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Good morning, everyone.

The January 28th, 2026 meeting of the Library's Education and Neighborhoods Committee will come to order.

It's 9.34 a.m.

I'm Maritza Rivera, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Foster.

Here.

Council Member Lynn.

Here.

Council Member Rink.

Present.

Vice Chair Howlingsworth.

Present.

Chair Rivera.

Present.

Five council members are present.

All right, good morning again colleagues and those of you who are watching on the Seattle channel, welcome to the second Library's Education and Neighborhoods Committee Meeting of the Year.

Today we'll be hearing from the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, or as we fondly call it, OIRA.

I asked them to come today to give us an update on the work because I know we are all concerned about our immigrant neighbors.

The brutal killings by ICE agents in Minneapolis have left us on edge, wondering what we are doing and what we can be doing to keep our residents safe here in Seattle, particularly our immigrant residents.

I want us to focus on what OIRA has been doing, or I want to put focus on what OIRA has been doing to keep immigrant communities informed, provide reliable resources and offer support.

Now on to today's agenda.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Now we will open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment should relate to items on the agenda or within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Currently we have no in-person speakers and one remote speaker signed up.

Thank you, clerk.

Given that, the speaker will have two minutes.

Clerk, will you please read the public comment instructions?

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

The public comment period is up to 20 minutes.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

Speakers will be called in the order in which they registered.

We will start with in-person speakers first and then remote speakers until the public comment period has ended.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of their time.

The public comment period is now open.

We will begin with the first speaker on the list.

There are no in-person speakers, so our first remote speaker will be Alberto Alvarez.

Speaker, please press star six when you hear the prompt of you have been unmuted.

Thank you and good morning.

Council members, excuse me.

Council members Rank, Foster and Lynn.

Could you ask the OIRA presentation What city level changes or legislation can council act on during this immediate crisis?

I want to be clear.

The question is for the local level.

Yes, we can hope for Congress to act after the midterms, or maybe some future lawsuits from the states.

But for now, We would like to know every possible action council can take that OIRA recommends regardless of whether a few council members are claiming certain things cannot be done.

Again, the question is what city level changes or legislation can council act on immediately during the current crisis.

Thank you all and have a great day.

Thank you, speaker.

Chair, that was our last registered speaker.

All right.

There are no additional registered speakers.

The public comment period is now closed, so we'll proceed to our items of business.

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one OIRA supporting Seattle's immigrant and refugee communities for briefing and discussion.

Thank you.

This item has been read into the record and from director Rhoda Shek and Ozmi Haroon would you please join us at the table and while they're setting up colleagues since last year this committee has given OIRA an opportunity to talk about their work we've partnered together on the working community, especially after the egregious actions by the federal administration, we as a council have given the department resources to be able to further support the immigrant community here in Seattle.

And we've all been aligned on this effort.

Today we'll have an opportunity for our two new members, council members, Lynn and Foster, to hear from ORIRA about their overall work and in particular about some of their efforts around immigrant community.

As I said earlier, we are all very concerned.

I know, first of all, I've had the pleasure of working with the department for many years now, so I can attest to the fine and great work that the department does and has done for various years.

I've had the pleasure of knowing Interim Director Shek known as Rhoda to me for many, many years as we've worked together at the city.

So I know that we're in great hands at OIRA and I'm looking forward to hearing about the work that you've done.

Colleagues, I welcome questions throughout the presentation.

If you have a question about something that's being presented, I'll try to be really good about looking for hands during.

And then also, anything that we're not able to answer in chambers, I know that we can double back with OIRA and get answers to because I know many things including the fact that they're as concerned as we are about supporting our immigrant neighbors on the ground and what we're hearing and ensuring that, we've talked about this before too colleagues, making sure that our immigrant neighbors and residents aren't afraid to come out and send their kids to school and use our services and use services throughout the county even because we're here to support them and we don't want to instill fear.

We want to ensure that we are being supportive and also making sure that folks are accessing services is something that I know we all really care about and I know OIRA is too.

Like I said, I want to address out of the gate some of the budget budget pieces that we added in the fall.

I know they're working with the mayor's office and will be giving us an update later on so that there won't necessarily be a robust update on that today, but just to say that they are working very diligently to get to us, well, to get more importantly to community those resources, but to get us an update.

You were not going to hear a robust update today, but we are all working with the mayor's office to make sure that we have something in future.

All right, and with all of that said colleagues, Interim Director and OSMI, you please state your name for the record and then you can begin your presentation.

Thank you so much for that warm welcome, Chair Rivera.

Good morning, Madam Chair Rivera and honorable members of the committee.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here and welcome to the new council members as well.

We're looking forward to working with you.

For the record, my name is Rhoda Sheik.

I'm the interim director for the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

and my name is Azmi Haroon and I'm the communications advisor for the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs and thank you for having us and welcome to the new council members and thank you council chair Rivera and thank you council member Brink as well, thank you.

So today we'll walk through how OIRA supports Seattle's immigrant and refugee communities through direct services, trusted community partnerships, and also coordination across the city on changing immigration policy issues.

As we all know now, national immigration policy shifts quickly.

and impacts land locally.

And we'll discuss how OIRA continues to serve as the city's hub for immigrant and refugee policy and engagement during times of crisis and beyond.

So at its core, OIRA is not a rapid response department.

Our mission is long-term, which is to improve the lives of Seattle's immigrant and refugee communities by helping residents build stability, access opportunity, and fully participate in civic and economic life.

That being said, OIRA stays nimble as community needs and policy conditions shift.

In 2025, we provided steady leadership during heightened enforcement, policy uncertainty, and increased fear.

We've expanded our Know Your Rights education, strengthened language access, and launched our rapid response program.

We'll share more on that program later in the presentation.

We deliver that work with a team of 15 FTEs and a budget that's primarily the general fund, supplemented by some payroll expense tax, as well as some state and local grants.

In terms of scale, as you mentioned, Chair Rivera, our 2026 adopted budget did increase by $4 million, and that increase was made ongoing by the Council, and it was a direct response to the shifting immigration policy landscape.

We've begun briefing the mayor's office on current investments and needs and the mayor's office is committed to investing those dollars in ways that's responsive to community needs.

So this slide lays out the core areas of work that we fund and oversee and we run these programs through deep partnerships with community-based organizations who bring cultural expertise and trusted relationships and we provide structure, oversight, and consistent accountability.

For today, I'll focus on highlighting these longstanding programs that represent the backbone of our impact, and later, OSMI will touch on the areas where we coordinate with internal and external partners during periods of heightened urgency.

So for the first program, the Legal Defense Network, it provides legal representation for low-income Seattle residents who are facing deportation.

It exists for the simple reason that in immigration court, there isn't a guaranteed public defender.

And that means low-income residents could face detention or deportation without representation.

And that's where LDN, or the Legal Defense Network, comes in.

In 2024, 215 people per quarter received full legal representation.

295 received limited services like asylum support, work permits, and other filings.

Our legal partners helped 82 people secure work authorization, and they filed 148 relief requests and attended 38 hearings with the court.

These are tangible sort of impacts that the Legal Defense Network has.

The next program is our new citizenship program, which provides- Director, sorry, I see that Councilmember Lynn has his hand raised.

Sorry to interrupt you.

Councilmember Lynn, you're recognized.

Yeah, just on the Legal Defense Network, could you just describe your role versus some of our outside partners' roles and how the funding works?

Do we provide any direct funding to outside providers and how much?

and if we don't provide direct funding or it's limited, where are they getting their funding from, if you know?

