The Immigration Action Group is seeking enthusiastic volunteers to:
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• Participate in a Know Your Rights training for allies in Port Angeles
• Host a book group with Solito, a memoir of a child's journey from El Salvador to the U.S. Solito is this year's Everybody Reads selection in Portland.
• Sign up to report immigration activity  - If you witness ICE activity, call 1-844-724-3737 – the hotline of WAISN – the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network.
• Sign up to receive text alerts on ICE activity in our area. Text WAISN to 509-300-4959. WAISN will ask your preferred language, your first name and ZIP code to sign you up for a rapid response team that goes out to document when ICE activity is reported.

To receive updates of Immigration Action Group activities, please provide your email address to Carole at [email protected].

SEQUIM–Rural voters were a big factor in Donald Trump’s second-term election last Nov. 5 (Clallam County County Auditor). Yet, even in rural Republican districts, farmers are expressing anger, fears, and frustration about Trump’s tariffs on farm produce, his deportation of migrant farm workers, and his freeze on Agriculture Department funding that benefits family farmers.

Capital Press, a Salem, Oregon-based newspaper dedicated to farmers, loggers, and other rural communities, carried a banner headline in its Jan. 31 edition proclaiming, “Everyone’s Nervous” with a subhead, “Despite optimism about Trump, some policies trouble Farm Bureau.”

The article quotes American Farm Bureau (AFB) President, Zippy Duvall in his speech to the AFB convention in San Antonio Jan. 26: “Everyone’s nervous….we don’t know what steps the full deportation plan has in it.”

Duvall said mass deportation of farm workers, labor shortages, and a trade war that could destroy farm exports “is on farmers’ minds everywhere I go.” This from AFB, a reliably Republican outfit with many farmer members now expressing buyer’s remorse.

That includes right here in Washington State, where export of grain, fruit, and lumber are key industries. Also on the front page of Capital Press is an article headlined, “Trump’s Broad Deportation Order Fuels Fear, Speculation.” The article warns “that what is now official policy will rope in tens of thousands of farmworkers.”

Erik Nicholson, of Kennewick, Washington, a former national Vice President of the United Farmworkers, told the Capital Press that it isn’t only actual deportation, but mass fear, that makes farmworkers “reluctant to go to work,” fearing arrest by Border Patrol and ICE agents. “If this were May or June, we would be having a catastrophe in the fields…”

That fear of deportation is a factor here in Clallam County. I live on our family’s 55-acre farm, a dairy farm when I was a kid. According to the Environmental Working Group Farm Subsidy database, our farm is one of 455 farms in Clallam County employing 1,190 farmers and farmworkers. Those farms earned $17.8 million in farm produce last year  (Environmental Working Group [EWG], Farm Subsidy Database). 

We lease the farm to an organic vegetable grower, charging him only enough per acre to cover taxes and insurance. He grows carrots, beets, broccoli, lettuce, and other leafy vegetables on our farm.

During Trump’s first term, a similar war against immigrants was unleashed with Border Patrol vehicles cruising on Ward Road beside our farm. The crews of Latino farmworkers who tilled and harvested our crops disappeared overnight. I watched as the vegetable grower was left to tend the acres by himself, an impossible task. 

That policy raises a grave danger that millions of dollars worth of fruit, grain, and other food commodities will be left to rot on the ground. It means a collapse of our food delivery system, resulting in vastly higher prices for food in our supermarkets.

Rob Larew, President of the National Farmers Union assailed Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on food imports from Canada, Mexico, China and many other nations, warning that these nations will “trigger significant retaliation” on all U.S. exports to their markets. Farmers “are always the first to bear the brunt of unilateral trade actions,” he said, adding, “Our members have already suffered heavy losses from past trade disputes, especially with China, and have lost valuable market access.” (National Farmers Union press release headlined “National Farmers Union Urges President to Consider Tariffs Impact on Farmers”)

Larew also blasted Trump’s freeze on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs that benefit family farmers. An example is Michael Protas, owner of One Acre Farm in Western Maryland. Protas signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America program to install solar panels on his farm at a cost of $200,000. The deal called for him to pay half and the Federal Government to pay half. He paid his half and the solar panels were installed. But Trump has frozen paying the $100,000 USDA share. Portas said the Federal Government is defaulting on money they owe. Larew charged that the USDA spending freeze is presenting family farmers “with a lot of uncertainty about whether or not it will actually come through” and is “adding to that economic pressure in the countryside.” (Baltimore Banner, Feb. 25, 2025)

It all adds up to worsening food insecurity. MAGA Republicans have been blocking legislation that will renew the U.S. Farm Bill. They are determined to inflict ruinous cuts to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). The Republican budget resolution requires the USDA to find $230 million in cuts. Even though the GOP has promised no cuts in SNAP food benefits, Republican lawmakers told POLITICO that “current food aid benefits are caught in the crosshairs.” (Politico, Feb. 10, “GOP Plots Snips to SNAP”)

SNAP, Food Stamps, the Surplus Food Benefits program – all these nutrition programs enacted over the past half century, are strongly supported by farmers and farmer organizations as a way to address the crisis of hunger in America while also providing urgently needed subsidies to U.S. farmers. (National Farmers Union, “Fairness for Farmers”)

Liquidation or cutbacks of these benefits by Trump, Elon Musk, and other well-fed billionaires means a worsening of hunger and malnutrition in the U.S., the richest nation in the world.

