-I was arrested.
I was tortured also.
We must stop it,
because many people are dying every day.
-From West Africa to South America,
scores of people are fleeing danger in their homelands
and arriving at the doorstep of this modest church in Tukwila.
-No, I would say there's not room for more.
And yet, if someone comes...
-But with 400 residents living in these tents,
the city of Tukwila has declared a state of emergency,
and help is desperately needed.
-Ask her if she's calling Mary's place every day.
-What's being done to help
the growing number of asylum seekers in Washington?
-It's not enough. The problem is huge.
-Our panel weighs in.
-It's challenging. It's controversial, it's hard.
-Our reservoir of people just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
-[ Speaking native language ]
-Translating a global crisis into local action,
next on "City Inside/Out."
[ Mid-tempo music plays ]
♪♪
Welcome to this edition of "City Inside/Out."
I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
Asylum seekers are coming to the United States
by the hundreds of thousands.
And here in Washington, the epicenter of the crisis
has somehow landed in Tukwila in south King County.
A church there says it's past its breaking point,
with at least 400 asylum seekers on its property
and more arriving every day.
Advocates are reaching out for answers
from Seattle and other city governments,
plus county, state, and federal leaders, too.
The challenge?
Finding a local solution to a worldwide problem
that only seems to be getting worse.
The tent where Daniel Vingo lives may not seem like much,
but compared to his home in West Africa,
it's everything.
-I was arrested, I was tortured also.
-He's a political activist from Cabinda,
a province that's been fighting for independence
for decades from the Angolan government --
a government Vingo says has killed many activists
and has threatened to kill him, too.
-To save my life, to be alive, to be safety --
that's why I decided to move here.
-"Here" is the Riverton Park United Methodist Church
in Tukwila,
now home for 400 asylum seekers like Daniel,
whose journey took 2 years and traversed 10 countries.
These are people who've risked it all,
spending thousands of dollars
to trek thousands of dangerous miles
to escape even more dangerous homelands.
-Ask her if she's... -Daniel is helping
Pastor Jan Bolerjack with translation and other jobs
before his work permit clears in about six months.
-Yeah, look for me when they get back.
-Okay. [ Speaking native language ]
-Like many here, Daniel's filled out asylum paperwork,
but his court hearing isn't until 2026.
-In this moment, I don't have an idea
what will happen till then.
-The church doesn't want to cut anyone off
from shelter and services.
But Pastor Bolerjack says she can't continue like this.
-What we have right now is not sustainable.
-Her utility bills have doubled,
and the number of asylum seekers have quadrupled
since word got out about the UMC's efforts this spring.
That's when the U.S. lifted a COVID-era ban on asylum seekers,
who reports show make up a large part
of the thousands of migrants
trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border daily.
-They're here legally.
They're doing all their paperwork.
They're doing everything they're supposed to do,
and yet there's no assistance for them.
-Asylum seekers don't qualify for state housing help
like refugees do.
And even with generous support from local families,
Bolerjack says she needs a more permanent answer.
-I'm only going to send a family away
if there's someplace to send them to.
-During that wait, asylum seekers like Daniel Vingo
want you to know, inside every tent here in Tukwila,
you'll see the face of a global crisis.
-We have a story. Everybody has a story here.
We're here, so we are just trying to get -- be alive.
-And to learn more about this situation,
we have a panel of guests with us,
including Pastor Jan Bolerjack
of Riverton Park United Methodist Church.
Pastor Jan, good to see you here.
-It's great to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
-You got it. Also have with us
Hamdi Mohamed. She is director of
Seattle's Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.
Good to have you, too. -Thank you for inviting me.
-And also we have Palmira Figueroa,
who is the the Tukwila coalition organizer
working for OneAmerica, the immigrant advocacy group.
Palmira, good to have you too. -Thank you.
Thanks for having us. -You bet.
Let's jump right into this. And Pastor Jan,
I'll start with you. Your church started
helping asylum seekers earlier this year
when the U.S. eased the COVID restrictions on asylees
heading into our country.
And this started as a trickle of people,
as I understand it, coming to you for help,
but has quickly grown to about 400 people in tents
around your building there in Tukwila.
I just wanted to ask.
I know Tukwila is a very popular place,
but how did word spread from Tukwila to West Africa,
South America, about your church?
What's been going on? -Well, Tukwila is
the center of the world. -I guess so. Yeah, it is now.
-And so, no, it surprised us.
Folks were coming to the Seattle area
from our southern border
and not finding any assistance, no housing.
And the police departments were finding them on the streets.
So they started bringing them to me,
since they couldn't find any other resources.