So we provide direct funding to three partner organizations, NERP, so Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Kids in Need of Defense, and Colectiva, and they provide the direct legal representation.

So we fund a legal team that provides that representation.

So our work is contracted out to those orgs, and the amount is $1.3 million annually.

1.3 and that's part of the 10 million were adopted.

Okay.

Exactly.

Yes.

Thank you.

And if I can add, these organizations also receive county and state funding.

So they do, as you probably know, Council Member Lynn.

So it's not just our funding, it's collective funding because of course we collectively care about doing this work, but we've had these partners for many years.

This is not a new arrangement.

We've had the Legal Defense Network for many years, and of course, in the advent of all that's happening, partnered with them more robustly, but we had been working with them and partners have had contracts with them for many years to provide the legal service.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

I'm assuming there's increased needs right now.

Do we have a sense of how much are they getting double the calls, any sense of the increased needs and whether there's additional resources needed for this line of work?

Yeah, I think your question is one that we're also looking into as part of our assessment of what community needs currently are.

So we'll be able to respond to that as soon as that data becomes available to us and we have these convenings with community partners.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you, Council Member Lynn and Term Director.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So next up, we have our new citizenship, new citizen program, which provides free naturalization support to low income residents who have significant barriers to becoming US citizens.

We know that citizenship can open doors to better jobs, higher wages, home ownership, the ability to vote and engage in community without fear.

and it also protects families from sudden policy changes that could destabilize entire households.

So in 2024, this program supported over a thousand community members through naturalizations, including filing 700 citizenship applications, providing over 7,000 hours of English and civics instruction, over 500 practice interviews so applicants could walk into their interviews feeling prepared and confident.

and over the life of the program through 2024, so for the past 10 years or so, more than 32,000 residents have been served and over 16,600 applications have been submitted.

That's something that we're really proud of.

Next up, we have our Ready to Work program, which is a program that helps immigrants and refugee adults build English language skills, digital skills, and job readiness.

And this is especially for residents who face the steepest barriers to employment.

We find that a lot of our clients are often women, parents, or adults over 40. To date, the Ready to Work program has served over a thousand adult learners and each year, at least a third of the participants move into employment or higher education.

In 2025, when our case managers followed up with the students, 90 days after course completion, they found that 86% were still employed in the jobs that they were placed in and over 30% were enrolled in ESL college classes.

A key component of the ready to work is the childcare cohort, which connects clients directly to the childcare industry, which is an area where Seattle and the region continue to face workforce needs.

In 2025, our ready to work childcare cohort contributed over 3,500 hours in childcare facilities across King and Snohomish counties with a 49% job placement rate.

So it's a stability program and it acts as a pipeline.

And again, this is a program that's been with the department for a long time.

So we've had some really great results and outcomes for folks.

Next up, we have our language access program, which is an internal facing program.

So as we know, language access is a civil rights obligation and it's also just good government.

If residents can't understand services or notices, they can't access the programs that they may be eligible for.

and the city can't serve them effectively.

So our role, our language access program supports city departments so that residents who don't speak English could still fully access government.

And what we're seeing is Seattle is a big investor in language access.

We invest roughly 1.2 to $1.3 million annually on translation and interpretation.

And it's important because we know that Seattle is linguistically diverse.

So one in five residents speak a language other than English at home.

And just in our public schools, we see that there are over 150 languages spoken.

And so within OIRA, we prioritize and we've identified the top 18 languages and we provide interpretation and translation for those languages.

and our work is strengthened because we partner with community members, over 50 community members who provide that sort of accuracy, quality and cultural relevance and who translate projects for the department.

and we have some numbers because we love numbers.

In 2025, we've had over 200 translation projects that were submitted through our centrally managed translation system.

We've also seen that our telephonic interpretation usage increased by 8%.

So we see that there have been over 25,000 interpretation calls made by city department staff.

And then our team also provides trainings across the city to staff to make sure that folks are aware of what services are available.

And we've trained over 270 staff in the past year alone.

And that's just with two FTEs who oversee that.

Councilmember Lin.

Thank you, Chair.

I was just wondering, are there other departments that do translation, language access, I'm thinking of Department of Neighborhoods primarily, and is this a service that council members or legislative department can take advantage of when we're out in community?

Just wanna understand what else is out there.

Yeah, definitely.

And I'm happy to answer that.

So our approach is equipping departments with the resources to navigate different translation and interpretation needs within their departments.

So we manage the SmartCat, which is our centrally managed translation software, but departments could submit projects on that platform.

And then we also have resources when it comes to interpretation, so guiding folks to different agencies that were provided, and also just like a standard operating procedure of how to, you know, if you come across someone who doesn't speak English, how would you navigate that?

What resources are available?

So we provide that sort of training, and I could elaborate on that and provide those resources to your offices.

And then with regards to other departments that cover it, Department of Neighborhoods has a really wonderful program of community liaisons and they operate as sort of on the ground, and they often serve a function of interpretation on the ground, but they also cover a larger body of work and departments usually tap them into when there are events being held.

So it's a different function in some senses, but it also does touch on interpretation needs, but not written translations.

Does that answer your question?

Thank you.

Thank you for the question and I always want to toot the department's horns so at the beginning of 24 I want to say we had some folks come into chambers and we needed some quick interpretation services and we reached out to OIRA who provided support so while interim directors said we're not rapid response.

You do sometimes provide rapid response and we so appreciate it and we want to give you the credit for it.

And I will say, same with Don.

They've really, you know, when they're out in community or when we've had a need and we've reached out, they will pull together folks in the office and resources and really help us.

be able to provide that.

Interpretation is a big one.

Translation as well, obviously, but interpretation becomes of the moment very quickly.

And so both Don and especially OIRA really do a great job with that.

So wanna toot your horn on that.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Chair Rivera.

We appreciate that.

The next program that I want to cover is our Immigrant Safety and Access Network, ESAN for short.

It was created in response to Executive Order 202301 and that order directs the city to strengthen crisis response for immigrant and refugee families in situations where there is gun violence or when someone experiences a sudden, unexpected or natural death.

and this program is about making support coordinated, culturally responsive and available in language so families and individuals could get the help that they need.

Right now the program's designed to offer two things, direct cash assistance and navigation and case management.

And it's so that when tragedies like that occur, families are not faced with long-term instability and that we're able to sort of mitigate where we can.

The next program is our Washington Migrant and Asylum Seeker Support Project, WOMAS for short.

This is a state-led pilot program for newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers who don't qualify for federal resettlement services.

It includes case management and housing support.

So this flow is basically there are hubs.

So organizations like the International Rescue Committee or IRC serve as the hub and they complete client intake process and eligibility screening process.

Then they refer clients to spokes for emergency housing project or for emergency housing purposes.

and the spokes then conduct their own intake.

And our role is that we are an emergency housing spoke and we provide short-term 30-day shelter when we accept referrals.

And we contract out with...

with an organization to provide that 30-day housing and case management.

And during the family stay, we conduct weekly check-ins and help ensure that they're connected to the services so that they can move on to more permanent, stable housing.

And so far we've served 175 individuals through this program and the contract here is from last July, so July of 2025 until June 30th of this year.

I'm going to cover a little bit more of our programming and response in the last year.

I wanted to just quickly touch on Council Member Lynn, your question about the LDN program earlier.

We'll work on collecting some of the data from partners, but one thing I can mention that we saw consistently through last year is definitely an increased demand for services.

but also in the LDN program in particular increased barriers to representation.

So lawyers being allowed into the Tacoma Detention Center, things like that.

So we're seeing definitely with that program increased barriers and we'll kind of get you some data that colors that in as well.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about the rapid response program.

