The Washington Immigrant Rights Coalition got together at OneAmerica’s offices in Seattle on February 14, 2012 to discuss how they should organize themselves better moving forward.

Originally founded as the Washington Immigration Reform Coalition with the aim of bringing in changes in existing legislation, the organization is comprised by more than 60 immigrant rights advocacy groups around the state of Washington. CAIR-WA was represented at the meeting by Strategic Partnership Intern Emily Gonzales.

 After discussing the latest developments in Olympia regarding the budget and the fate of various bills affecting immigrants, the use of detainers and its impact on immigrants was then discussed. Detainers are employed by DHS and ICE to place in federal custody and potentially deport foreign-born individuals who have been arrested by local law enforcement. It was pointed out that as a result of detainers, immigrants are spending three times longer in jail for criminal offences.

For another participant, detainers were more about racial profiling and less about rounding up “serious criminal aliens.” The conversation then moved on to the development of a toolkit that would help organizations and individuals determine how to handle this problem.

The issue of how the coalition should be structured came next with a proposal to create teams around areas such as labor or faith depending on how an advocacy group would categorize itself. One person from each team would then be selected as its representative on a steering committee which would provide dedicated guidance and direction to the wider coalition. Despite the existence of these constituent teams and the steering committee, it was emphasized that the coalition would still exist and make decisions together. After a discussion of several other issues relating to coordination and logistics, the participants agreed to mull over these questions and reconvene soon.