The Yakima Immigration Response Network is a Yakima County-based group of volunteers working to support immigrant communities throughout the Yakima Valley.
Interested individuals started meeting in January, 2017 in response to the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the new administration in Washington D.C. We started educating ourselves about immigration laws and enforcement and local needs. In the spring of 2017 we supported several legal clinics to help families develop family safety plans in the case of immigration detention.
Since then we have joined with the statewide Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network to organize Know Your Rights and Raid Verification Observer Trainings in Yakima, Sunnyside, Wapato, Toppenish, and Mattawa. Trained volunteers agree to respond to reports of immigration enforcement in the Yakima valley by driving to the scene of reported activity and documenting any enforcement activity.
We have also begun an outreach to employers to share information about ICE Actions in the workplace.
YIRN meets bi-weekly to plan and work on projects.
Goals