OLYMPIA, Wash. — Immigrants, refugees, and their advocates stand one step away from the room where life-changing legislation could be passed, expanding health care and unemployment benefits to immigrants regardless of immigration status. He insisted.
Catalin Velazquez, executive director of the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN), asked, “Where is the state leadership to ensure that immigrants are taken care of?” “If you don't take care of it, it will cost you more money.” Services and preventive care are lacking. ”
The calls for health care and unemployment benefits come at the same time as calls for lawmakers to help with the ongoing refugee crisis in Western Washington.
For weeks, KING 5 has been reporting on hundreds of Angolan and Venezuelan refugees who ended up first at a church in Tukwila and then at a hotel in Kent.
They faced continued deterioration in the church's situation. The hotel owner had to set a deadline for them to leave. Despite promises from the organizations that brought the refugees on January 10, they had not received their salaries.
The city of Seattle paid Kent Quality Inn for an additional week after refugees showed up at a public meeting on January 30th asking for help. The city of Seattle announced Monday that it would pay for a three-week stay at another hotel. The refugees shared that the location was in SeaTac.
“If the central government does not show any leadership and the issuance of work permits is not expedited, what happens after three weeks? He said he is calling for at least $25 million to be earmarked for housing migrants arriving in the United States.
According to WAISN, there are 246,000 undocumented immigrants living in Washington. Half of them are uninsured and live below the federal poverty line. Velasquez said immigrants are part of communities across the state, so assistance for these people benefits everyone.
“We're here. We're not going anywhere,” she said.
The Miller Act has been introduced in the House and Senate to create a “wage replacement program for certain workers in Washington who are excluded from unemployment insurance.”
WAISN supports this bill as part of its legislative priorities for 2024.
of Immigrant health equity The campaign is another of its legislative priorities. HEIC would provide equal access to health care to all low-income Washingtonians, regardless of immigration status.
