It looks like a workgroup on immigration will be moving forward for Bellingham City Council’s Justice Committee / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the graphic of a quote from Bellingham City Council Member April Barker at the 8/19/19 Council Meeting to hear her remarks at that meeting regarding a presentation on immigration issues by community members

August 20, 2019 Dena Jensen

Last night’s Bellingham City Council meeting provided a pretty good lesson in what white fragility does – and doesn’t – look like.  To the majority of the Council Member’s credit that night, most of them did not seem to exhibit “discomfort and defensiveness on the part of a white person when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice,” which is the definition of white fragility offered by Oxford’s Lexico dictionary.  But a couple of them did. 

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Notes on the 7/15/19 Bellingham City Council Justice Committee meeting regarding immigration, Part One / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the graphic to access the YouTube video of the Bellingham City Council’s 7/15/19 Justice Committee meeting

July 21, 2019 Dena Jensen

Due to my own time constraints and a desire to get some information out about this as promptly as I can, I am going to provide my notes in installments, on this July 15, 2019 meeting where Bellingham City Council’s Justice Committee discussed work-plan items related to immigration.

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Don’t let Council Members confuse you about whether Bellingham is a sanctuary city / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the graphic to access the July 15, 2017 Bellingham City Council Justice Committee meeting on YouTube

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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Bellingham City Council candidate Dana Briggs speaks up for sanctuary ordinance at Council meeting / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the graphic to access the recording on YouTube of Dana Briggs speaking at the 7/1/19 Bellingham City Council meeting

July 2, 2019 Dena Jensen

This election season I encourage residents of Whatcom County to call on 2019 candidates for office to use their visibility and amplified voices during their campaigns to spark critical changes for negatively impacted communities all around us who are experiencing crisis.

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What about that civilian oversight? / Noisy Waters Northwest

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Click the graphic to access the April 22, 2019 Regular Bellingham City Council meeting discussion of the safe space program

May 12, 2019 Dena Jensen

Community members continue to show up weekly to call on our local government agencies to engage with members of the immigrant community, of all statuses, to reduce and hopefully put an end to, the daily fear and apprehension that they endure living under the Trump administration, not to mention the profiling and mistreatment numerous individuals experience at the hands of local officials. 

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Overseeing the fight for civilian oversight to protect immigrants and people of color in Bellingham / Noisy Waters Northwest

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you don't have my vote postcard front cropped

postcards to mayor redacted aqua

Graphics show one postcard front side (top), and multiple reverse/message sides of postcards sent to Bellingham Mayor Kelli Linville by community members in June of 2017

May 23, 2018  Dena Jensen

The following report offers information gained through a public records request I made of the City of Bellingham on January 18, 2018.

Protecting vulnerable members of our community is a shared responsibility that none of us should take lightly. As much as government agencies may strive for and purport transparency, it is generally human nature to not be able to recognize our own flaws and, if others point them out, to do our best to excuse them or deny that this flaw, which another person sees, is really there.

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Stand up for dignity / Letter to Whatcom County and Bellingham City Councils, Noisy Waters Northwest

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NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL FOR NWNW

October 11, 2017  Dena Jensen

Subject: Further perspective on ordinances to protect members of our undocumented immigrant community

Dear Whatcom County Council and Bellingham City Council:

I wrote to all of you last week regarding creating ordinances that would provide more protections for members of our undocumented immigrant community. I recently had a local government official share their perspective on that letter with me. In this case, it doesn’t matter who made the statements because I think portions of the perspective expressed to me were similar to those I have heard expressed at council meetings. Continue reading →