And they knew that we would help if we could.
And the numbers just went from zero to about 100 in 3 months,
and now we're up to about 400.
We haven't been able to find the housing to move folks into.
So our reservoir of people
just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
-Right. That's a big concern.
I'm going to come back to that housing piece in a little bit.
Palmira, let me jump over to you.
I wanted to get some perspective here.
So many asylum seekers are coming to the U.S.
into our state and others right now.
Where are they coming from? Why are they fleeing
their home countries? What's going on?
-Well, I think that in this case,
we have families from Venezuela, Angola, and Congo mostly.
And those countries, some of them have been ravaged by war.
Some others have been ravaged by poverty and political turmoil.
And so why they're coming is because they believe
there's better ways to survive in the world.
And they're looking for places that are known
for being welcoming and provide opportunity,
especially for their children and for the future.
And so that's why they're coming.
How they get here is a big question.
They, especially, for example, people who come from Africa,
from Angola, they cross 20 countries.
And so we know they come through Brazil and then they go
on land for a long, long time,
sometimes for months. -Yeah.
-The troubles are dangerous. They are fleeing from violence,
finding violence on the way, too.
We know that. And we also know
that when they arrive here,
the federal government is opening the doors,
because they believe that they can seek asylum.
And so they are here through the right process
that has been set by our government.
And then they stay here and they seek asylum
and go through all of the paperwork
and file everything with the government.
-Got it. -And so, yeah.
I hope I answered you. -No, you did.
And I know there's a lot of paperwork
that needs to be done with that. It takes forever.
But maybe Director Mohamed, I can go talk to you about this,
because asylees are flying into S.E.A.,
and I know they're coming up to Seattle, too.
Pastor Jan has talked about it before.
Sometimes police officers in Seattle
are picking them up and bringing them down to Tukwila there.
I'm just trying to figure out what the City of Seattle's role
is in trying to help these people.
-Yeah, we have been a regional partner,
and one of the things that our office is doing
is facilitating conversations, discussions
around recommendations, solutions,
bringing both the state to the table,
bringing the county to the table,
our city, the city of Tukwila.
And we have established
an Inter-Local Government Task Force
to help address the issue that is happening at Riverton,
but also to talk about the issue
that is happening across the state and the country.
There is not an office
that is dedicated to migrant issues, right?
Folks who are seeking asylum at these numbers
that we're seeing today, it's historical numbers.
It's a very unique, sort of unusual situation
that we are dealing with,
and there's not a infrastructure in place to respond to that.
-Yeah, and maybe I can stick with you for this,
Director Mohamed, because people seeking asylum
are not considered legally refugees,
which is important, because if they were,
they could qualify for state housing assistance, for example.
And I think back to when Seattle became a welcoming city
back in 2017, during the Trump administration.
It just feels like asylees
are in this very interesting gray area here.
And I'm wondering what the city of Seattle
is actually able to do in these cases.
It sounds like you're bringing people together,
but direct help, you know,
when officers are bringing people down to Tukwila,
that's not what you want.
Help me out with that part,
this legal gray area that these asylees are in.
-Yeah, it's true, asylum seekers are are working
towards becoming refugees and getting a refugee status,
and they are going through the appropriate process
by going through the southern border.
And when they come through the southern border
seeking asylum, they could do that at the border,
and they can also do that at any sort of port of entry.
So at an airport, whatever it may be,
we have that federal system put in place
to be able to respond to someone who is seeking asylum.
When it comes to the city of Seattle,
if any individual --
we don't ask people for their immigration status
when they are seeking local services.
And so Riverton is very visible, right?
There's 400 people on the campus there,
but there are migrants who are in the city of Seattle as well.
Mary's Place has been housing asylum seekers as well.
And so the city is responding here locally,
it's just not as visible.
And we've been tracking this issue very closely
since the early 2022,
when we started to see migrants being bused around the country.
The city of Seattle did end up on a survey
that suggested that we receive a bus from from Texas.
And so our Office of Emergency Management
at the City of Seattle,
our office and other agencies at the City of Seattle
have looked at, what would be our immediate response
if something has happened.
And in the case of the Riverton issue, we have been a partner.
I have been --
you know, there's jurisdictional challenges,
there's laws put in place, gift of public funds.
There's all of these jurisdictional challenges
where we can't step in in the way
that you may imagine or would like us to.
But we have been a thought partner.
You know, I talked to foundations here locally
who are supporting Riverton Church.
Seattle Foundation is one of those foundations
who've provided some assistance.
Currently, King County government has responded.
