“Immigration Initiative” to Be on November Ballot

— by Margie Doyle —

Cindy Wolf, Elly Hoague and Anne Marie Shanks celebrate the successful campaign to put “Immigration Initiative” on the county ballot

On Tuesday, July 18, the Immigration Rights Group of Orcas Women’s Coalition (OWC) gathered at Emmanuel Parish Hall with signature-gatherers and others to celebrate the “overwhelmingly positive response we received” to the initiative petition campaign to place “AN ORDINANCE PROTECTING THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF ALL COUNTY RESIDENTS, REGARDLESS OF NATIONALITY, PLACE OF BIRTH OR IMMIGRATION STATUS ” on the November ballot (to read the initiative, go to  www.orcaswomenscoalition.org/immigrant-rights-initiative-2017-07 ). Chief Initiative organizer and spokesperson Eleanor Hoague said, “Our success was due to all of our efforts, and if there is ever a time to celebrate, this is it!”

On Thursday, July 13, County Auditor and Elections Officer Milene Henley verified the 2,382 voter signatures on the initiative petition and authorized placing the “Immigration Rights” initiative on the ballot. By county and state law concerning initiatives, 1,635 signatures were required, or 15 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election.

Henley explained that initiatives are a way for the people to make laws. If voters approve the initiative in the November election, it will become law in San Juan County. She said however, that if the Council adopts the measure as a county ordinance before August 1, it would then remove the need for a county-wide vote on the measure. Hoague said, “Although I hope that the County Council will respond by passing the ordinance with all due speed, Ordinance No. 25-2008 does provide a little more leeway by allowing the County Council to adopt the initiative proposal without change or amendment before the printing of the ballots.”

At the Tuesday afternoon celebration, Hoague said, “The signature-gatherers (about 200 of them) were instrumental in getting the initiative on the ballot. It’s so important, when we feel that there’s so little that we can do, that everybody did everything they did do.” She singled out the work of Shaw and Waldron Island residents who gathered signatures for 75 percent to 90 percent of their voting population,

“In a 30-day period we got almost a quarter of the voters in the last election [to sign the petition placing the initiative on the November ballot]. I’m overwhelmed with the effort and the response.”

Immigrant-rights lawyers Debbie Smith and Lucas Guttentag speak to the celebratory gathering at Emmanuel Parish Hall

Guests at the event included Lucas Guttentag, founder of the ACLU Immigration Rights Project and its head from 1985 to 2010, and Debbie Smith, head immigration lawyer for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) which involves more immigrants than any other union in the country.
Smith said, “It’s clear you’re a welcoming place that defends and protects immigrants. Thank you for standing up to the Trump administration and for continuing the resistance in this beautiful place.”

Guttentag said, “Congratulations to you all for your creativity and work and commitment… it’s so impressive. This is incredibly important, especially now. We are facing the greatest attack on immigrants and on what we are as a country from the highest levels of government that we’ve seen in my career.

“We’ve never had a president saying the kinds of things being said or adopting the kinds of policies that are being adopted.

“Your energy, commitment to protection of immigrants is incredible. This is a reflection of what is happening across the country, I really applaud all of you for that, because it’s so, so important. It’s is part of a much bigger struggle about who we are as a country and where we’re going.

“The larger agenda is to change the immigration system, to change the face of America, to go back to the 1920’s where immigration laws were designed to achieve a white Christian America.

“The commitment of communities in response to those policies is essential and so important and manifests who we really are and what values we represent. Thank you for your leadership and your collective efforts –it’s through them that we resist and that we achieve.”

Hoague said, “This commitment is exactly what got the OWC going: our community has shown a wonderful stepping up in not just talking but doing something.”