— from Eleanor Hogue —
A piece of legislation is working its way through the Washington State Legislature that would reinforce our San Juan County immigration ordinance by limiting state and local entities from assisting with federal immigration enforcement activities. It is called the Keep Washington Working Act; in the Senate as SB 5497 and in the House as HB 1815. Rep. Debra Lekanoff is a co-sponsor of the House bill.
I am writing to encourage people to take two minutes to support these bills.
Nearly one million Washingtonians are immigrants and make up 16% of the workforce. Many immigrants (and others) are being profiled, stopped, and harassed. We are lucky that San Juan County officials serve all local residents regardless of immigration or citizenship status. But a state-wide approach will ensure that all Washingtonians feel safe and that all businesses and industries across the state continue to thrive.
By reducing this needless burden on local law enforcement officials, the Keep Washington Working Act will allow them to focus on the communities they serve. State and local involvement in immigration enforcement makes all of us less safe by deterring some Washington residents from coming forward to report crimes and other public safety concerns.
Please support these important bills and make your voice heard.
Thank you for alerting us to a chance to support these bills. We need to stand up for our neighbors and friends who live and work here and contribute to our community. They should not live in fear of harassment, detainment, deportation or separation from their families, spouses and children. No child should ever be separated from his or her parents – that is a cruel and punitive “solution,” when all these people have done is to try to get away from repressive regimes and abject poverty to make a better life – and they DO contribute to better lives for us all. I welcome statewide support in assuring that they get to stay here without harassment!
Thanks also for posting the legislative hotline prominently so we can easily call and tell our legislators that we support this bill. it takes less than a minute to call.
Let’s build a wall..
against ICE enforcement.
Thanks for these important updates Eleanor. We must speak up to have our voices and wishes heard.
A timely letter, Eleanor.
An excellent article in the Pacific NW magazine section of Sunday’s 2/10 Seattle Times, about the 1919 Seattle General Strike, mentioned that, at that time, ,
” Nine fo 10 adults were from someplace else, and half the working population was under 35. (An estimated 96 percent of the local population was of European descent, but was not exactly homogeneous. Immigrants made up a third of the local workforce, and 1 in 5 workers was female.”)
When you think of it, we were all immigrants, once. That’s what the USA is made of.
Thank you all for being so supportive. Go to the easy link in the ad below and put your feelings into action!! ; )
When law makers propose laws, to prevent laws, it begs the question, why not change the law? The law in question would keep local agencies from co operating with federal agencies, when dealing with immigration issues. Local agencies have always had the option of not holding someone because of documentation, unless, they were suspected of a crime, in which case anyone, documents or not, will be held.Even if this passes, there will still be federal laws over riding it all.More litigating, time, money, etc…Time would be better spent working on updating and or changing an out dated immigration law, that has only been adjusted once, that I know of. That made it possible for undocumented folks to be able to pay taxes. Seems we were able to come together for that one all right.
It’s too bad we need laws. And it’s too bad we need to be policed…Too bad we have to lock our doors, and put up barriers. Imagine, no badges no fences. In a Perfect world, maybe. I don’t know if any one item is key to the solution, but I’m sure laws are only as good as the people implementing them. I believe we can all share responsibility for the situation as it is, and that together it can be corrected.
We will never know the true number of people lost on,”devils highway”…This alone should be incentive enough to bring people together.
Sincerely
Miguel