They've helped move some people out of Riverton
into a local hotel and providing hotel vouchers.
It's not enough. The problem is huge.
And so you need an immediate response,
a medium response, and a long-term.
-Thank you.
And you're getting ahead of me a little bit,
but I do want to talk about that coming up here a little bit.
Pastor Jan, I want to kind of draw off this whole idea,
because I was at your church,
and seeing people doing this asylum paperwork
and then that one asylee I talked to, Daniel,
said he's got a hearing set to see if he's granted asylum,
but that's not happening till the year 2026.
So a little ways off here, I guess.
I'm trying to ask how you're helping people
seeking asylum with the legal issues they have to take on,
because this is a lot to work with.
-Yeah, and it was a steep learning curve.
So we have pulled together a team of folks
who do the legal work with them,
and a lot of them are just volunteers learning.
We do have some attorneys on the team,
so we've filed some asylum paperwork,
making sure that we're getting it in the right way.
But some of them have a long wait before that resolution
and a long wait before they get their work permits.
-Right, it's six months or so. -Yeah. Yeah.
And that's the hard part. They really want to work.
They want to be productive. They want to get settled.
They want to get their own housing.
And yet there's really nothing
for them to do right now except, wait.
-Palmira, maybe I can bring you in here.
I mentioned the legal needs, the housing needs,
maybe some of these work needs, too.
to what asylum seekers need?
Is there something beyond that?
And is OneAmerica helping with that piece of it?
-Yeah, we're helping with the advocacy piece around
all of what these families are in need,
especially thinking about children, right?
I mean, there's a lot of needs there with school, housing,
mentoring, support with case management,
because this is people that are new to the country.
Interpretation services.
They don't speak the languages, right?
And so there's all of these needs,
that communication between what's happening to them
and passing through to the pastor especially,
but also to all of the agencies
that can support and bring services.
And so what we're trying to do
is we build a coalition of about 35 to 40 organizations
that are offering the services that they normally offer
to other immigrant and refugee populations,
and try to kind of like, find out
what is the asylum seeker package, right,
that we need to put together to actually create a platform
that is for the long term of the wellbeing of these people.
And it's complicated, you know?
As Director Mohamed said, this hasn't been done.
So we're kind of starting from working together,
the coalition, the pastor and the government,
in a way to actually create a process
that is going to support the families in the long term.
>> Okay.
>> It is long-term because of the obstacles
that we see as not having a refugee status.
And the obstacles are, they don't get
any support from other instances,
so we need to find those ways to support them.
>> Got it, and let me stick with you,
because I want to ask a question
that I think is going to be challenging,
but it's very important here.
Immigration is a huge issue in U.S. politics.
Recent polls show most Americans support the concept of asylum,
but there was an L.A. Times survey last year
that showed only 1 in 6 Republicans
and only 48% of Democrats believe
that those seeking asylum
had actually fled some sort of persecution
in their home countries.
>> Yeah. >> I'm trying to ask about this.
What's it like working for asylum seekers and immigrants
in this pretty challenging political climate?
>> Yeah, it's challenging.
It's controversial. It's hard. There's a lot of misinformation.
People really do not understand the process,
do not understand the laws.
The laws in this land are really complicated too,
so explain it to someone that is already having a filter of,
"I don't want strangers coming to my land."
And so, it's definitely very challenging.
I think that the main thing that we always want to say
or put out is the information is out there
that when a person arrives to a country
and gets the kind of package
that a refugee gets to this country
for a little bit of help with housing,
a job permit that will let them actually go through a process
to get to be independent,
it's just a matter of a few months
that these families and people become independent
and actually contributing members to the society.
And so I feel like that's one message.
And the other message is, there's no lying around people
fleeing really dangerous conditions,
and that those are the reasons why they're coming here.
And it's historical and it's a natural human thing
that has always happened in the history of humanity, migration.
-We're all immigrants here in America.
-That's right.
-I think that's one piece of it, too.
Just to follow up on this thought, Pastor Jan,
I remember talking to Daniel down there,
that asylee from West Africa
about this situation, and he's aware of it.
There is some pushback from a lot of people in this country
who supported the ban on asylum seekers during COVID,
maybe even didn't want that to end.
I know you have a very supportive church,
but how do you push back against what seems to be
maybe a larger national prejudice
from some people against asylum seekers?
-Well, for me, it's telling the stories,
telling the stories of what some of these folks
have gone through in their own homes,
the story in their home countries,
the stories of those fleeing with the soldiers chasing them,
the story of the young man who,
his mother didn't run as fast as he did
as he filmed her being killed by the soldiers.
