Second meeting tomorrow of Bellingham work group examining if police actions could aid ICE / Noisy Waters Northwest

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May 14, 2025 Dena Jensen

Coming up tomorrow, Thursday 5/15/25 at 5:30 p.m is the second meeting of Bellingham’s Keep Washington Working Act Work Group. There is currently only one way for community members to witness these meetings and that is in person at Bellingham City Hall, 210 Lottie St., Suite 227. There is no Zoom option available, no recordings being made, and no minutes have been posted yet from the work group’s first meeting in March. After tomorrow’s meeting, the work group won’t likely meet again until July, since their proposed schedule of meetings is every two months. The only point of contact provided for the work group is the Bellingham Mayor’s Office.

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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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Bellingham officials promote dissolving immigrant board, defying approved motion and next steps / Noisy Waters Northwest

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https://noisywatersnw.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/next-steps-3.pdf
https://meetings.cob.org/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=3112&doctype=2

October 7, 2024. Dena Jensen
How can we expect law enforcement to adhere to their documented intentions for just treatment of marginalized community members when other City officials, in an effort to try to ensure they do, can’t follow and adhere to theirs?

Tonight, Monday October 7, Bellingham City Council will be voting for a final time at their 7:00 p.m. meeting on whether to dissolve the Immigration Advisory Board. So far, the vote has been 4-2-1 to get rid of the board. This action will be the final matter of business for Council tonight.

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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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New Searchable Minutes for Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board and an update on Mayor’s upcoming update / Noisy Waters Northwest

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September 1, 2024

First things first

Here is a link to a document that allows readers to search and browse minutes for all meeting dates of the three and a half years of Bellingham City Council’s Immigration Advisory Board:

June 2020 through January 2024 Immigration Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

[Note: the links were corrected above because the first document linked to was missing content]

Also, folks can also access these minutes, along with other year-long searchable versions of local government meeting minutes, along with details on how to interact with them, on this website’s Searchable Minutes page.

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All hands on deck to support immigrants too / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the annotated screen shot of a portion of the August 5, 2024 Riveters Collective newsletter to access the original and complete newsletter on a browser

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.

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