About Us

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

• Organize, prepare and empower communities for response to possible ICE actions.
• Educate ourselves and our neighbors about our civil and legal rights in the face of immigration enforcement.
• Work through collaboration and consensus to build a network of partner organizations.
• Promote the statewide WAISN hotline to encourage reporting of ICE actions.
• Build a verifier network to respond to reports of ICE raids in Yakima County communities.
• Document ICE activities to encourage transparency and assist with the legal defense process.
• Develop tangible resources in support of families affected by immigration enforcement.