Asylum-seekers looking for shelter set up encampment in Seattle suburb
BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Asylum seekers seeking shelter in Washington state, mostly from Angola, Congo and Venezuela, have set up an encampment in a Seattle suburb.
The asylum seekers moved to the site next to an empty motel south of Seattle in Kent on Saturday. The Seattle Times reports this.
The motel is owned by King County and was used as a place where homeless people could be quarantined if they contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic. Signs at the encampment on Tuesday asked for the motel to be opened so they could stay there.
Some asylum seekers camping at the site had been given shelter at a church in the nearby suburb of Tukwila, while others lost their temporary motel or rental home when it expired on June 1.
The pastor of Riverton Park United Methodist Church, the Rev. Jan Bolerjack, told the newspaper that it has been hosting asylum seekers for almost two years and that resources are overstretched.
“The temporary migrant shelter is currently at maximum capacity and we cannot accept new residents,” said a message on the church’s website Tuesday. “Thank you for your understanding and support.”
Some people in the camp said KOMO-TV Tuesday that they left their home country to escape the violence.
“We would like the government to help and assist us,” Chibuzo Robinson, who is from Nigeria, told the media. “We have no place to stay,”
A Tuesday email from a spokesperson for King County Executive Dow Constantine’s office said the money allocated to help with the immediate needs of asylum seekers has been exhausted and that the county began responding to the emerging need last November . King County spent $3 million to retain a service provider that has worked to house more than 350 individuals and families.
It expects millions in additional funds, allocated by the state legislature, starting in July.
“We know that the full operations and capital for an emergency shelter, even in the short term, is beyond the county’s available resources,” the email from Constantine’s office said.
Many of those who have come to the U.S. seeking asylum have been traveling through the state for months.
On Sunday afternoon, three Kent police officers posted a 48-hour eviction notice from King County, with a deadline of Tuesday afternoon to leave. The county’s letter, signed by Anthony Wright, director of the Department of Facilities Management, said people who don’t leave would be arrested for trespassing.
The deadline came and went on Tuesday, with no action taken by police. Kent police and the King County Sheriff’s Office appeared to contradict each other in statements after the deadline by which the agency wanted the group to actually disappear.
In an email to The Associated Press, Assistant Kent Police Chief Jarod Kasner said the county had asked for the city’s help in removing the people in the camp. Kasner also said Kent Police would not enforce the eviction order because the King County Sheriff’s Office would not participate in the action.
The King County Sheriff’s Office said in an email Tuesday evening that it was the city of Kent that asked the county to issue the violation notice, based on a legal agreement between the law enforcement agencies.
The statement said it would not enforce the eviction order if Kent Police no longer intended to do so, but would continue to work with organizations the province has funded to reach asylum seekers.
President Joe Biden unveiled plans Tuesday to impose restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border as U.S. officials believe the southern border is overwhelmed.