good morning everyone how are you doing today i'll do that one more time good morning everyone how are you doing today for a perfect it is a it's an honor and privilege to welcome you today to the it's very it's very exciting to see everyone united here my name is a mate mel and i work at mt baker housing association and i also organize with the coalition of immigrant refugees and communities of color and i'm a part of the refugee taskforce there are thirteen of us can i asked the task force members to stand up please actually and please applaud for their work they've done a great job you to take this moment to share a little personal story with you and why this commission is important to me and my community just last night i was notified of it t v situation in took one or two women of color felt they were not taken seriously and their voices were devalued we talked about the situation and the conversation culminated to the point of quote i don't have citizenship if we go to court it can get dangerous and scary end quote so to me this is an example of why the commission is very important especially under today's anti immigrant and refugee rhetoric even people who are actually legally living here in king county are still feeling afraid to seek services and assistance so my hope is that we can unify to protect and serve everyone who lives in king county regardless of their status of their country of origin and to this commission people can feel like they have a space that they feel supported and listen to so now i'm going to turn it over to our colleague and she's going to talk about the work that the task force has done thank you be here on this wonderful day so i just wanted to talk a little bit about the work that the commission that the task force has done to make the commission a reality  have about five hundred community members gathering people's feedback listening to they feel listening to their ideas we had about twenty five community meetings with  implemented the community feedback that we have received why is the commission important to you will ask well when vision that commission to be the bridge between the government and the immigrants  also wanted to be the hub that will empower our immigrants and refugees and give them the voice and make the voiceless people to be hurt as an immigrant i often talk to people and they hear that people sometimes just don't know how to make their voices heard with the government they just don't know where to go and what to do so i will hope is that this commission will serve as the critical body that is so need thank you everyone good morning welcome to beautiful columbia city i am king county executive doug constantine in a few minutes or a few more minutes if you've seen the agenda there are several of us speaking  i am really looking forward to signing the ceremonial legislation creating the king county immigrant and refugee commission a permanent body government to maximize our impact and improving the lives of our newest residents i'm honored to be joined here this morning by members of the task force thank you for your service your hard work yes  your hard work inform the historic legislation we're celebrating today and i appreciate the expertise and the insights that you have provided building a strong foundation for this new commission  as an aside isn't it nice to be here today to be able to celebrate a positive development in our community i mean for the past year or more it seems that every time many of us in this room come together it is to stand up against a high federal government and we have stood strong we launched a partnership to protect those in king county whose health whose safety whose human rights have been put at risk just yesterday the king county council approved legislation that put king county in the nation's forefront in protecting the safety and civil rights of immigrants that legislation will prohibit county funds and resources from being used for federal immigration enforcement it will require ice to get a better warrant to access non publicly accessible parts of  that's a judicial warrant and ensure that immigrants in custody know their rights i am proud of the work we've done together but our commitment as a welcoming community means even more than protecting the rights of those who come here seeking freedom an opportunity we do genuinely aspire for more our shared goal is to help everyone who comes here to build a better life to have the opportunity to thrive to participate in civic organizations and government have a voice in the institutions that shape our lives have access to good paying jobs and to housing and education and transportation and a fair justice system and to help shape the future of this region just as many of our ancestors did when they arrived here we work together we work together to remove barriers not just out of a sense of humanity though that is certainly a motivation of our work we do so now because we know our own history that immigrants and refugees bring extraordinary skills and vigor to our region they spark innovation they fuel our economy they make our communities more dynamic more vibrant places to live immigrants and refugees have greatly contributed to the remarkable prosperity that we see all around us now in central puget sound and the pacific northwest and we are going to do everything we can to ensure that that vigor that energy continues to come to our shores for many many decades to come thank you and congratulations him and it it's now my pleasure to introduce a council member with whom i have worked out for the better part of three decades he is a lifelong champion of civil rights of the rights of those who been excluded and he is the dean of and the conscience of the king county council please welcome council member larry  extremely appropriate for why it is that we are gathered here on this have to know all are welcome here if you reflect on the statue of liberty in the harbor is a new york city that has the right in that you know give us your poor your huddled masses your homelessness and those who are striving to be free but right now the titular head of the united states of america the forty fifth president has been trying his best to make sure that emigrants in a white woman and california and the bay area he gets on t v and said we've got to get rid of these immigrants because they're all murder and then we don't hear very much about what was proven by his lawyers that the gun went off it was accidental the american public would never hear that but here in king county we need we mean that we are are going to welcome that we're going to trac immigrants and refugees and that we're going to treat them well and clothes and i like to just mention a measure that we passed on yesterday afternoon at the martin luther king j agency can just walk up on people in king county jail getting services from king county government and think that they automatically gonna take our newest residents away if they try from this day forward they are going to have trouble and they're gonna be disciplined and they're going to be all that combo for all the two million people that live there and that's why we're so proud that our president legislation that came from the community and it came from the community started a couple years ago former state representative velma the laureate who i don't think enjoys today but invited me and others to a meeting at the filipino community center and with community members and they were talking about the need for this kind of organization this kind of commission and so we went to work down the county council councilor gossip and i and others to start the process and i have to tell you i was a little bit eager i said why don't we just form the commission and i'm very fortunate to have a trip for christina logsdon who is the boss raise your hand said you know this is has to be about the community and has to come from the community and so we did the task force and the task force spent the time talking about the meetings in the community incredible process to develop the commission that the executive is going to launch today with his signature and so it's a celebration really of you and we're honored to be here to celebrate with you this really historic moment for king county when i think about