Council Legislation

Ordinance No. 2022-60

Title: An Ordinance of the Pierce County Council Amending Section 2.106.022 of the Pierce County Code, "Application of E-Verify Requirements."

Status: Passed

Sponsors: Councilmembers Ryan Mello, Jani Hitchen, Marty Campbell, Derek Young

Final votes

October 4, 2022
Nay Nay Nay Aye Aye Aye Aye


Documents
Additional legislative records are available below Collapse All  Expand All
 

Public Comments

Name Date Comment
Jorge L. Baron 10/3/22 1:57 PM Dear Members of the Pierce County Council: I am writing on behalf of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project to express our organization's strong support of Proposed Ordinance No. 2022-60, which the County Council will consider at its meeting tomorrow, October 4. Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) is a nationally-recognized legal services organization founded in 1984. Each year, NWIRP provides free direct legal assistance in immigration matters to over 10,000 low-income people from over 130 countries, speaking over 60 different languages. NWIRP also strives to achieve systemic change to policies and practices affecting immigrants through impact litigation, public policy work, and community education. NWIRP serves the community from four offices in Washington State, including an office in Tacoma that serves Pierce County residents. Because of our long experience serving the immigrant community and our specific experience with the e-Verify system, we strongly support the policy position embodied in the proposed ordinance (2022-60). There has been significant research into the problems of the e-Verify system, some of which is summarized in this brief by the American Immigration Council: https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/Everify_030112.pdf. The problems with the system are such that organizations on different ends of the ideological spectrum like the Cato Institute and the ACLU have expressed their opposition to the program. See https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/why-e-verify-failing and https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention/10-big-problems-e-verify. The harms of the e-Verify system fall disproportionately on immigrant and refugee communities and the adoption of the proposed ordinance will seek to mitigate those harms. We urge the Council to adopt the proposed ordinance. Please do not hesitate to contact me if we can provide any additional information in support of this testimony. You may reach me via email at jorge@nwirp.org or at 206-957-8609. Sincerely, Jorge L. Baron Executive Director Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Leah Knopf 10/3/22 9:27 PM As a Social Worker who refers clients to PS-WA, I know the value of peer support programs and how it would be a disservice to Pierce County families to lose it because of hiring barriers that discriminate against minority populations. When PS-WA applied for the Piece County Behavioral Health Grant to expand its Parent Resilience Program offering culturally-matched peer perinatal mental health support, it had no idea it would endeavor in such a large-scale undertaking and the support of the community far and wide has been heartwarming. We are grateful for all of the patience while we work through various levels of intergovernmental my bureaucracy and set our course to not only provide peer mental health support to Pierce County but change county-wide hiring practices to be more inclusive and safe for immigrant communities. I urge you to support this proposal and take a stand for immigrant rights and safety, as well as critical peer to peer programs.