16 Latinx immigrants in Bellingham are arrested and sent to the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center.

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Since the 1860’s, industries in this area have sought cheap labor for difficult and often seasonal work. Successive waves of immigrants have been employed to meet these needs, yet they have repeatedly been denied citizenship, civil rights, and full integration into the community. Immigrants from Latin America are the latest to experience this exploitation.

So far, few details about the raid have been made available, but this raid is not the first in Bellingham. In 2009, ICE raided a local business and detained 28 workers. Beyond these mass detentions, racial profiling of individuals in Bellingham and Whatcom county has also led to detentions.

An excellent overview of this history can found in this Whatcom Watch article “Deportation, Here and Now.”

Some details of the 2018 detentions can be found in this Bellingham Herald article “ICE arrests 16 in Whatcom County during ‘criminal investigation‘.”

Efforts to make Bellingham’s “sanctuary city” status more robust are being advocated through weekly Dignity Vigils.

The Whatcom Civil Rights Project is also working to support victims of discrimination and civil rights abuses, including migrant works.