immigration and refugees i think about my great grandfather simon joseph and bosky he came from posen and poland in about eight hundred sixty and he was fleeing a part of the world that at that time suffered from war and economic distress and came to america where he worked as a barber in a stonemason and began to lift up the american dream and i look at the faces in the room today and i know that you're here and your predecessor here doing the same thing and king county government works for you we are your government and this commission that we're forming today is just of tool to help us better connect and be more responsive and be more connected to the new and changing needs of king county and the statistics really talk about the work we've got to do more than one in five county residents identifies as foreign born twenty one twenty percent that's a big number that's got a two point one million people or so that's over four hundred thousand folks i shouldn't do math on t v but it's a lot of folks and so we are working to be a responsive government and working with the communion partnership one of our great leaders who helps us do that i want to recognize or because she's been a tremendous champion that's our elections director julie wise and she is here today w director wise as you know in this room has come into the community and been a leader on starting our voter education fund where we grant dollars to the community to help lift folks up get them registered help them engage he's been a leader on language translation where we've added  spanish and korean and have a process to add additional languages going forward to help connect folks to the community and other tremendous leader i want to take a moment to welcome is council member from the fourth district council member jeannie cole wells who has been a great part so today by establishing this immigrant refugee commission we acknowledge the circumstances and the state of king county today and we acknowledge that the challenges that are faced by our immigrant refugee community here are different and unique and require special attention and special support and special partnership and i'm really looking forward to the work of the commission and partnering with it to make sure that the policies of our government are responsive and thank you so much for being here it's now my pleasure to king county has long been a place where people have come from around the globe to give themselves opportunity and give their family opportunity as well this growth has really shaped our region and each new resident brings with them a new ideas new perspectives the truly enrich our community and our region has a history of welcoming and affirming these new residents new people joining us but we also can't forget that one of the most egregious actions taken by the federal government the internment of people of japanese ancestry began right here in our collective backyard sadly efforts to tear our communities apart based on imaginary divisions are still present today we are fighting against those voices in taking concrete action the immigrant and refugee commission is king county's commitment to working to serve all residents of our community the commission will elevate the voices of these communities forces that have too often been silenced or ignored or more recently we have seen far too many instances of intimidation and bullying of these voices much more insidious work that we can so that we can work collectively to address the priorities of the communities these priorities where the whether they are for jobs for education for quality health care are the same priorities that everyone else in king county holds but we can't ignore the historic barriers purposely been put in front of these communities which makes their work that much harder that's why we started the work of the immigrant refugee taskforce and out of that task force and its member dombroski mentioned hearing from the community themselves today stand here signing in and celebrating the creation of the immigrant refugee commission a permanent body to bring these voices to king county government into our communities across the county to make sure that those voices in the spirit of the signing of the legislation and the work which we have done in the last few years i would like to welcome you all in  this event and also greeted my native language so when accent which basically means good morning i am really excited to be part of this process community at the center that's that's that's the way that we really get things done and we're very proud that in forming the task force and now the commission we tried to hear from the voices out there in the community so we thank you for all for contributing to that i'm so proud of the commission because it represents the best face of the county and you know it also is a model for you know with the nation can be when we're  we're being the greatest our greatest in the world and you know instead of hatred it represents love that's my view and instead of rejection it represents accept martin luther king county that means something to us so thank you for  that i'm going to say a little bit about our the process for selecting their commission we already have a selection group in place within the next one to two weeks there will be a process for applications to come in  apply so we want people from all races ethnicities so so this is very important for us so we want to leave the process open ended two months and by june we expect to have a recommendation for our king county council and for executives and then by july we expect the commission to be in place and so we anticipate that the first meeting will be in september so that's the process stay connected to us and we will stay connected to you there will be a website website available for you to apply and we'll get all the information out to our networks and actually to also share information to your networks completed the signing if we could have all the task force members and the speakers join us in front for a you good morning my name is ali i am one of the task force members that helped established the king county commission i'm also a pharmacist by training as well and this has been our volunteer work which i've been involved the last three years body of elected or selected folks who have to go through a process and determine the needs of the community and therefore what i wanted was to find a way for us to collectively out of thirteen of us to come county that's a very good question so when it comes to a zuma aware that throughout the country right now where we're facing a whole lot of issues when it comes to you know looking at a fit at a federal  level there's a lot of oversight that there's a lot of negativity associated with immigrants or fiji's and therefore when you have a commission when you have a body of people who actually are from those communities people that speak the language understand the culture and therefore are coming under king county and becoming under our elected officials were able to give suggestions were able to implement policies in place that are positive within our community and therefore for instance when we talk about dhaka when we talk about you know certain countries that are banned by you know the federal government and also talk about issues about you know making sure that certain people are not seen as you know outsiders because this country is built by immigrants is built by our fiji's and therefore the commission itself will be able to advise the bigger body of the king county that we exist in or the next steps in which is very important step is that now that  the the the ordinance husband's been signed there is an existing commission moving forth the next steps are to actually select commission board members i served as a task force along with twelve other people to establish the commission itself now there is going to be apartment commission that requires people from the community to serve those commissions positions as well so there will be application process they will be selection process and those people will be selected from the community and presented to our council members who will actually decide who those folks are and this is one of the most important things that we can do as part of member