BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – After years of breakdowns in communication, Bellingham is changing their way to help migrants in the community.

The Bellingham City Council voted 4-2 with one absent to dissolve the Immigration Advisory Board (IAB) late last month.

They plan to replace the board with an advisory work group under the Keep Washington Working Act (KWW). The act established a statewide policy in 2019 that acknowledged immigrants place in the economy and workplace and establishes some protections for immigrants within Washington state. The city created the IAB in accordance with the act.

In an interview with My Bellingham Now, city council member Hannah Stone said that the group will take over where the IAB left off.

“In the end, as a logistical and legal matter, it took the dissolution of one to create the other,” Stone said. “The Keep Washington [Working] group really is focused on bringing everyone to the table.”

While the group meetings may be a little bland according to Stone, the group will provide accessible meetings with interpreters for people to bring issues forth they would have brought to the IAB in the past.

Stone said that trust feels like it has been broken in the community with the dissolution of the IAB.

“There’s not maybe words that could address those concerns directly,” she said. “But it’s really going to be dependent upon our action and the action that the city and the council takes to support the immigrant community moving forward.”