Welcoming City Issue Subject Of Yakima Public Safety Meeting Thursday

The Yakima City Public Safety Committee is expected to talk about a welcoming city resolution when it meets at 3:00 p.m. at city hall on Thursday. It's a discussion that Mayor Kathy Coffey hopes will end at the meeting since the resolution was defeated by a 4-3 vote in January. However Coffey says the Dispute Resolution Center of Yakima has been invited to review the situation. "Perhaps discuss how this could be taken out of the city and into the community and what that could look like as far as having a community discussion community forums."
Coffey believes the city should be pushing for legislative changes in immigration on both the state and federal level rather than trying to pass a welcoming city resolution that she says doesn't do anything more than affirm city policies that are already in place. Those policies say local authorities and city officials don't enforce federal immigration laws, only local laws.