The stories of the women being raped and tortured,
you know, those stories help you to understand
why someone would give everything up,
leave everything behind and run.
And it's really hard to say to the folks
when you know their stories, "No, you shouldn't be here."
And I think we just need to share those stories more.
-Thank you.
-Can I add? -Please.
-Here's the thing,
and it's not our responsibility to vet those stories, right?
There's a system put in place in the United States
where someone can seek asylum.
They get evaluated by a system, our immigration system,
and they have a right to go through that process,
and either they're going to be granted asylum
or they're not going to be granted asylum.
They have a right to go through that process.
As local jurisdictions,
and whether you're churches or a nonprofit organization,
these folks are here today,
and so we have a responsibility to respond
and provide them with some level of assistance.
And that's what we're trying to figure out.
What does that look like?
But for those who are saying --
I push back on the idea of
where we need to judge them or judge their character.
We're talking about children.
We're talking about pregnant women.
We're talking about people who are sleeping outside,
and whether we like it or not,
that, the pressures that are on them
put pressures on our system.
When you have people sleeping outside,
there's public health concerns.
And so we have to be able to have a response
that protects them and our community at large.
-Thank you.
And let me talk about that response,
if I could, and broaden this out a little bit.
And Pastor Jan, I'll start here --
city of Tukwila's declared a state of emergency.
But there's much more than a city problem.
I think we have to recognize that.
Talk to me about what you've been doing to reach out for help
with state, federal government agencies,
and what they're telling you.
-Oh, I mean, we've been reaching out
since early in '23 as the numbers kept growing and...
I think these guys can say more around it.
-Right. -We've been reaching out.
It's just, it's hard to get folks
to be able to respond to the asylum seekers,
because they're not really recognized
by a lot of agencies.
-Thank you. I just wanted to make sure
I touched on that piece with you to start.
But Director Mohamed, I want to talk about this.
The city council here in Seattle
allocated $200,000 in its most recent budget
to help migrants and asylum seekers.
King County is sending about $50,000,
as I understand it, to help, and that's a start.
But can you talk to me about, I don't know,
the level of resources needed to deal with this crisis?
How do you manage that?
And I think about that in a city like Seattle,
which already has major issues with homelessness
and affordable housing.
How do you balance this, I guess?
-Yeah, you know, so much of this
lies on the federal government, right?
When folks are seeking asylum,
they're going through the federal system.
-A system that is actually, it's understaffed
and has a backlog of 2 million cases, right?
But please, keep going. -There you go.
And so we need federal dollars. That's the reality.
The federal government has to step in
and provide local jurisdiction dollars.
Secondly, these are folks who are very resilient
and they are prepared to work.
And so simplifying the employment authorization system
where they can then go and get a job,
who can do that is Congress can simplify those processes,
and so that needs to happen.
And then the last thing is coordination,
and that's coordination on the federal level,
that's coordination at the state level
and that's coordination at the local level.
And we are kind of working backwards right now
by doing the coordination first.
We have an intergovernmental table
where we have both congressional delegation staff members
at the table, state folks, city,
and a number of different jurisdictions
who are trying to figure out, how do we respond?
When some of the folks who are at the table
don't have the authority to step into this
or it's not part of our normal work that we do,
and so that brings natural sort of challenges.
And then you mentioned the dollars
that we've gotten from the city of Seattle's council.
You know, what I hope to do is figure out a way
where this could be a regional response.
It'd be one thing if, you know, we use our $200,000,
the county uses theirs, and the state brings in money.
We have to have a coordinated response
so that we can stretch these dollars.
And so identifying, where are the greatest needs
and how can we respond together as a collective
will be really important.
And we're engaging in those conversations
to figure just that out. -Thank you.
And Palmira, I'll bring you in here,
because I know our state's congressional delegation
recently reached out to FEMA
and were talking about this to see if some emergency funds
could help asylum seekers in our state.
A letter from Adam Smith here.
Any progress on that front?
Or can you tell us what's happening with this quest
to get federal dollars to help out with asylum seekers?
-Yeah, I think so.
I mean, I can talk about the advocacy piece
that we have been doing as a coalition.
We've been organizing many organizations
and people that have been testifying
of the different budget meetings.
And we've been talking and sitting down in meetings
almost every week, 2 or 3 times a week
with different elected officials.
The office of Director Hamdi has been really, really helpful.
And also, I think that the work with the federal government
is definitely advocacy, but also a coalition priority.
We are also talking to the different cities
that are working on asylum,
seeking assistance as volunteers and supporters.
From the non profit side, we have a connection on D.C.
and another in Chicago right now.
