OPINION | Seattle Considers Itself a 'Sanctuary City.' It's Time to Act Like One.

Seattle likes to think of itself as a liberal city, a sanctuary for diversity. However, it does not live up to this reputation in taking care of one of its own vulnerable immigrant neighborhoods. Mayor Bruce Harrell must bring safety and stability to the Chinatown-International District (CID).

Last month, on the day meant to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I woke to a painful — and deeply personal — reminder that my community's safety and stability are not a priority. I am an artist, activist, and fourth-generation resident of the Nihonmachi (Japantown) neighborhood of the CID. At the invitation of community organizations, I designed panels featuring immaculate drawings of old Japanese American businesses by the late Amy Nikaitani. I also received state funding to create a photographic mural that brings light and honor to the story of the unconstitutional World War II mass roundup and incarceration of members of my community. And then, on the night of January 19, 2025, someone violently defaced this work with heavy black paint.

I was heartened by the CID community's rapid physical and spiritual cleansing of the artwork, and by the number of folks who reached out to inquire after my well-being. I continue to tell everyone that I am angry but okay, that in fact, my artwork has been vandalized before: It's a pattern.

My damaged art is a single symptom of the City of Seattle's neglect of the CID. It falls within a pattern that includes criminalizing poverty and addiction rather than investing in affordable housing and social services in Little Saigon; the continued fight to keep light rail expansion from further loss of property and quality of life; lack of support to the lingering pandemic-boarded businesses; and inattention when our flagship institution, the Wing Luke Museum, was sledgehammered in broad daylight.

This pattern goes back to the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans. Did Seattle's leadership step up to protect my multigenerational immigrant community when the national and local mood turned against them? No. For this reason, descendants of the incarceration like myself organize with Tsuru for Solidarity alongside La Resistencia to stand with migrants and refugees, and for abolition today.

If Seattle really wants to be a sanctuary city, we must live up to our ideals, starting from within. If you require a playbook, look no further than the community care we already impart for each other in the CID. But it's not enough. We need the City to stop cruel and destabilizing "sweeps" and instead fund humane and effective services for our homeless and unwell citizens. We need the City to stop allowing the displacement of our residents and cultures by luxury developments and infrastructure projects that don't consider the needs of our community. We need the City to fund safety, and not just more policing. We need the City to act and acknowledge that BIPOC communities are a valuable and irreplaceable part of Seattle's past and future.

Erin Shigaki, a South Seattle artist, has created murals and installation focused on the experiences of Communities of Color, especially the incarceration of 126,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including her own family. Erin is passionate about highlighting similarities between that history and today's immigrant crisis, and to other systematic injustices Black and Brown people continue to face.

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