Take Action: Write to Whatcom County Council Members to support the recommendations of the Public Health Advisory Board to the Whatcom County Health Board to support of immigrant families of all statuses.
Feel free to provide any expertise or experiences you have regarding the negative impacts on immigrants or our greater community resulting from the harassment, apprehension, detention, and/or deportation of immigrants.
The council will likely take up the PHAB request at their November 20th meeting, so write your emails before then.
Email addresses (use all email addresses below on your email, so that the email will be part of the public record, and will be sure to reach each individual Council Member in a timely manner):
council@co.whatcom.wa.us
bbrenner@co.whatcom.wa.us
bbuchana@co.whatcom.wa.us
rbrowne@co.whatcom.wa.us
ssidhu@co.whatcom.wa.us
tdonovan@co.whatcom.wa.us
tballew@co.whatcom.wa.us
tbyrd@co.whatcom.wa.us
Source: Whatcom County Public Health Advisory Board: http://www.whatcomcounty.us/572/Public-Health-Advisory-Board
Background: The Public Health Advisory Board (PHAB) met in early October 2018 to review health and safety impacts which recent detentions of undocumented workers are having on immigrants of all statuses and on our community. They also talked about the potential impacts proposed changes to the “public charge” rule (in other words, the Department of Homeland Security seeking to reshape how the federal government defines “public charge”) would have on immigrants and our county.
On November 7, 2018 Public Health Director Regina Delahunt came before the Whatcom County Council Public Works and Health Committee meeting with a request for Council support for immigrant families in Whatcom County. An October 25, 2018 letter had been sent from the Public Health Advisory Board (PHAB) to the Whatcom County Health Board (WCHB) outlining recommendations for creating a resolution and task force focused on support systems and services for families of immigrants of all statuses affected by detention and deportation. The letter also recommended that the WCHB submit comments to the Department of Homeland Security and letters to U.S. Senators and Representatives opposing changes to the “public charge” rule.
Additional Information:
Community to Community Development blog post, “Community Organizing in Response to the August 29, 2018 ICE Raid”: http://www.foodjustice.org/blog/2018/10/26/community-organizing-in-response-to-the-august-29th-ice-raid?fbclid=IwAR2M51PQhAxh9b4cVIOn_fOPDg1BWKappL7kAyMkci2pq-IKlne_HXMerWA
Letter from the PHAB to the WCHB: https://noisywatersnw.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/letter-from-rachel-lucy-screen-shot-2018-11-08-at-6-52-07-pm.png
https://noisywatersnw.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/letter-from-rachel-lucy-screen-shot-2018-11-08-at-6-52-07-pm.png
Copy of the Agenda Bill and attached materials from the PHAB regarding the request for support from County Council for families of immigrants in Whatcom County: http://www.whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/37858/ab2018-302?bidId=