Cascadia today: WA demands Tacoma ICE facility inspected + homelessness agency faces reckoning + reviving Indigenous cultural fire practice
WA demands Tacoma ICE facility open to inspectors
KUOW reports that Washington governor Bob Ferguson and attorney general Nick Brown are suing the feds to force them to allow health inspectors inside the ICE detention center in Tacoma, which has more than 3,500 complaints about rotten food, substandard medical care, and unsanitary conditions. A 2023 law requires ICE and the private contractor GEO to allow WA state Dept of Health inspectors access, but they have been consistently turned away.
Washington needs to do even more. The state should assert the sovereign authority of its residents and blockade, fine, deny permits, and shut down this abomination. At the Tacoma ICE facility inhumane conditions are intentional: they're designed to break down detainees' spirits and convince them to self-deport. To find out more about the effort to shut down the Tacoma detention center, visit La Resistencia.
In related news, a Venezuelan immigrant and her seven-month old baby were kidnapped by ICE after a routine check-in in Seattle, and they have not been heard from since. Meanwhile, a beloved Lao food truck near Portland State University has closed after its owner was captured and deported by ICE.
Talk of winding down homelessness authority
PubliCola reports on a board meeting by local leaders to consider the fate of the King County Regional Homlessness Authority after a forensic audit found $13 million missing from the troubled agency's accounts. There's an ongoing debate about whether the agency should be gradually phased out or quickly dismantled. Meanwhile, homelessness continues to rise in Washington and Oregon.
We need bold solutions: legalize single-room occupancy housing, construct more shelters, more tiny homes, and build abundant affordable housing. Plus, adequately fund services, and create a universal basic income (UBI). How do we do that? Taxing the wealthy and asserting fiscal autonomy from the feds.
Feds deny FEMA funds for WA
Washington State Standard reports that the Trump administration has denied a request from Washington state for $36 million in FEMA flood prevention and mitigation funds after destructive 2025 flooding.
As the feds continue to ignore the needs of the Cascadia bioregion as we confront the impacts of climate change, it's becoming clear we need to have conversations about fiscal independence for Oregon and Washington.
Families of BC shooting victims sue OpenAI
CBC reports that families of the eight children killed the February mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia are suing Open AI (which owns and operates Chat GPT) for failing to alert authorities that the shooter had been to known and banned for messaging about violent scenarios.
Healing with Indigenous fire practices
Jefferson Public Radio has a great feature on how members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians are reviving the practice of cultural, intentional fires in southern Oregon. The fires helped to reduce brush, encourage elk habitat, and increase forest health.
“‘Cultural fire is not about the flames, it’s about the community that you celebrate those flames with,’” – Joe Scott, elder with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
Thanks for reading. Keep loving and keep fighting.
