy waters northwest 
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