This was stood up last year in March 1st through repurposing $240,000 from our NCC program and later through the council adopting a mid-year supplemental budget of $300,000 which was an amazing gesture and kind of with a lot of community testimony that was built into that.

and so we wanted to have a rapid response program that was very flexible and able to address a lot of these immigration policy changes that we were seeing.

We kind of, as we did our community listening sessions, the RFPs and then the eventual contracts are kind of in these three separate buckets.

One of them is around legal education, so we work with eight different community partner organizations.

We wanted to be able to help support Know Your Rights trainings that were culturally specific, that were addressing policy changes as they're changing daily, and also to have policy information sessions that were a little bit you know, higher level and that also the policy information sessions, a lot of them are actually geared towards the service providers so that they can then go to community members and help contextualize the changes.

And we also have a bucket of services that is around limited legal services.

So, you know, family safety planning is a new service.

We work with legal counsel for youth and children.

So this is, you know, in the case that someone is detained, or deported, and then an organization that can help that family make a plan around notarized documents that they need, legal representation, things like that.

We also are helping fund Weissen's Deportation Defense Hotline, which is an incredible resource.

It is statewide.

We will share a little bit more, some data a little bit further in the presentation about information we've gotten through that hotline.

But this is a hotline that community members, if they are witnessing or experiencing immigration enforcement, can call this hotline.

There's a verification process that people on the line will go through.

They'll connect them to resources.

They can connect them to legal resources as well.

And the last part of the rapid response program is the kind of advocacy and coordination side.

So, you know, working closely with existing partners, working with internally across the city, working across the county and the state to make sure that we're aligned on how we address these policy changes.

and I'll kind of go into some of what our response has been throughout the city and internally as well this year.

So I just wanted to acknowledge again how this rapid response program was built A big part of it was the mid-year supplemental budget.

This, you know, we felt as if, you know, council really heard the need and then we were able to extend the services quite a bit.

So in September we were able to launch two RFPs and then we kind of further separated that off of the community listening sessions.

One of the buckets is around community education, so we were hearing again and again that the need was that community had access to, you know, culturally-specific or community-specific or status-specific sessions that could help explain to community members, you know, what the policy changes are and how it affects them.

We saw that we helped, we've helped organize and helped partners organize several events through the year until now as well in December.

We worked on a policy information session for Somali and Afghan community members as, you know, there's been so many changes, but some of them were very specific to those communities.

We saw the harassment of childcare operators.

We've seen kind of overlapping issues as well.

And so this program kind of allows community-specific organizations to help address some of those issues.

And now kind of on the higher level side, I just want to help explain how we operate in terms of tracking the federal changes.

We have a policy team who is, you know, daily tracking the changes.

They're tracking them internally.

They're tracking them with the legal partners.

They're tracking them with, you know, AILA is a group of lawyers that is kind of on looking at every immigration policy change that's happening.

We're coordinating with the county and the state as well.

Internally, once, you know, we have the latest information, we're providing support for staff and city departments.

As Rhoda mentioned, sometimes that is language access, sometimes that is the internal city training that we help develop of what the city protocol is for, you know, reporting immigration enforcement on city property.

That also includes, you know, department-specific trainings as they're requested.

and then making sure that our programs are adjusted to community needs and that we're also tweaking and making sure our outreach is as effective as possible as there's a lot of fear in the climate as well right now.

So I wanted to also provide an update on the Immigrant and Refugee Commission.

We're very excited to share that we are moving into the stage of interviews.

We have a really amazing pool of candidates that we're excited to share with you very soon.

Especially at this time, it's very important that this commission is robust and running in a kind of parallel and separate track as well.

and we see that there's so much interest around the city and advocates that have been doing this work.

And so we, you know, we are providing a full report update by May to the council as requested by Council Member Rink and we're very excited to share more about that then.

So I wanted to also break down kind of some of the progress we made in the last year in terms of the internal city support that we do for city staff.

So with the former mayor's office, we worked on kind of the more department-specific and department-head-specific city protocol trainings.

And this was, again, to help staff understand you know, what the protocol is when you see immigration enforcement on city property.

From an executive order in October, it asks us to develop a city training on that that would be kind of more evergreen, permanent training that people could access.

So we're in the process of finalizing that right now.

That would make it more accessible for people as well.

We have hosted several information sessions, as I mentioned, through the Rapid Response Program.

These have been very highly attended.

One of them, there were so many online participants that it briefly crashed, but there's a real demand for and people understanding exactly what's going on and again, just the frontline partners that we work with being on the frontline of that work and understanding the community needs very well.

In October, we also organized the One Seattle Community Resource Fair, which was just downstairs in the BKL room.

We brought together 50 community organizations to share resources, to share resources between each other, community members, to meet city departments, to ask questions of city staff.

we felt that it was a very productive event and it just kind of showed again what the needs were and we wanted to also make sure that we could do it in a safe space for people to gather and that's something that we've also been navigating is like you know organizing events, meeting people where they're at as much as possible.

We have also tried to be specific about the type of Know Your Rights trainings that we're helping out with.

So some of them might be as to immigration enforcement, but sometimes we've organized three that are specific to business owners.

So for business owners and the employers and the employees, and also sometimes culturally specific ways to know how to respond.

And we're seeing an increased demand for that as well right now.

And then we also, internally, we host office hours every week.

So if city staff have questions, they can come to our policy team and they can ask those questions.

And we open ourselves up every Wednesday for that.

And I wanted to just share a little bit about the approach too.

We have hosted many of these policy sessions.

We've kind of increased our communications across the board.

through our messaging, uplifting partner messaging, making sure that we, as much as possible, can help share verified information too.

And again, a lot of our partners are already supporting and doing that work as well.

And we have convened regular mayor's roundtables where we try to bring together immigration advocates, community leaders to interface directly with the mayor's office, communicate those needs, and we can definitely say that those have been incredibly effective and there's been so much collaboration across the board from those roundtables.

A lot of those needs that were communicated turned into things that came out of the rapid response program, so we're very appreciative of that collaboration.

And then I just wanted to also help share a little bit about the current landscape and, you know, as we have these conversations with partners and with community organizations, what we are seeing in Seattle and some tangible updates we can share.

So in December and January in particular, you know, there has been no shortage of immigration policy changes across the whole year, but December and January there were some very accelerated changes that we've seen some local impacts through.

So I'll walk through some of them.

So one was a travel ban, which extended to a larger list of countries, and it continues to extend, unfortunately.

We saw an indefinite pause on all immigration applications, an immigrant visa ban for 75 nationalities.

So again, an extending list.

An indefinite pause on asylum proceedings, a re-review of refugee status granted under the Biden administration, increased immigration enforcement across the country, detention, deportations, and then fraudulent rhetoric targeting immigrants, their use of public benefits, childcare operators.

I can share that through our NCP program, our new citizen program, between December and January, we saw that over 100, and this is 10 partners that we work with, so again, it's not representative of all of Seattle, but through these 10 partners, over 100 community members between December and January had their citizenship appointments abruptly canceled with no, and we, part of our response also in the work that we do is, submitting comments on the Federal Register when there are these harmful changes.

We wrote a letter to the local USCIS field office, also kind of asking for more information, and people were not also getting explanations as to why these cancellations happen.

But you can imagine the fear and the confusion you know, people that have gone through every single step and then getting this cancellation.

So this is something that we're tracking and we're working with partners on and, you know, we'll share updates on as well.

I wanted to share a little bit more about trends in immigration enforcement that we have, again, specific verified information on and not full city-wide information, but this is through Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network.

And this is information that they've gone through verifying through their deportation defense hotline.