Hello,

We are one week removed from the Inauguration of Donald Trump and Washington state has already established itself as the epicenter of the resistance to Republican overreach and unconstitutionality.

On election night and the following weeks as all ballots were counted, while the rest of the country experienced an average three-point shift towards Republicans, Washington state had the best performance of any Democratic Party in the country. Washington actually shifted more towards Democrats compared to 2020 results than any other state in the nation. You can read more about our performance here.

 Washington Democrats swept every statewide race, protected its 8-2 Democratic Congressional majority, increased our legislative majorities for the fifth cycle in a row, and defeated three of four conservative, mega-millionaire-backed initiatives that would have rolled back Progressive victories.

Almost immediately after Trump’s flurry of Executive Orders were signed, Washington new Attorney General Nick Brown joined 17 other states to file a lawsuit challenging the end of birthright citizenship. On Thursday of last week, a Reagan-appointed federal judge in Washington state temporarily blocked Trump’s  Executive Order nationwide, calling the order “blatantly unconstitutional” based on the work of Attorney General Brown’s team.

Attorney General Brown, Washington’s first-ever Black Attorney General, issued a statement, reiterating that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to commandeer state and local law enforcement for immigration enforcement.

Governor Bob Ferguson further stated that his office is going through Trump’s Project 2025 line by line to prepare defenses for Washington communities from federal overreach. He will be working to minimize the worst impacts of Trump’s policies in Washington state.Part of this effort is the Executive Order Governor Ferguson signed last week creating a team to focus on responding to the separation of migrant families as the Trump administration seeks mass deportations.

Our State Legislature is also getting involved. State Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen (D-43rd LD) pointed to legislation that would protect Washington’s trans students while Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins (D-27th LD)  is supportive of legislation introduced by Rep. Sharlett Mena (D-29th LD)  that would restrict when the National Guard from other states would be allowed to enter Washington’s borders.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal released rules to help school districts navigate potential ICE raids. The guidance cited specific state and federal laws and outlined specific actions districts should and should not take. It made it clear that schools should not collect student’s social security numbers or ask to see birth certificates.

In the other Washington, U.S. Senator Patty Murray used the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision to hammer Republicans for peddling  anti-abortion lies and pushing extremism instead of focusing on lowering costs to help American families. Senator Murray also blasted Trump’s “illegal” pause of all federal grant disbursements that will significantly harm the people and community organizations that rely on these federally authorized and congressionally approved funding.

If you see ICE activity taking place or any marked vehicles, please report it immediately to Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network at 1-844-724-3737.

Know your rights. Do not open the door. “ICE warrants” authorities may claim to have are not legal to enter your home. ICE warrants must be signed by a local judge to enter your home.

If you need legal assistance, call the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project at 1-800-445-5771

Services for immigrants:

• El Centro de la Raza
• Refugee Women’s Alliance
• Chinese Information & Service Center
• East African Community Services
• The International Rescue Committee in Seattle
• Jewish Family Services - 253-850-4065
• Archdiocese of Seattle - 206-274-3194

The Washington State Standard: Ferguson launches WA team to help children whose parents are deported

The Seattle Times: Trump order pausing federal grants is ‘illegal’ overreach, says Sen. Murray

The Olympian: Governor, House Speaker say WA is preparing to respond to Trump’s deportation plans

The Seattle Times: Judge in Seattle blocks Trump order on birthright citizenship nationwide

The Seattle Times: OSPI sends immigration guidance to WA schools amid Trump orders

WA Office of the Attorney General: Joint statement from AG Brown, 12 other Attorneys General: state and local law enforcement cannot be commandeered for federal immigration enforcement

Kitsap Sun: Democrats in Washington legislature say they want to avoid ‘chaos machine’ in D.C.

U.S. Senate: On Roe anniversary, Senator Murray, Democrats hammer Republicans for pushing anti-abortion lies and dangerous extremism rather than lowering costs, helping families

For more information or to get involved, please contact Shasti Conrad at [email protected].

Here are some immigration action items:

1. Deportation hotline: If you observe ICE activity, contact the Washington Immigration Solidarity Network hotline at 1-844-724-3737. ICE has already been documented boarding buses and stopping people near Sequim.
   
2. Help set up a community meeting: The Jefferson County Immigrant Rights Advocates hopes to get the Clallam County community involved and can facilitate a meeting to learn how immigrants are threatened here on the Olympic Peninsula and how we can be allies.
3. Become part of a Rapid Response network - Get trained to respond to ICE raids and support our community. Contact [email protected] for info.
4. Share Know Your Rights cards— everyone should be aware of these
   

 
With immigration, there are a lot of ways to get involved, and it's important to know how our community is being affected and how important it is to document what's happening -- for example, last week, ICE was stopping buses near 7 Cedars and plain clothes ICE were stopping people at the Sequim Walmart.