Advocacy Groups, Politicians, and Nonprofits Rally to Help Refugees and Asylum Seekers Left Out in the Cold

by Lauryn Bray

When Gov. Jay Inslee signed his 2024 supplemental budget on March 29, it was a moment of victory for a sudden coalition that formed during an emergency housing crisis this winter for refugees and asylum seekers in South Seattle and South King County.

After months of advocacy from migrants, nonprofit organizations, Tukwila's Riverton Park United Methodist Church (RPUMC), and concerned Washington State residents, the budget outlined $25 million in aid for refugees and asylum seekers.

In addition to allocating $25 million in funding for Washington State's Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance, the budget also carved out $5 million for King County and $2.5 million for the City of Tukwila. The budget will be Inslee's last — he is not seeking reelection following the end of his third term.

"The need outweighs the $25 million, but it's a really, really good start," said Roxana Norouzi, executive director of OneAmerica. According to Norouzi, the funding is the result of advocacy efforts of individuals from migrant communities in Tukwila.

In January, hundreds of refugees camping at the RPUMC in Tukwila were temporarily housed in local motels and hotels when arctic air brought sub-freezing temperatures to the region. But when it thawed and the hotel stays ended, many did not want to return to the tents, citing safety and health issues.

They mobilized, marched on Seattle City Hall, and sat in council chambers in hopes of people hearing their stories of leaving everything behind and walking thousands of miles to escape violence, persecution, and poverty to live, work, or study in freedom.

"A big part of the victory was the ability of organizations like OneAmerica and others to actually bring people down to Olympia to share their stories, [and] to continue to [include] them in the political process by orienting them around our democracy and what is possible in terms of having the State step in and provide some relief," said Norouzi.

OneAmerica was founded by U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, to advocate for immigrants and refugees and stand against violence toward immigrants, particularly those in Muslim and Sikh communities.

After working with migrants and refugees at RPUMC, OneAmerica, along with a coalition of other nonprofit organizations, added the request for assistance for migrants settling in Washington State to their legislative agenda.

Each year, OneAmerica organizes a Lobby Day where they invite people down to Olympia to tell their stories to legislators in hopes of influencing them to advocate for a budget that carves out more aid to assist programs and people like them.

"Our Lobby Day at the Capitol was a big pivotal moment where we were able to really lay the groundwork for the $25 million that was allocated … We were able to do carpools and buses to actually get people down to Olympia," Norouzi said. "It was a lot of folks — a lot of asylum seekers, but it was [also] people from all over the state that are part of our base (OneAmerica Yakima and Vancouver). And there were other issues that we were advocating on."

In addition to the organizational efforts of migrants and the coalition of organizations working with OneAmerica, Norouzi said there are several State and local legislators who worked alongside them to make this happen.

"Rep. Mia Gregerson was really key in championing this — Tukwila is her district, so it's happening in her own backyard. She leveraged a lot of her weight with leadership and really fought to make this happen along with her seatmate in the other chamber, Sen. Bob Hasegawa," said Norouzi.

According to Norouzi, without the joint efforts of Gregerson and Hasegawa, who represents Washington's 11th District (Renton, Tukwila, part of Kent, SoDo, the Industrial District, Georgetown, and South Park), the amount of aid might not have been as substantial. "The amount that the Senate had put into the budget was only $5 million versus the House's $25 million, so they had to work really closely together to get the $25 million into the final budget and move that number up in the Senate chamber," she said.

Norouzi said King County Councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda and Jorge Barn were also key actors in securing the additional funding: "Councilmembers Mosqueda and Barn — brand new, just-sworn-in councilmembers, but who are from our communities and accountable to our organizations — were really pivotal in securing that initial funding from King County and also worked with us and with the state Legislature to make sure that that additional money was secured."

On Wednesday, April 17, King County announced it had awarded $2 million to local nonprofits that work with unsheltered asylum seekers and refugees living near Tukwila. Four nonprofits will provide housing, food, and legal services including Coalicion — Dignidad Migrante, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and Refugee Women's Alliance. And $3 million was announced Thursday, April 18, to serve the homeless in Burien and Tukwila.

In March, Norouzi got the news that all their efforts were successful.

"We finally saw on March 7 that the budget had dropped and that we had won $25 million for asylum seekers," she said. "It was a big victory and it absolutely would not have been possible without the collective voices of the people on the ground."

Fleeing Venezuela for Safety and Peace

One of those voices was Rosa Puche, who was one of the migrants who went to Olympia on Lobby Day to tell their story. Puche, 51, came to the United States from Venezuela, but her nationality is Colombian.