So since January 2025, there's been nearly 2,000 people that have been arrested in terms of immigration detention in Washington.

across the state.

The numbers of verified ICE activity through the deportation defense hotline in the first quarter of 2025, there was eight verified incidents.

in Seattle and then 40 in King County.

In the second quarter of 2025, there were five verified in Seattle and then 50 in King County.

And then in the third quarter of 2025, 10 verified ice activities in Seattle and 42 in King County.

So these numbers are definitely increasing in terms of just overall since the year before.

and we're very grateful also to our partners who are kind of on the front line of tracking this.

And again, these numbers represent also the fear that has increased in daily life in general.

This is kind of to speak also, Council Member Lynn, to your question a little bit before.

This is some of the legal challenges that we've seen.

So barriers in terms of representing clients, but also communicating with clients.

So that's kind of one of the greatest barriers.

Decreases in federal funding across the board.

We've seen that happen, and for program partners across the board.

You know, prolonged detention, putting people in a situation where They're choosing deportation over other things because there is no communication.

There's no other options presented to them.

We've seen, again, as I mentioned, the citizenship appointments cancelled.

And both are trends that we have seen increase in the last few months and are very concerning to us.

So we also wanted to share, you know, we understand that, you know, in our city, in our community, people are tracking things and they want to be involved and they want to see how they can support.

So we want to share just some opportunities and elevate some of the groups that we work with as well.

Some of the groups that we work with, ACRS, Wysen, NERP, El Centro de la Raza, RIWA, they do have volunteer opportunities.

And again, a lot of groups are in a situation where they're dealing with funding cuts and increased demand for services.

So, you know, people that have specialized backgrounds, whether it's in legal fields or other fields, there are volunteer opportunities and a lot of times there are needs for services.

We wanted to also invite community members to stay up to date with things that we share.

We try to be very intentional about sharing the latest information or community partners that are helping contextualize the latest information.

And we want to make sure that everyone has the most up-to-date information and also navigate that line between sharing that information and not causing panic as well.

which is, it's a very fearful time, understandably.

And, you know, we just, we really appreciate being here as well and having this platform to continue this conversation and extend the collaboration between all of us, the mayor's office.

And so again, we're very, very grateful to be here and very grateful for your work as well.

And we just wanted to open it up to any questions you might have.

Thank you Interim Director Shaikh and Asmi for being here.

I also want to acknowledge Shaanise Wilson from OIRA, who's in the office, who's in charge of special projects and one of the policy, the lead policy analysts on these issues.

And Shaanise was very instrumental all throughout last year in all of the work that we talked about.

I see her in the audience, I see you, it's important to acknowledge you as well.

Colleagues, the other thing I wanted to say before I'll go on to questions is that there's been a robust partnership between the city, the county, and the state, you know, with County Executive Zahale and Governor Ferguson, and of course, Attorney General Nick Brown, Everyone is really working together in a very robust way.

We all care and we want to work together to make sure that we are having a response that's unified, a unified voice.

It's really important to community to have that and finding opportunities to support community everywhere from on the ground to legally.

and so there have been as you know a lot of lawsuits both from our city and I should have mentioned also our city attorney's office so both from our city attorney from the Attorney General's office there is a lot happening there's even more happening that you heard today because We're just Seattle, so we're giving our Seattle what we're doing in Seattle.

But please know that OIRA is very engaged with the county and the state as we are working through this difficult time.

I will also say that I really appreciate OIRA's focus on giving accurate information because we don't want to have a chilling effect.

Shanice and I worked a lot with the director last year about this is making sure that we don't have a chilling effect so folks don't come out to receive services and send their kids to school and then I will also add that in terms of verifying what we hear for instance last week you all saw in the paper a story about potential ICE activity around schools.

None of that was actually confirmed or verified.

I think it goes to everyone being on edge, but I will say that during that time, very, very quickly, the school district was in conversation with the mayor's office and with me about are these actual verified sightings because we want to make sure that, again, kids are in school, they're safe.

Out of an abundance of caution, some of those schools did some shelter in place.

They have procedures in place is what I'm getting at.

So everyone's working to rapidly respond.

I feel very grateful for the partnership that we have with both the mayor's office and Seattle Public Schools to make sure that we're responding in a way that is quick and also that we're providing accurate information.

I think that piece is really, really critical.

That's another important way we support our immigrant community here in Seattle.

So colleagues with that, and I will continue my commitment to work with the schools, to work with OIRA, to work with the mayor's office, and all our government partners to ensure that we are all united in our approach.

And I will say that I'm very grateful to the county exec because we got invited to participate in a listening session with some of our immigration partners who are doing the work on the ground.

I'm going to be attending tomorrow, today, Wednesday, tomorrow, Thursday, to hear more about what's happening on the ground and needs.

I'm so grateful for his including us, including Council in those conversations, and it just goes to show how we all want to work together to make sure we're supporting our folks on the ground.

So with that said, colleagues, opening it up to any further questions.

Councilmember Foster, you are recognized.

Thank you so much chair and thank you so much interim director and the entire OIRA team.

I want to just first appreciate you all for your work and acknowledge how challenging this work is and how important it is and say thank you for it because I know that it is both important and hard work and that sometimes it takes a toll too.

So thank you.

And I appreciate your comments, Chair.

I was at one of the listening sessions with the exec last night and got to hear directly from community partners.

And as you all know, I'm a new council member and in my previous role, I had the chance to work with a lot of the community partners that OIRA is already supporting.

And so I just see the value and the work that they are doing in community.

One of the questions that I want to ask you, you talked a little bit about the increased need for services as well as the increased need for just some of the work that the community partners are doing.

I wonder if you can say more about that.

So for example, anecdotally, I think this was maybe 2025. I was speaking to somebody who worked with one of these partner organizations and they sort of said to me, I think we're getting like 4X the calls to our line that we used to get.

And I don't know that that's the exact right number or that I'm remembering it correctly, but I do think it's really important to bring up the scale and how significant the increase in demand is.

So I wonder if you can speak to that a little bit.

I think, so like Ozzie mentioned, the need is just across the board has just increased.

And something, you know, our rapid response program that we stood up, we've entered into a lot of these contracts, but this year will be an opportunity to reassess where some of those dollars could be reallocated.

So last year, for example, we've allocated $100,000 towards just sort of like legal consults and like pro se applications because they come up so often.

So people have a place to say like, you know, I'm filling out so-and-so form.

I just need a legal consult or something that would help me, you know, fill these forms out.

And so it's just like an open, like a wide open bucket of funding.

And I think that As we are closing down, as the contract year is coming to close, we'll just do a reassessment of whether that is still an open bucket of funding for just general legal consultation, if that's the continued need or if there's a specific one that's standing out.

But I think generally to be on the safer side, we wanted to have that opportunity for folks to engage with our providers.

Then I could just add one thing really quick.

So definitely, you know, the increased call volume we're hearing about across the board, and I think part of with the Rapid Response Program and supporting WISON in particular, part of the structure of that is to be able to support a staff position that helps manage that deportation defense line.

Again, I think that that's part of that flexible adapting the funding is just thinking about, okay, everyone is having this increased demand and not necessarily the staff or other capacities.

So definitely something that we'd like to continue that conversation on because we're seeing that across the board.

Thank you, I really appreciate that.

And I think sometimes while we're looking, I'll speak for myself, you know, we're looking at all of the impacts.

I wanna make sure that we're thinking about this staffing impact so that these organizations are able to do this really critical work.

So I appreciate hearing that from you and I know that that's key for you all as well.

