Council authorizes more funding to offset ICE impacts

HOOD RIVER — Another piece of the city’s Federal Immigration Enforcement (ICE) Activity Emergency Declaration puzzle has been placed.

As previously reported by Columbia Gorge News, council unanimously approved providing up to $20,000 each to Gorge Mutual Aid (GMA) and The Next Door, Inc. to help individuals and families impacted by recent ICE activity. A service agreement with The Next Door came after the Aug. 10 council meeting, when Executive Director Janet Hamada and community health worker Graciela Gomez presented the nonprofit’s proposed scope of work. 

The agreement with GMA has taken longer, mostly because it is housed under the Gorge Ecumenical Ministries (GEM) nonprofit umbrella.

“This was a little bit unique in that we wanted to be very careful and explicit in the funding agreement about working with a religious organization, that there’s no requirement that one have a particular religious belief in order to receive services and none of the city dollars would go toward any kind of religious work,” said City Manager Abigail Elder at the Sept. 28 council meeting.

GEM, formed in the 1960s to address social justice issues, sponsors several nonprofits, including Black in the Gorge and Columbia Gorge Climate Action Network (gorge-em.org).

“We are not yet in a position to become a nonprofit at this time — it didn’t really make sense because we’re a group of people who got together to help — but we did feel that it was important to have a 501c3 as a fiscal sponsor to help us establish a bank account, to hold us accountable for things,” said GMA organizer Jen Hackett. The agreement provides GMA with up to $5,000 each quarter for the next year.

In her presentation to council, Hackett said requests for money have been light, though those for accompaniment — mostly to court dates, sometimes including translation — have been logged.

“We have a team of volunteers trained in safety protocols, trained in respect and courteousness for people who need that transportation or food delivery, some ICE verification if they’re being followed,” she said. “And we have a hotline and we have a list through Hood River Latino Network of families who have been affected so far.”

Funds will be used for emergencies, such as paying towing companies to retrieve abandoned vehicles after ICE raids. There are also families who have chosen to self-deport. “Sadly, it’s not a free thing to self-deport,” she said. “You need passports for your kids if they were born here, things like that.”

Councilor Anna Cavaleri asked if only city residents are eligible for funds; Elder said that wasn’t specified when council passed the resolution, so it was up to GMA to decide.

Council President Gladys Rivera requested that any information shared with council not include identifying information like names and addresses, as it will be part of the public record for six years. Hackett said reports will only include a summary of how many people are served and what the needs were.

The ICE Activity Emergency Declaration, unanimously enacted by council last December, is set to expire at the end of this year.