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Immigration Advisory Board working toward immigrant resource center

City Council interested, wants to see more

By Kai Uyehara News Intern

A subcommittee of Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board is advocating for the creation of an immigrant resource center using city funds, a service the board feels is long overdue for many non-citizen Whatcom County residents. 

The subcommittee met with Bellingham City Council May 9. Council expressed its interest in seeing the project move forward but wants to see operational models, a budget and an identified organizational structure from the mayor’s administration as they work with the board.

The resource center would assist immigrants living in Whatcom County in accessing legal services, healthcare, education, childcare, emergency supplies, access to IDs and civil services and more. 

“When I first moved to Bellingham, I looked for an immigrant resource center,” said Danielle Siedlecki, who immigrated to the United States. 

“I had many questions that could’ve been answered there but I had to learn the hard way; for instance, the importance of asking if a doctor is in-network. A resource center can and will help immigrants with things that Americans just know,” she said at Monday’s meeting. 

The Immigration Advisory Board proposed the city provide funds for the resource center’s building lease, furniture and the full-time staffing of one center director and three assistants.

“We are long overdue for a voice, a place we can go to feel safe and comfortable,” Homero Israel Jose Garrido said at the meeting. 

In their planning, the Immigration Advisory Board garnered the support of organizations such as Community to Community Development, the Opportunity Council, Lighthouse Mission Ministries, Whatcom Peace and Justice Center and Whatcom Community College.

“Words don’t create trust, actions do. By creating the immigrant resource center, the city shows it welcomes the immigrant,” Lelo Juarez said Monday. “We need to be part of the community completely.”


City Council members agreed and expressed their intent to take deliberate action to welcome immigrants in Bellingham. They further discussed the reach of the resource center’s services, wanting to ensure its benefits reached beyond Bellingham into greater Whatcom County. 

Council members debated whether the resource center would be more effective if it were created in partnership with the county, or if Bellingham’s individual action as a more progressive city would need to lead surrounding cities by example. 

“Is a county-wide approach more appropriate? Yes,” council member Michael Lilliquist said. “But Bellingham can lead.”

After voting to move forward and request an operational model, budget and organizational structure, the City Council will further explore and vet the immigrant resource center proposal. They are set to meet with Mayor Seth Fleetwood’s administration and the Immigration Advisory Board in the future. 

Administration and the board still must determine what city resources will be deployed, if nonprofits will be involved, if the county will be asked to partner, if the resource center will be city staffed or contracted and if other agencies will be involved, Fleetwood said. 

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