And on a similar note, when it comes to services, one of the things that, again, I'll sort of hear about anecdotally in meetings with community members is, just more about people accessing city services and basic needs, right?

Feeling comfortable sending your kid to childcare or feeling comfortable accessing groceries or food banks.

And so I wonder if you can share more just about what you're hearing from community members in regards to how accessible our city services are or just, you know, again, basic services are given the heightened fear around immigration enforcement.

I could just speak to sort of the fact that we recognize the sort of chilling effects of these policies and some of that is that folks become, you know, are more afraid to sort of engage in their daily lives as they typically would.

And I think that our approach has just been combating that with accurate information.

and so I think that a lot of folks have reported that fear in Seattle across the country and we just wanna make sure that they have the tools and to know their rights and so that they could feel safer navigating daily life.

Our approach has just been that we give them that information so that they know they're up to date on it.

I'd also add that I think we have strengthened our internal collaboration in the city across the last year, so making sure that one, services can be offered in more languages as there's a lot more fear and people needing to access information or services in their languages, but also things as they come up.

So obviously, as we've seen with the last few months, the harassment of childcare operators, and then the instance that you mentioned, Council Chair Rivera, the unverified reports at Seattle Public Schools, there's further areas where we can deepen that collaboration with deal with SPS to make sure that that we're offering as many resources as possible and that we're collaborating and that there's kind of a, that we're putting our heads together consistently as things come up as well.

So I think that it's also been like strengthening the internal city collaboration so that there is a more unified approach and that people don't feel left out at all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Foster.

These are really important questions.

I will say some of this is not necessarily, it's anecdotal, it's hard to measure, but we have seen it and we have heard about it.

and to the interim director and Asmi's point, what we can do, what we really need to be doing and which we are doing is providing that accurate information and I will say that I just had a meeting with Seattle Public Schools this week to talk about that and they too are making sure that they're providing accurate information to their families.

When that happened last week, quickly, the following day, a communication went out to families letting them know that there was no confirmed, those reports were not confirmed, and to ensure that our communities know that they should continue to send their kids to school.

And I know there's a lot of support at school for families including food support and things of that nature.

So there is a lot out there.

These are some very difficult times and that's why the accurate information is important.

So thank you for that.

Council member Rink.

Thank you, Chair Rivera, and thank you OIRA team for your presentation today and all the work that you were doing.

This probably goes without saying, but I'm gonna say it, the stakes could not be higher.

Our neighbors are quite literally being disappeared off of our streets, and people are afraid to go to work, send their kids to school, go to doctor's appointments.

People are carrying around their passports.

This is the reality that we're living in this city that we call a welcoming city.

And I know we are doing our part on the city side to really uphold those principles of being a welcoming city, but this is the reality that we're facing every day.

And the political climate and the rhetoric from the federal government is translating to impacts in our local community.

And I know some of our incredible partners, such as One America, have been convening community listening roundtables.

and I know I've heard firsthand from our neighbors talking about how there really seems to be a noticeable increase in also just prejudice, hate, bias, really rooted in racism and xenophobia.

With folks relaying their own experiences on the light rail, walking the streets, being accosted.

These are things that are happening in our city areas that are a direct result of the rhetoric.

People are feeling emboldened to engage with, and even engage, accost people on the street.

And so I'm curious from this point about how the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs is tracking and understanding level and scale of this issue.

Right now, of course, it's anecdotal from community where they're reflecting to us that it feels like there's a steep increase, but wondering about right now how you're advising folks to be engaging with reporting hate and bias incidents, particularly what's our current guidance around like reporting hate crimes?

How is OIRA tracking this?

We've been in conversation with the Seattle Police Department.

I think that what you're saying is, Council Member, is we're all seeing it and experiencing it and hearing it.

And I think, so I just want to recognize that.

And, you know, I think this is a city-wide issue and it really does require the collaboration of so many departments and we are in conversation with many departments We have departments reaching out, we're reaching out to them.

In the info session that we held in December for specifically the Afghan and Somali communities, we did it in partnership with SPD.

So we've invited officers so that we could build that trust, let them know what the protocol is for reporting hate crimes, and to just let them know that that's a resource that's available.

And so whenever we do host these sessions, that's something that we share with community members as well.

And I know that that's something that SBD is also actively sort of thinking about and strategizing about and working within community about.

And partnering with the community-based organizations to do Know Your Rights Education because that is really, really critical.

I remember post September 11th, I actually was working at the ACLU doing Know Your Rights Education in Middle Eastern communities that were targeted.

Unfortunately, This is like always been the case and there is so much work that goes to supporting immigrant communities.

That was really important and of course my work then transitioned to know your rights in Latino communities because then they started to get targeted.

And so the dissemination of information is critical so that folks know their rights, so they know where to go to access services and information and I know we're partnering, like I said, with community-based organizations to make sure we get that word out.

I will also say we didn't talk about the legal.

On the legal defense side, there are a lot of pro bono opportunities and I know folks have reached out to the Washington State Bar Association and other bar associations to make sure that folks know because here's the reality too.

Even with additional funds, we don't always are able to have find additional lawyers to do this work, right?

There's some certain number of lawyers that can do this work.

So we also rely on folks to do pro bono work and help where they can, and that includes lawyers that might not have immigration experience but are barred and can help.

And so it's all hands on deck, and I wanted to say that as well because that's important.

We do need folks to, and to Azmi's point about volunteer opportunities, we encourage and let people know and I encourage all of us I know I shared it last year in the newsletter and will again after this presentation folks can get involved with there is a great need Thank you.

Council Member Rink, do you have other questions?

I do.

Thank you, Chair Rivera.

And yes, certainly just kind of building on this point around Know Your Rights trainings, I want to state for the listening public just to draw a couple of dots, connect the dots here on a couple of things.

I know last year this body took up a welcoming city resolution to not just reaffirm our city's commitment to upholding our programs and services, supporting immigrant and refugee communities, but also we included within that resolution that stated commitment to really explore expanding funding to OIRA in the supplemental budget.

And so just to connect that dot, that resolution was unanimously approved by this council.

Thank you, colleagues, for supporting that.

I know there's a number of things in that very long resolution that touched on work in city departments, the city attorney's office, and also council making commitments to our continued work, one of which was this $300,000 immediate investment into OIRA.

And so I really wanna thank you for kind of illustrating for the committee today what that investment has done.

And if I'm understanding correctly, I was seeing that it's a split between being able to to provide more of these Know Your Rights trainings and providing legal assistance.

Was that a clear split in half between the two for the 300,000?

Yeah, so it's kind of the Know Your Rights trainings, community education sessions, can be separate but related too, because some of them are more policy information sessions.

And then a big bucket of it is limited legal consultations.

And then those limited legal consultations are tied more to the policy changes that are happening.

loses their status or if something changes with their application, they need to seek legal guidance, then that's part of what those consultations are for.

And then there's also the family safety planning as part of that as well.

And I can share also that with the limited legal consultations, there was almost 300 hours of consultations that were accessed within the first part of this program.

so up until December.

So it was part of the limited legal consultations was to have a more flexible structure and how those attorneys could work with community members that are dealing with policy changes.

And then just to add in terms of the funding split, it is $200,000 that went to the legal defense that Ozmi's mentioning and then the rest of it went to Know Your Rights contracts.

Thank you for that.

I know there was a bit of consternation when we took that approach to include a direct call to budget commitment in a resolution, but really grateful that we took that approach so we could be responsive and get folks that really needed information to help equip our communities with the knowledge that is really necessary.

And I just have two final points that I wanted to touch on.

