On Oct. 7, the Bellingham City Council held a third and final vote to approve an ordinance dissolving the Immigration Advisory Board. It passed 7-2, with council members Michael Liliquist and Jace Cotton as the only dissenters, following the pattern of the prior two votes.
The Immigration Advisory Board (IAB) was established in 2019 to review and evaluate existing policies and make specific recommendations related to immigration to the mayor and City Council, according to their website.
In January, Council Member Hannah Stone motioned to suspend the IAB but promised that the intention was not to dissolve the board.
The January ordinance cited the IAB’s failure to follow certain protocols for city advisory boards and “the level of conflict” at meetings as reasons for the suspension.
Members of the IAB said that they were not given adequate tools and training to perform their duties to the required standards. After the vote to dissolve the IAB, around 15 community members voiced their disappointment with the Council during the public comment period.
“When we, as a board, offered you all the opportunity to act outside of white fragility, I hoped you would be able to move closer to us instead of locking us out of public process,” said former IAB member Tara Villalba during public comment.
At an IAB meeting on Jan. 16, the board responded to their proposed suspension with a rewrite of the ordinance and a timeline of board recommendations to the mayor’s office and city council.
“Immigrants represent 10% of Bellingham. As the only board out of 24 in the City of Bellingham that is accessible to non-English speaking immigrants, we offer a valuable singular access point for our immigrant neighbors to approach the City about the issues we face, that are often not addressed in any other Board or Commission, and perspectives that are almost always excluded or neglected when the City offers public engagement opportunities,” the IAB wrote in a letter presented at the Jan. 16 meeting.
Audience members seated at the city council general meeting on Oct. 7, 2024, in Bellingham, Wash. There were roughly 30 people in the audience. // Photo by Seddie LeBlanc
The board will be replaced by a limited-term work group established by a resolution passed on Sept. 30.
The workgroup will address the city’s compliance with the Keep Washington Working Act (KWW), which was created to support immigrants’ roles in the workplace and restricts the extent to which local law enforcement can enforce federal immigration laws.
Vincent Canada, a management analyst at the Washington Department of Commerce, said he works with the statewide workgroup established by the act. He says they haven’t done much work in Whatcom or Bellingham, but that’s something that could be improved.
“My advice would be to empower [the workgroup],” Canada said. “We, the workgroup statewide, don’t have any official authority. We have ways to make recommendations, ways to advocate for certain policies, but we don't have any direct authority ourselves.”
The Whatcom County workgroup is short-term, and will exist until a work plan is produced and new steps are identified, said Council Member Hannah Stone, who proposed the creation of the IAB in 2019, as well as the ordinances to suspend and dissolve it.
“The dissolution of one and the creation of the other [are] sort of happening in tandem, but [we don’t want] it to feel like it's a dismissal or closure to that work, but that it really is the opening of a door for that work to continue in a more meaningful way,” Stone said.
The establishment of the workgroup will enable local government to be more effective in supporting immigrants, Stone said. Members of the community feel that this intention was not communicated effectively.
“I see a lack of effort or intention in supporting the immigrant community,” said Western Washington University student Ana Sofía Garcia Villarreal.
Villarreal moved from Mexico to Orcas Island when they were around 10 years old. According to Villarreal, Orcas Island and Bellingham are similar in a lot of ways, including the small community feel, but that Bellingham was behind in creating safe spaces for immigrants.
“We're rich with culture, and so being able to share that is amazing for us. Having to be blocked is kind of like, ‘Okay, so you don't want to hear from us,’” they said. “They only want to cherry-pick what they like from us.”
They said that over the past year, Orcas Island has worked to create more events for the Latinx community to share their culture and be appreciated and celebrated by the rest of the community.
Attendees leaving the City Council meeting on Oct. 7, 2024, in Bellingham, Wash. The mass exodus was prompted by the Bellingham Police physically removing a commenter who was perceived to be threatening members of the City Council during comments unrelated to the dissolution of the IAB. // Photo by Seddie LeBlanc
Commenters at the Oct. 7 meeting said that the dissolution of the IAB caused a rift in the immigrant community’s trust in the city government.
“Going forward, I think it’s really going to focus on the action. I don’t know that there’s a lot that can be said that wouldn’t just feel like lip service at this point,” Stone said.
One point of action referenced by both public commenters and city council members was the Immigrant Resource Center.
There is currently $100,000 tentatively earmarked for a request for a proposal from an agency or organization that could help develop a business plan for the center, according to Stone. Even if the money was spent on a business plan, it’s possible that the city wouldn’t be able to afford to implement it.
The city is currently experiencing a general fund deficit of $4 million. Washington state is experiencing a $483 million hit in revenue collection for the 2023-2025 state budget.
Stone says that it could take eight to 10 years for a physical location to be built and functional. The council is looking into ways to use the money for direct services that could help the community now, she added.
“They have said that they were gonna implement good support. But what does their support mean?” Villareal said. “When you're the narrator of what that support looks like, and you're not asking the people that need the support what kind of support they want?”
The creation of an Immigrant Resource Center was highlighted by three different speakers at the Oct. 7 public comment period, which is viewable online.
The KWWA work group will be formed in late 2024 and begin work in early 2025. The city is accepting applications for the work group from community members with lived experience and/or connections to the immigrant community in Bellingham, according to the website.
Seddie LeBlanc (they/she) is a senior reporter on the City News beat this quarter. They have previously reported and edited Campus News and edited Opinions. Seddie is in her fourth year at Western studying Journalism and minoring in Law, Diversity and Justice. In her free time, Seddie enjoys being outside, being with buddies and reading Substack. You can reach them at seddieleblanc.thefront@gmail.com.
