Seattle Government Realizes There Are Immigrants Here (and that this is a really hot issue right now)

The press release came in a short time ago and we haven't really had the opportunity to go through it with our hair pick of information discovery, but the fact that the Mayor even has an Immigration and Refuges Initiative is, itself, a good start. Look, World, Seattle has an immigration initiative and it doesn't involve the construction of any Great Walls, much less mass arrests or the floating of barges full of human cargo out the Sound (or, if it does call for mass arrests and deportations at least that part's buried and "improving services to Seattle's growing immigrant population" is the headline).

There's a Report and an Action Plan. We skipped right to the section we feel is most important (Work force and Economic Development) because that's what people want, right? To work? Sure, civil rights and translation services are great, but without a paycheck they're kind of besides the point. So, what's in the Work force and Economic Development section? Meh, a bunch of stuff about ESL and welcoming immigrant businesses into the community and whatnot. There is something about a plan to "Provide more in-depth, individualized technical assistance to businesses impacted by light rail construction in the Rainier Valley including immigrant and refugee."

While you're here reading about immigration, but before you go diving into the dirty details of the Mayor's Immigration Plan, note that this guy from the UW Evans School of Public Affairs just won a "MPA/MPP You Tube Public Policy Challenge: Change the World in 1 Minute" contest.