One is a question actually on slide 14 related to The Commission, thank you for referencing the report that Chair Rivera and I requested for OIRA regarding the status of the Commission by May 1st, 2026. Do you anticipate the Commission being active by the date of the report, or could you provide a timeline to when OIRA anticipates sending appointments down to the LEND Committee?

Yes, I would say to the first question, yes, I anticipate it being active, and then I'm happy to follow up after this with a timeline as well.

Fabulous.

And I will work with OIRA to make sure that if they have appointments that we can take up through committee, you have my commitment to make that happen.

I will say colleagues, for those of us who've been at the city for a while, and certainly the folks at the table, commissions, it does take time to be able to get the word out of community, get folks, these are volunteer positions, so get folks to want to volunteer.

I see you had a robust number of applications, go through all the applications and then select, you know, there's only some certain number of spots.

so all of that does take time it takes more time than any of us would like I want to acknowledge that and it is moving forward so I will work with OIRA to make sure that we are content and this is a new commission so you know we usually have this this is an ongoing with all the commissions trying to fully seat them it's an ongoing challenge I can tell you from having been at the city for many years, so this is not, there is no, this is par for the course when you're sitting a commission, but we are working together to make sure that all this is happening.

So thank you for your interest in that, Councilmember Rankin.

Happy to talk to you offline, too, further.

Thank you, Chair.

One last question.

Yes, thank you for indulging me.

I think it's clear from today's presentation just how important the work of OIRA is.

How big is your team?

We are, as of 2026, 15 FTEs with three temporary or sunsetting positions.

15 is a small but mighty team.

And I point to that to say the responsibility of addressing everything related to immigration enforcement and everything that's happening right now cannot solely fall to the feet of AWIRA.

You all are incredible, but we need to ensure that our city departments are also taking up actions to be able to support and amplify the work.

and I'll close on this point to say, I know there was a public comment here related to what more can the city be doing.

I just want to affirm that I know a number of folks who are a part of this body are exploring exactly what is within the bounds of the city to be I know our office is working on a number of measures that we'll be excited to talk about shortly.

We certainly are feeling a sense of urgency to be able to talk about that work that we're doing.

But we know that with so much misinformation out there right now, we want to be really clear about the actions that we're taking.

So just want to offer that for the record.

We're working on things we hope to communicate soon to the public about what's going on.

But I do want to ask in service of our public commenter today, Does OIRA have any recommendations you'd like to share with the committee today about actions that the city should be taking on the local level?

I think that we will continue this conversation some more.

I think that one thing that I will say is OIRA is also in a coalition of cities with other cities across the country.

So cities like Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

And so we're constantly sort of developing and trying to think of what our strategy will be as a city.

And so that's something that we'll cultivate and work with you, with the council and the mayor's office on, and will just be an ongoing conversation.

Yeah, I would just add that our policy lead, Oksana, has, I believe, been in conversation around some of the ordinances that were passed last year.

And so we will definitely share kind of full recommendations around those.

I believe that one of them was around exploring, again, through other cities that have done things and seeing what the ability is and what the effectiveness is. ice-free staging zones, things like that.

I think that there are some strong pieces to those ordinances and we can definitely have a full conversation about it, especially with what you're able to share and what you think is possible as well.

and I will say that these are all conversations that are happening with the mayor's office as well so we're partnering again as I said earlier with the county and the state and other cities as the interim director mentioned and with the mayor's office and we are all together trying to explore ways that we can further support communities.

So I know more to come on that.

Thank you, Councilmember Rank.

Councilmember Lynn, can I go to Vice Chair Hollingsworth?

Because I know you've had an opportunity.

Sorry.

That's okay.

You had your hand.

Is that okay?

Thank you.

I'm sorry.

Thank you, Councilmember Lynn.

Thank you, Chair.

I didn't have a question.

I just had a comment of appreciation.

Excuse me. of appreciation for your department and the work that's happened over the last couple years and also the intentionality behind staffing, being in community, making sure that there are boots on the ground.

But most importantly, not everything is...

Not everything has to be like in code or presentation.

There's a lot of stuff that happens through relationships.

There's a lot of stuff, especially during this time through the womb, the word of the mouth.

And there's a little bit of this underground railroad a code going on right now.

If anyone knows what the Underground Railroad was, with slaves, you know, Harriet Tubman, and the network that brought them to freedom, to Canada, and to the north.

And so there's a little bit of that energy going on through this.

So I know we don't necessarily see everything through the presentations.

there's a lot of stuff that's happening behind the scenes and word of mouth and we know that we're very intentional about what we're articulating to the public because when we saw Governor Ferguson and our Attorney General, Nick Brown, they didn't say all of their strategies and reveal those because we know that they're probably, people are watching right now and trying to find certain things.

So I just wanted to highlight that, that I really, just knowing what I know, really appreciate the work behind the scenes and what's going on.

But also, too, I just wanted to state for the record the impact that this is having on kids.

And I think oftentimes we forget that.

And, you know, we hosted last year a school from West Seattle who the first, the questions out of their mind, like for their elected officials, you know, was not what's your favorite cookie or do you have kids or what policy you're working on.

The first question is, are you going to protect us from ICE?

and these were fifth graders.

And so just understanding how we process things as adults is very different than a fifth year old watching what's happening in Minnesota.

And so just being aware of that and wanting to make sure our kids, that's gonna always be my first thing, are our kids safe?

And can we make sure that they have their needs?

Because if kids are safe, families are safe, communities are safe.

And just leading with the kids piece.

So I'm gonna be doing a deep dive into that piece.

I know we have different I've been working with counselors and just trying to figure out, okay, what is needed in the community?

And sometimes it's beyond legislation.

Sometimes it's just us showing up.

Sometimes it's us just meeting with the family, talking to people, making sure people have resources and food and that the social workers and the family workers feel supported during this time because they are bearing the brunt of all of this.

I have a cousin who works in the McKinney-Vento program.

talking to her all the time and telling me about all of the problems and the troubles and the caseload.

McKinney-Vento person has a caseload of 400 families for one person.

and so how they're trying to navigate this extra layer of challenges.

So just immense gratitude for the work that you all have done.

I think this is very helpful for the public because oftentimes if they see us remain silent about stuff or we're not putting out a press release real fast or a statement, they're like you all aren't doing anything and I think these presentations are helpful because we can be able to take this information and regurgitate it to the public so people know like hey stuff is moving and just you know hopefully calm a little bit of folks anxieties from what they're seeing on social media because it is frightening.

to people to see those and then wonder, okay, what are you all gonna do to protect us?

And we are on the front porch of City Hall.

So just wanted to state that for the record and just thank you all for your work.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council President and Vice Chair Hollingsworth, plus one on everything you said.

I also care about the kids, which is why I'm in constant contact with the Seattle Public Schools about this.

I so appreciate that they are so responsive when I reach out.

They are calling me back right away.

So it all goes to show we're all working together.

And thank you for the reminder, Council President, that just because you don't hear what is happening doesn't mean something is happening if we share our playbook we're only giving them fuel for which we're giving them our playbook and then they will attack us accordingly and so just because you don't hear about something doesn't mean nothing is happening but also last year we did work which you all are implementing and that is really critical in addition to all the things that are not legislative require legislation, so thank you for that reminder, Council President.

All right, Council Member Lin, you are recognized.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you again for this presentation, so critical.

And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about any information or thoughts or lessons learned that you're hearing from other cities, particularly in Minneapolis.

And one, I want to thank my colleagues for adopting the additional 300,000.

I think that was critical.

And that was also passed before we saw this enormous just occupation of a city, before we saw what was happening in Minneapolis.

and I'm deeply concerned.

