Campaign Action
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has announced that an immigrant rights group that is providing legal aid services to immigrant families—including parents and children that have been separated due to the Trump administration’s brutal family separation policy—will receive an additional $230,000 in emergency funding.
“The horrific separation of children from their parents at our southern border is just the latest in an ongoing effort by the president’s administration to terrorize immigrant families and those seeking asylum or refuge,” he said. “Everyone is entitled to a fair and due process, and this funding will help make sure Washington is doing everything it can to protect that system of justice for all.”
The group, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, had already won a $1 million grant, but with the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy resulting in hundreds of parents and children getting transferred to Washington state detention facilities due to overcrowding elsewhere, “families and … children need help now,” Inslee tweeted.
According to the governor’s office, as many as 200 migrants—including many mothers seeking asylum—are jailed in the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac, “while at least nine separated youth have been placed in Washington state.” Inslee was among the elected officials who visited SeaTac earlier this month, where mothers sobbed as they said they were unable to even say goodbye to their kids.
“Over a third of the women were mothers who had been forcibly separated from their children, who range in age from 1-year-old to teenagers,” said Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. ”The vast majority of the mothers have not spoken with their children in weeks and they have no idea where they are. Most have been held in detention for more than two weeks and many for over a month.”
Can you give $5 to help keep immigrant families together—or bring them back together after separation?
Donald Trump, under nearly universal condemnation, issued a misleading and sham executive order that instead wants to indefinitely lock up families together with an end goal of deporting them, overturn court decisions that are supposed to help protect detained immigrants and do nothing to reunite the over 2,000 kids who have already been torn from their families. The crisis is as urgent as ever, and Washington state wants to help.
"We are grateful to the Legislature, Governor Inslee and the Department of Commerce for making these resources available to expand access to legal services to immigrant and refugee communities throughout the state," said Jorge Baron of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. "These services will help ensure that hundreds of individuals in our state will gain protection from violence and be reunified with their family members."