Our League recently formed an Immigrant Support Team and members of this group are exploring various ways to monitor and support immigrants living in our community. For more information about our work click here.
On Sept 18th, three members of this team attended the Bellingham City Council's Keep Washington Working Act (KWWA) Working Group. At that meeting, Police Chief Rebecca Mertzig, Deputy Police Chiefs Jay Hart and Ty Elmendorf, and Justin Rasmussen, Acting What-Comm Deputy Director gave an informative presentation entitled: "Transforming KWW, Policies, and Feedback into Action"
Here are the main things we learned:
- Homeland Security has issued 500,000 new immigration warrants nationally. (These are non-judicial warrants.)
- The Bellingham Police Department has developed and implemented training policies that clarify the role of local police in this matter and make it clear that these warrants are outside police jurisdiction and cannot be the basis for Bellingham police detaining or questioning anyone.
- The Police department issues clear directives to new recruits and veteran officers alike so that the department will remain in compliance with state law. They also stress that police departments are State agencies and are not under the jurisdiction of the federal government.
- Our Police department has filled numerous vacancies by recruiting new officers while increasing the number of officers who are certified bilingual translators. As a result our police department is able to communicate more effectively with clients who do not speak English.
- Because of prior suggestions from the working group, our police department has discussed this with other police departments in Whatcom County. Some of these departments have requested copies of Bellingham training policies and other strategies to help them, too, remain in compliance with state law and the KWWA.
I have to say that we were encouraged and impressed with the quality and dedication of our police force and their genuine commitment to compliance with state law and to maintaining the safety and dignity of Bellingham residents.
Information about the KWWA working group can be found at the City of Bellingham website.
(Unfortunately, the last several months of meeting minutes are unavailable on the website. Hopefully this will be corrected soon.)
The LWV Immigrant Support group is meeting regularly to keep abreast of how immigrants are impacted by ICE enforcement. Several of our members volunteer to prepare emergency food boxes for families in need and to visit local businesses with Signs of Solidarity declaring their support of immigrants. Local organizations supporting immigrants are in need of financial support as well.
Find out more on the website!
Kudos to relatively new LWV members, Wendy Courtemanche and Maggie Marmolen for leading the group!