It seems like the legal needs, the needs for information sharing is like, a tsunami compared to what it has been.

And so I don't know if we know from Minneapolis what times X the legal needs are, but I'm concerned of how long it's going to take to staff up and get prepared and get people ready.

And I know it's a little bit hard to predict, right?

But it seems like a natural disaster coming our way, but it's the federal government.

It seems like a hurricane is about to hit our city.

but it's the federal government.

And so I just, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about like the staffing for our partners in one of those.

So for example, with cuts from the federal government, so Kids and Needs of Defense, they provide legal support for five-year-olds in immigration proceedings, right?

and I think they had to close their Seattle office because of cuts from the federal government.

And so we see these cuts, we see increased needs, and we see this looming federal disaster on our doorstep.

and so could you just talk a little bit about, again, what you're hearing from our partners, what we could do to prepare just sort of from a resources perspective and this is a little bit for my colleagues, you know, I'm just thinking about what can we do to prepare and I have another thought on that but I want to give you a little chance to respond.

So, thank you for that question, and thank you for all of your questions and reflections as well.

I can definitely share with the funding cuts is something that we're seeing across the board, the federal funding cuts.

We collected some data on this for the Council last June, so I think we can share that and then also check in with partners to update some of that data as to, like, what the numbers are.

And it's been across the board.

What you mentioned with KIND is correct.

Other organizations have had to do layoffs, and so it's kind of a tactic, right, of siphoning off that funding to not make the services possible or available.

That's definitely something that we're seeing across the board.

Another thing which Rhoda mentioned earlier is this coordination with groups of cities that are facing these things that they need to respond to, and some of the cities have had actual National Guard full mobilizations, Some of the conversations we've had have been around with LA or Boston or Chicago, like what are the internal things that cities did which made that response more coordinated?

So trying to learn things from that you know, plans that cities put out where each department kind of has a role.

We kind of started to build on that between the mayor's office and council and some things that we recommended last year with executive orders that were passed in October.

But I think that's just kind of a starting point really of, one, I think making sure there's really solid internal city coordination There's, like Rode mentioned, being in conversations with SPD and having protocols and things that are understandable through there.

and making sure that there's also that coordination across the county and state too, right?

Because a lot of these things that come down, there's no notification, there's just an immediate escalation, right?

And so I think making sure that the city is super well internally coordinated as to what a response would be to something like the National Guard being activated, but then also that that coordination's going across the county and state as well.

So I think in terms of lessons learned, that's kind of a constant process, but there's definitely something to build off of from the conversations and the executive orders that came from October.

and part of that was this kind of task force that was bringing together city departments and then immigration advocates.

That work kind of started in the fall of last year to be talking about exactly this.

What are the best ways to build a city, community, county, state response a mobilization like the National Guard.

And I think that there's only room to build on that.

And again, there's unfortunately a lot of, as you mentioned, just really horrific examples of what that mobilization has created in terms of killings, fear.

And yeah, I think I can share with your office after this also some of the work that was started in October, but I think there's a lot to build on there too.

Thank you.

Can I just also say here because I don't want to I mean if there's a mobilization, OIRA is one of many city departments.

This work does not fall on OIRA.

It's not appropriate for it to fall on OIRA and I want to make sure we're clear because on what we're putting on the department.

If the feds come to Seattle that is a mayoral you know county state issue and so I just don't want to it's okay for us to ask questions of the department on their relationships with community-based organizations and folks on the ground but I also want a level set that we're not asking more than is appropriate for a city department because these are bigger issues that are involved here so I you know I that is not what we're trying to put on the department obviously.

Yeah, and thank you, and I agree, and partially it was the legal assistance that I see is gonna escalate incredibly dramatically if we see an occupation.

And you're absolutely right.

It is not OIRA's job to solve all these problems.

But I do see a central role for OIRA with your deep relationships.

And I feel so fortunate that we have you as a department, that you have these deep relationships in the community.

And I do think one of those things is sort of Tapping into, to me, you know, we are a big city and we have a lot of other departments and yeah, you're a small department with 15 folks and you cannot handle this on your own.

And so wondering about how do we tap into our other departments?

And I'm thinking about these needs that we're hearing from the community around people can't go to work because they're too scared, right?

People aren't sending their kids to school where their kids are getting not just education but also food, right?

So there's an increased need for food assistance.

And so how do we tap into some of our other departments like Office of Housing for rental assistance or HSD or DON for food assistance or OED to help some of our small business owners?

even though it's not you, but I see some collaboration and coordination with these other departments or even like legal assistance.

Can our city attorney's office, we can't probably do direct legal assistance, but can we help get the word out about know your rights?

Can we train city employees on know your rights?

We train city employees on anti-harassment.

Can we train city employees on helping to share sort of common resources?

That's just sort of a question or comment.

And last thing, Chair, thank you for indulging me.

Just wondering if you partner at all with our labor partners.

They represent so many employees who are immigrants and they just have deep connections themselves.

And just could you talk about any collaboration with our labor partners?

Yeah, so I could just speak to your first comment a little bit and then the second one.

So a lot of that work is being done and is happening.

So we have departments reach out to us seeking guidance.

We collaborate with departments.

We've held info sessions last year for small business owners in collaboration with the Office of Economic Development.

We've held info sessions with the Office of Labor Standards.

So those partnerships exist.

And then the other thing that I will also mention is as the mayor's office transitions in.

We've been in communication with them, just filling them in on the information that we have.

And part of this, what you're speaking to is kind of the need for more like systems in place in case of something happening.

And I think that that's a priority for the mayor's office.

And it's something that we will just continue to develop in partnership with them.

So just wanna recognize that a lot of that work is something we're taking on and there is more that needs to be done.

and I think just given the landscape, things are shifting rapidly and so we have new information available all the time and so I think a lot of it is also being responsive but in intentional and direct ways and trying to figure out what what we can do, what is our role as a city and as an office at OIRA.

So just wanna flag that that is something that we are very, very much involved with and we're looking to the mayor's office to develop those systems and create that bigger collaboration which I know they're interested in.

And then your point director it's happening.

I mean you have some of that in the slides that the The trainings that you're doing for your sister's city departments that was in the slides I think you saw the know your rights education that's happening There is a lot of services that HSD provides that is getting out to community by way of food assistance and As I said earlier, Seattle Public Schools is also involved, DEAL is involved, food assistance in the schools, obviously some of our other city departments.

All of that is happening.

So I feel like what you're seeing is there is really no stone unturned in terms of providing assistance to folks on the ground.

So just to assuage your fears, all of those things are happening.

I will say not all cities across the country have an OIRA.

So the fact that we have one the fact that the City of Seattle many years ago Go sauce many years ago saw a benefit to creating a department has been very advantageous to Seattle in a way that other cities do not have and so all of this is coordinated Obviously, you know when there if if Hopefully there won't be but if there is a Mass and the incoming of the feds to Seattle, it is very much the mayor's responsibility to coordinate.

And I know I've had conversations as many of us have as well with the mayor's office on what that response would be.

And of course, obviously, as I said earlier, the county and the governor and I know that they are working on that and then they are not sharing the playbook on purpose as I said earlier so all of that is happening so Councilmember Lynn this is just to to put your mind at ease that all these things really are happening and I want to acknowledge what Oira said at the beginning of the presentation and throughout, that they're doing an assessment on what else is needed so that then we can reshift our focus or add something to the list of things that we need to do.

So I look forward to hearing from them on that.

It was really, really important for me to bring OIRA sooner rather than later.

This is our only second committee meeting because I felt so strongly that, and I reached out to the interim director and the mayor's office to say this is needed.

