Click the graphic to access Von Emeth Ochoa’s video with accompanying transcription on his Vote Von for the Peoples of – por las Gentes de – Bellingham Facebook page
July 2, 2019 Von Emeth Ochoa, Candidate for Bellingham City Council, Council At-Large position
Bellingham, Washington, should become a Sanctuary City. In no uncertain terms.
Reading Aloud: Things I learned from the forwarded documents from Community 2 Community/Comunidad a Comunidad and a letter from Sheriff Elfo from 2017, forwarded to me by https://noisywatersnw.com/
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.
“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
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.
Since this video, focused on food sovereignty, reminded me, I am checking in to see if folks are familiar with Whatcom County’s Food System Committee that began meeting in February of this year. There are detailed (and, so far, up-to-date! Yay!) minutes for the meetings available at this link on the County website: http://whatcomcounty.us/2992/Food-System-Committee
Click the graphic to access this post on the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce website
April 30, 2019 Dena Jensen
Folks may remember discussion last year of the Port of Bellingham allowing some of their public parks to be shut down to non-paying members of the public for private events due to requests from event organizers. Port Commissioners decided to try a “pilot program” that resulted in, I believe, ultimately just one event in August of 2018 that shut down Zuanich Point Park.
Click the graphic to access a recording of the 3/20/19 Community Voz radio show
For those who didn’t catch it on air, the March 20, 2019 Community Voz radio show on KMRE centered on the trip that members of the Bellingham women-led , grassroots organization, Community to Community Development (C2C), made to Olympia on March 18, 2019 for the 6th Annual Farmworker Tribunal and Latino Legislative Day.
Click the graphic to access the YouTube video of the Whatcom County Council March 12, 2019 meeting.
March 20, 2019 Dena Jensen
County Council Member Rud Browne expressed the sentiment twice at the Whatcom County Council March 12, 2019 regular meeting during the Council committee reports segment near the end of the meeting. One exact quote was: “Yeah, so anyway, anyway, so, I just, 26,000 bucks a door is just a hard pill to swallow.”
Click the graphic to access The Western Front article, “Community to Community Development Takes Fight for Agricultural Workers, Immigrants Rights to State Legislature”
I just listened to a recent Community Voz radio show on SB 5438 – which recently passed the state senate – a bill that would provide a source of funding and resources to provide better oversight to help prevent abuses of the H-2A visa agricultural program. You all should listen too. There’s a ton of information and analysis packed into the hour-long show that will help you better understand the bill. (Great music too!)
Excerpt from the March 6, 2019 “Open letter to Bellingham City Council” by Victoria Matey and Maru Mora Villalpando
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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