CAFE-056 After immigrant ban local leaders stand up for a welcoming and inclusive city

This podcast provides insights into the caring, concerns and community values that motivated our City Council to adopt a Resolution Affirming Bainbridge Island as a Welcoming and Inclusive City. That action was intended to reaffirm our City's long history of supporting civil and human rights, and to protect targeted groups and vulnerable individuals.

The resolution and an accompanying legal ordinance were unanimously approved by the Council less than 2 weeks after President Trump promulgated a ban on refugees and immigrants from any of 7 mostly-Moslem countries. That ban was promptly held unlawful by federal courts in a case brought by our State Attorney General with the strong encouragement of our Governor Jay Inslee, who himself is a resident of Bainbridge Island.

The City's compassionate action occurs in this year in which we will soon mark the 75th anniversary of the forced removal of more than 200 Japanese Americans from their homes on our island to internment camps during World War II.

In this candid and personal podcast conversation, we meet Mike Scott, a former School Board member who now serves as one of our 7 elected members of City Council, and who championed this resolution and ordinance.

Also on this podcast, we hear from two local advocates for the City's action. Ray Garrido is the Legal Services Director of Kitsap Immigrant Assistance Center (KIAC). And Althea Paulson is a Bainbridge resident, mom, blogger, activist and former attorney who is now volunteering with KIAC. Both of those individuals played active roles in assisting Mike Scott with the preparation of the resolution. And, in this podcast, Althea makes an impassioned plea for your donations to the Immigrant Assistance Center.

This podcast conversation reveals profoundly moving insights into the concerns, motivations and person-to-person caring that came to the fore in this outstanding example of principled civic leadership.

Credits: BCB host, audio editor and social media publisher: Barry Peters.