We are all worried about this and it is important to show our work.

Those of you that know me know I very much care about accountability and showing our work on all the great things that we're doing to support community and hopefully if folks are watching they also can hear we are doing a lot to support our immigrant neighbors in Seattle in a very robust way and we will continue to do so and continue to add to the portfolio as needed and in partnership with OIRA and the other sister departments like Department of Neighborhoods and HSD, DEAL, and many others and the mayor's office.

So you will hear more as we move forward and it doesn't preclude your own involvement with the mayor's office and engaging with the county and our other partners in this way and obviously the city attorney as well.

But just to say we are doing a lot.

and we will continue to do a lot in partnership, not just with OIRA, but with folks on the ground and with the mayor's office and our partners.

All right.

Thank you.

Chair, could, about the question about partnering with labor,

Yes, I can speak to that.

We did have some info sessions last year with the Office of Labor Standards in particular, and then earlier this year when the harassment of Somali daycare providers was rampant, Director Hamdi Mohammed did put together a Governor's Roundtable in collaboration with labor unions.

And so that's been an instance where it was just like an easy way of building that bridge or that connection, I guess, between our office and labor unions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Lynn.

And I'll also add that the mayor's office, as we all are individually, we are in partnership with our labor partners.

And we are doing all we can to really support folks.

And what we're not sharing, will be shared at a later time, and there's more investments that are coming by way of last year's budget that will also be implemented and will further help a lot of the things that we're talking about because there is an additional $4 million investment at OIRA we're going to hear about, and I know that the county is...

you know, very actively involved.

So anyway, more to come.

All right, folks, any other questions, colleagues?

All right, then I really wanna thank Interim Director Sheik and Asmi for being here.

As I said, it was really important for me to get OIRA, an update from OIRA as we are working on supporting our immigrant neighbors on the ground.

This is something that's really important to me and there'll be more to come and I know that we're all working on our separate pieces, some of it legislation.

some of it work on the ground, some of it with kids.

Council Member Hollingsworth, Council President and Vice Chair, I really, as a mom, so appreciate your constant focus on the kids because this is confusing to them and we need to make sure that we are keeping them as calm, as we're able to during this time.

And I think the one thing I wanna underscore and I keep saying about getting accurate information is part of our jobs as council members and as city government is to not only work to find the resources to support our residents, but it's also to help remain calm during very difficult times.

because if we ourselves are spun up or instilling fear, then what can we expect of our residents?

So no matter how bad things get, it is our job to find ways to solve it and to stay calm what we're doing so because otherwise there will be chaos and then we get to the piece that I keep worrying about since last year and I've talked to OIRA about is let's not add to the fear so that folks don't come out for services and so kids do not show up at school.

That is really important.

Kids need to be in school.

So if there is not a reason for them not to be in school, let's not add some fear or chaos that doesn't exist like we saw last week with the reported that were not confirmed supposed sightings at the schools that then spiraled into six schools which really started with one school and then everyone kind of panicked.

So we really want to avoid that because then that's how we add, contribute to the chaos that this federal administration is trying to rain on cities and then I don't want to contribute, I for one don't want to contribute to that.

that is not okay and that is not our jobs, is to contribute to the nonsense that's coming out of the federal government.

So I'm gonna challenge all of us, as I said yesterday, to work together, to stay calm, to make sure our residents stay calm and to respond rapidly and to get the services out there and the accurate information out there and to be beacons of calm for our people and for our children.

because I can tell you as a mom, if I start panicking, my kids are gonna lose it.

And that's not a space we wanna be in.

It is my job as a parent and our job as elected officials in a city to be there for our residents and to keep calm.

So anyway, thank you for listening, council members.

Council member Lynn, I see you have your hand up.

Is that an old hand or a new hand?

Just a new hand.

Quickly, I just wanted to say I agree with you.

It is so critical that we provide accurate and timely information, and it is just so difficult to do so when our federal government is not sharing information with us, is not even identifying when there's ice, and they're not So I think I just want to put blame, the primary blame, where it should sit, which is with our federal government intentionally causing this fear and chaos.

But I fully agree, and that just makes it so difficult for us to do what we can to make sure the information out there is accurate.

So thank you.

Yes, thank you, Council Member Lynn.

Fully agreed.

And we need to respond by doing all we can to help.

and not add to the egregious actions.

Because sometimes in our zeal to help, we make it worse.

And I guess that's what I'm cautioning us, but fully agree with you.

Thank you for saying that.

Again, this is why I brought OIRA today, because we are all so concerned and so worried.

We're all exploring ways to help.

We're leaving no stone unturned.

This is not a city that does not care about its immigrant residents.

and children who live here, we care.

And so that is where we're all aligned and we're gonna keep at this.

So thank you, OIRA, for being here.

You'll come back.

We're gonna keep in constant contact about this.

We'll share information, colleagues.

as we have it.

And of course, we'll be in contact with the mayor's office as they're working on these issues because I know they care as well.

And so this is, in the midst, Council Member Lynn, you're right, we don't know what's gonna happen next.

I feel confident and I feel really good about living in Seattle because we all care, we're all working together, we're in constant communication.

And the folks should know, the public, that we are doing that.

We are in constant communication quickly.

We're not just waiting, sitting around, though people may come to chambers yesterday and think we are, we're not.

But we can't always say exactly what we're saying because we don't wanna give playbooks out.

So thank you.

Council Member Rink, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair Rivera.

And just on this point, since I know we've talked a lot in today's committee meeting just about the importance of good information, I want to use this as an opportunity to equip the public with a really handy acronym called SALUTE.

We want to make sure that when folks are seeing suspected ICE activity, they're talking about it in a way that is helpful.

And so the acronym SALUTE stands for S, meaning size.

A meaning activity, L meaning location, U uniform, T time, E equipment.

So having all that information ready when you call Weissen will be really helpful.

Our office, I know we get lots of outreach from community like, oh my gosh, there's ice here.

We think we see something.

Can you help us verify?

as we unpack and uncover, we find out that it's not ICE, for example.

However, we know ICE is active, but I just want to use this as an opportunity to state on the public record that that is a helpful acronym when you're looking at, like, what is the information I need to help equip somebody who's doing that fact-finding to be able to figure it out.

And so I think that's helpful for all of us to remember and share publicly as we try and really do that important fact-finding.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Rink, and I'll encourage us all to include that in our newsletters, our next ones that we sent.

So thank you, that's perfect.

That's the kind of information we want to get out to our residents.

OIRA, thank you for being here.

Super appreciate all the hard work.

You are small but mighty, but you're also not doing it alone.

There are a lot of sister departments that are also involved, and I want to recognize them as well, because we're all in this together.

and together we're doing great things on the ground and we'll continue to do so and respond accordingly along with the mayor's office.

So thank you for being here.

Thank you so much for having us and we're looking forward to working with you all on further protecting and empowering our immigrant refugee communities.

Thank you, council members.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right, colleagues.

Let's see, colleagues, any further questions or comments?

Seeing no further questions, this concludes the January 28th meeting of the Libraries Education and Neighborhoods Committee.

Our next committee meeting is scheduled for February 11th at 9.30 a.m.

If there's no further business, this meeting will adjourn.

and I will say colleagues, I super appreciate all the questions because I know they all come from a great place.

I really appreciate serving with you and I really appreciate that we're all in this together and I wanted to say that before I left this meeting, how much I do appreciate that we all super care and want to do something and all your questions are coming from that place and I love it, so thank you.

Further, hearing no further business, it's 11 11 a.m.

and this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you guys for being here.