"I came from Venezuela and used to live there, but because the United States doesn't have a good relationship with Venezuela due to some diplomatic situation, I needed to travel. I took an airplane from Venezuela to Colombia and [from] Colombia to Panama, Panama to Mexico, then Mexico to the U.S.," Puche said in an interview with the Emerald through interpreter Maricela Rodriguez.

The United States has a strained relationship with Venezuela since President Hugo Chvez assumed office in 1999 and subsequently declared himself an anti-imperialist socialist. In 2008, Venezuela expelled the U.S. ambassador in solidarity with Bolivia, after it accused the U.S. ambassador in Bolivia of cooperating with violent anti-government groups.

In 2019, during the Venezuelan presidential crisis, Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's current president, announced that Venezuela was severing whatever diplomatic ties were left with the United States after then-President Donald Trump declared support for Maduro's opponent, Juan Guaid.

Today, there are over 350 sanctions on Venezuela, and the United States does not recognize Maduro's administration as the current government. According to the State Department's bilateral relations fact sheet on the United States and Venezuela, the "United States has limited economic engagement with Venezuela because of extensive corruption, economic mismanagement, and violation of international norms."

The fact sheet also states that the "United States provides humanitarian assistance to help people within Venezuela, as well as Venezuelan migrants and refugees and their host communities across the region, who are struggling to access sufficient food, water, healthcare, and other critical goods and services."

After four days of flying to four countries, Puche arrived in the United States with her husband, two children, and without the ability to work. "We thought that the immigration process was going to be easier," she said, "that we would be able to work and sustain ourselves [with] the income we earned from the work that we did."

Puche arrived in the United States in August 2023 and has been without work for the entire seven months she's been here. Her daughters are in school, but she and her husband are still in the process of getting work visas. Back in Venezuela, she and her husband owned a publicity company. "The process of adaptation has been really difficult. In our country, we owned a publicity company which had a network of well-known customers like Ford and Hyundai, so we used to live in normal conditions," Puche said.

Despite her and her husband's professional success, Puche said Venezuela was not safe for them. "When we left Venezuela, we left because we were victims of violence, persecution, and my husband was kidnapped. Because of all the insecurity, we decided to flee from our country," she said.

Fleeing Home in Angola

Like Puche and her husband, Daniel Vingo fled his home country of Angola due to violence and persecution. He was also kidnapped. "There's a lack of expression in Angola — you can't express yourself. Once you express yourself, the government will persecute you," he said in an interview with the Emerald. "And once you are an activist in Angola, you can't have a job sometimes, because your life is limited. They control everything."

Vingo is from Cabinda, an oil-rich province north of Angola that has been fighting for independence from the country since 1975. In 1975, Angola was granted independence from Portugal, making it no longer a colony; however, Cabinda, which produces the majority percentage of Angola's oil, was not.

The Angolan government actively and violently suppresses activists who protest the export of Cabinda's oil by kidnapping and beating them into fearful silence. "One of the several times I was arrested, they took us somewhere without [food], without contact with our family, and they beat us. They beat us and they said that if you continue [to protest], we will kill you," said Vingo. "There's a friend I had. I participated in [this] protest where the police shot into the [crowd of] people and one of our guys died."

Vingo also said that Angola's sole interest in Cabinda is maintaining control of its oil: "Angola won't leave Cabinda to be free because of this resource — we are rich in petrol. A lot of countries go to Cabinda to export the petrol. We have a lot of problems with that because when you [extract] the petrol, it is very bad for the climate. The people can't eat fish because the sea is contaminated with petrol."

While the Angolan government gets rich from extracting Cabinda's oil, residents of Cabinda suffer from a serious lack of resources. "In Cabinda, there is no work. There's no education, hospitals, or infrastructure," said Vingo. Though he is in the United States now, Vingo is still without work.

"The difficulty is that when you come here, to the U.S.A., you must apply for asylum. And while you're applying for asylum, you must wait 150 days to be eligible to apply for a work permit. [Altogether, it's] four or five months of waiting and you can't work. You can't work," he said. "That's why we are seeing so many migrants just sleeping in tents. They don't have the resources to pay to rent a house."

Vingo left Cabinda with hopes he would find a better life in the United States, and though he is without work, he says he has what he's looking for. "My life was in danger in my country, I couldn't stay there. And after I came here to the U.S.A., I'm feeling free. I can walk free. I'm not afraid anymore that maybe someone can come and shoot me. I'm free here."

📸 Featured Image: Refugee Venezuelan families seeking asylum are hoping to avoid being evicted from their Kent hotel within the next 48 hours in January 2024. (Photo: Lauryn Bray)