And so the idea is, if we're going to do this
and it's a national situation,
we should work together on the kind of petitions
that we put out for the federal government, especially.
So on the federal side, that's what we've been doing.
We did meet with a couple of the Senate.
Senator Cantwell, we had a meeting with them,
and they definitely signed on that letter
that you just mentioned. -Yep.
-That is definitely for next year's budget.
So, you know, I mean, it's still a few months for that
to actually know if that's going to happen or not.
We really hope so, that the money is allocated,
and it also is allocated through a process
where definitely the government
realizes the need and addresses it.
-Right. -Which didn't happen last time.
So we're trying for the process to work
a little better on our side. -Yeah. It's happening.
That's part of the advocacy, right?
-Yeah. Yeah. -And so it continues to happen.
We're sitting down at different tables,
talking about the processes.
We want to move the people that are at the church,
especially on tents, to safety,
and we want to do it in a way that is comprehensive
and that takes into account their needs
and their life situation. -Okay. Thank you for that.
I need to start wrapping up here,
and I really appreciate all this feedback here,
but I wanted some final thoughts
about what's next for asylum seekers in our state
and looking at this crisis?
Pastor Jan, I think about the here and now.
The cold is upon us.
Talk to me about
how you're going to make it through the winter.
-That's a good question, and I can't answer it.
We just do it day by day, trying to provide what we can,
collecting blankets and tents and tarps
and bringing people in as we can,
making sure they have what they need.
-Director Mohamed, maybe I can touch on --
Well, maybe I'll come --
I'll talk to Palmira first about this if I could --
just some final thoughts about
where this crisis is going to be a few months from now
as we make our way through the winter.
Some final thoughts? I can give you about a minute.
-I would love to move us from crisis to situation
into health for these people,
and our plan as a coalition and as OneAmerica
is to provide a situation for living
for those people that are already here
and that are part of our community now.
And so keep the advocacy with the government
and also work with other nonprofits
and the philanthropic community in order to
better those environments where they're living.
-How long will you stay on the ground,
do you think, with this project?
What does it sound like? -That's a good question.
Yeah, I'm not someone that quits.
I'll stay. I want to see people thrive.
-Okay, thank you. -Yeah.
-Director Mohamed,
I wanted to make sure I wrapped up with you,
because you're in touch
with a lot of these different government agencies,
and I wanted to talk about near future
and then this future down the line here
that you mentioned earlier.
Some hopes and concerns going forward with asylum seekers?
-Yeah.
From a regional standpoint, I think helping the church,
specifically Riverton Church,
with the immediate sort of response, getting --
Everyone there is vulnerable,
but getting even the most vulnerable
out of the vulnerable in housed is really important.
And I think what King County is doing right now is correct,
but at least moving those who are pregnant,
with small children, disabled, into temporary hotels
and providing those hotel vouchers,
I think is the appropriate sort of response
for that immediate action that needs to happen today.
And then the medium response is
figuring out long-term assistance.
How to how do we help make sure
that people have access to legal services,
that they're applying for their employment authorization
so that they can find jobs and be self-sufficient
and find their own housing and pay for their own housing.
A lot of the people at Riverton are excited to do that
and are looking forward to doing that.
They're looking into the future.
And then long-term,
there needs to be a comprehensive response.
As a state and as a country,
we're going to see more migrants arriving to our region,
and we need a more coordinated response.
And the last thing I will say is,
the root causes
of why people come here are so many different.
It's the climate crisis that's happening around the world.
It's our foreign policy issues that we're seeing.
It's trade policies.
And the reality is, you know,
someone can go from being asylum today into refugee status.
I came here as a 3-year-old refugee from Somalia,
and I'm contributing to our country today
and serving our country.
And, you know, locally in the city of Seattle,
in just 2019, immigrants contributed financially,
taxes that they paid, $12 billion.
19% of our city residents are foreign-born -- 19% --
and they are immigrants and refugees.
Migrants, they add a huge --
They're part of our our local community
and they contribute a lot.
And I think we need to humanize folks
and think of that piece.
Thank you for the time. -Yeah.
No, absolutely. Thank you all for your input here.
And we will see you next time on "City Inside/Out."
What are people saying online about asylum seekers in the US?
One group writes, "Black, Brown and Indigenous refugees
are disproportionately affected by violence at our borders.
Congress, we urge you to protect
and invest in a fair and just asylum system.
Another person writes, "Asylum seekers
should not be allowed to enter the United States, period."
We'd like to know what you think.
Send us an email at contact@SeattleChannel.org
or find us on social media.
♪♪