Story and photo by Erasmus Baxter
The Bellingham City Council Chambers were packed on Monday, January 23, as the council took public comment on a proposal to declare Bellingham a sanctuary city.
Sanctuary cities are those that ban local law enforcement or city agencies from inquiring about immigration status or cooperating with federal immigration officials.
The crowd assembled at the meeting was overwhelmingly in support of the proposal with many carrying signs, and wearing blue in support of the Blue Group, a group of undocumented Western students and their allies who have championed the sanctuary city proposal.
Speakers emphasized the need and moral imperative to take action to protect undocumented community members from deportation under the current presidential administration.
Western freshman Ana Ramirez, a member of Blue Group, spoke about the fear of growing up in a community where deportations occur. She said that fear of her parents being deported haunted her, and made attending Western and focusing on academics difficult.
President Trump has vowed to deport at least 3 million undocumented residents. He has also threatened to repeal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that many rely on to attend school, gain legal documents and find employment.
The only person to speak against the proposal invoked President Trump’s threat to deny federal funding to sanctuary cities, and claimed that undocumented immigrants would bring crime to Bellingham. Speakers following her pointed out that using federal grant dollars to coerce cities has been ruled illegal, and that sanctuary cities have been shown to have a lower crime rate than other cities.
Each speaker was allotted three minutes to make their case to the council and the assembled crowd. The public comment time was scheduled to take a total of 15 minutes, but the council continued to hear speakers for 45 minutes.
At the meeting, the council announced that they had formed a work group with the mayor’s office to work on creating an ordinance. The work group is expected to finish its work in early February.
ABOVE: Freshman Ana Ramirez speaks in support of Bellingham becoming a sanctuary city at the City Council meeting on Monday, January 23.