Bellingham City Council considering official condemnation of ICE tactics
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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Bellingham City Council members are considering an official condemnation of federal immigration policy, especially the violent actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Whatcom County and around the nation.
Council members Skip Williams and Dan Hammill introduced a proposed resolution Monday afternoon during a Committee of the Whole meeting. It was referred to committee for consideration and possible action by the full City Council at its Feb. 23 meeting.
“Community members are concerned for their safety and need a sense that we will use all the tools available to us in these uncertain times. This resolution is our commitment that we will continue to row in the same direction organizationally and figure out the best ways to take concrete actions,” Williams said in a statement emailed to The Bellingham Herald.
During brief discussion of the proposed resolution Monday, Hammill said that ICE committed “murder” in the killing of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti last month in Minneapolis.
He urged his colleagues to denounce the Trump administration’s current immigration enforcement tactics, which have included arrests near the Bellingham Public Library and Bellingham Municipal Court.
“It has been eight months since we passed a resolution reaffirming we are a welcoming city. It was a different world back then. In 2017, the council passed a resolution affirming the safety of all people and an ordinance providing equal protection regardless of immigration status, but the city has added nearly 10,000 residents since then. We need to affirm our values, reaffirm them, and repeat, because we need people to know we stand with them,” Hammill said in a statement to The Herald.
In a Jan. 13 video message, Mayor Kim Lund listed several ways that Bellingham is pushing back against the actions of ICE and other federal agencies to protect immigrants and others, saying that she hopes that “what is just and true will prevail.”
Lund told The Herald in an email on Monday that she supports the proposed City Council action.
“I’m proud of the work we’ve done so far to protect civil rights and keep Bellingham community members safe, and I value the council’s actions to further these goals,” Lund said.
Council member Hannah Stone, who is an immigration lawyer, told her colleagues during Monday’s meeting that she knows many U.S. citizens — including those who hold dual citizenship in other countries — who are terrified that they will be harassed or arrested despite their legal status.
“This is not only about those who are being targeted and subject to enforcement action,” Stone said.
This story was originally published February 10, 2026 at 5:15 AM.
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