KENT, Washington. Kabongo Kambila Ringo stood outside the tent where he was staying with his pregnant wife and ate from a clear plastic tray Girl Scout cookies melting in the midday sun.
He was one of about 240 asylum seekers camped out on a grassy lot along a highway south of Seattle, wondering whether police would make good on threats to arrest them for trespassing and hoping authorities would let them move into the motel. empty next to it.
“It’s very difficult,” the 29-year-old Congolese told the Associated Press in French. “There is not enough to eat. There’s no way we can even wash.”
The cluster of tarp-covered tents covering the field in Kent, a Seattle suburb, since last weekend highlights the tension many communities face – even some far from the US-Mexico border – as President Joe said. Biden. attempts to restrict asylum and neutralize immigration as a political liability before this fall’s elections.
Some Northern cities led by Democrats we are witnessing huge flows of migrants. Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent more than 40,000 asylum seekers to Chicagomainly by bus or plane.
The Seattle area has seen fewer, but the fact that homelessness is already an immense challenge — nearly 10,000 people sleep outdoors every night in King County, officials say — even that has underscored the region’s capacity.
More than 2,000 asylum seekers have passed through one suburban church, Riverton Park United Methodist in nearby Tukwila, since 2022 after word spread that it was willing to help. The church made room for hundreds of migrants to pass through each night and raised money to place families in motels.
Hundreds of people were moved from tents at the church to hotels or other short-term rentals as extreme cold hit this winter. But as the money ran out, they faced continued evictions.
Ringo said the war forced him and his wife to flee Congo in 2022. They took a ship to Brazil and then spent two years walking to the US border in Arizona, where they arrived on March 23. .
A man he met in detention gave him the address of the church, and when he was released, he said, his brother bought him a plane ticket to Seattle, where he was reunited with his wife, now eight months pregnant.
Many of those who camped in Kent – mainly migrants from Congo, Angola and Venezuela – previously remained in the church or were evicted from motels.
Lacking other options and awaiting permission to work in the US, they set up camp in front of an abandoned Econo Lodge. The county bought the 85-room motel during the COVID-19 pandemic as emergency quarantine accommodation.
“We want to pressure the county and city to open the hotel to this group of migrants,” said Ian Greer, a volunteer with a coalition of migrant services organizations that has been helping asylum seekers.
According to a legal agreement between the county and city, the motel can only be used for quarantine housing and other uses approved by the city. Authorities say they have no immediate plans to open it to migrants.
“We understand the rationale for the asylum seekers’ request to use the hotel in the short term, but the reality of doing so is much more complicated than simply unlocking the doors and turning on the lights,” said Kristin Elia, spokeswoman for the King. County Executive’s Office said in an emailed statement. “Full operations and capital for an emergency shelter, even in the short term, are beyond the county’s available resources.”
Kent Police last weekend posted a 48 hour dump notice at the camp, saying the migrants were not allowed to be on county-controlled property. But as the deadline came and went on Tuesday, authorities backed off, giving migrants breathing room as they wait for long-term shelter.
Late last year, King County provided $3 million in grants to respond to the influx of migrants, helping to house more than 350 individuals and families. In April, it awarded $2 million to four nonprofit organizations to provide shelter, food, legal services and other assistance. When some migrants camped out in a Seattle park last month, the city moved dozens of families to motels and is paying for them to stay at least until July.
Starting next month, a flood of new money from the state should help. The county will receive $5 million to respond to the influx — money officials are still evaluating how to use. The state’s Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance will begin distributing $25 million to nonprofits and local governments to develop a statewide network to support newly arrived migrants.
Riverton Park United Methodist hopes to raise $200,000 for hotel vouchers by the end of this month, saying given the time it takes to review spending proposals, the state money may not be available until September.
Children ran across the steaming grass on Wednesday as the sun dried their tents after heavy rain. The facilities consisted of five portable restrooms and two hand sanitizer stations. Larger tents served as kitchens and pantries. Volunteers delivered food and personal hygiene products. Migrants adjusted tarps and talked under awnings.
Linda Gutiérrez recalled leaving Venezuela: “There is no medicine in Venezuela. Our family is starving,” she said in Spanish. They went first to Colombia, then to Chile. When they were forced to leave Chile, she said, they fought their way through the dangerous Darien Jungle — the dense, roadless rainforest that divides South America from Central America — with their children and grandchildren to the U.S.
They eventually arrived at Riverton Park United Methodist, where they stayed for five months, she said. They were then placed in a nearby motel, but only for a month.
At the camp she met José Guerrero, from Puerto Cabello – the same region west of Caracas where she lived. Guerrero came to the US with his wife after leaving his three children in the care of his grandparents.
“All of us here have been fighting for months,” Guerrero said. “My hope is that the mayor, the county, the leaders will open that hotel. As you can see, it is empty and abandoned. All of us, together, can maintain it and prepare it to shelter us.”
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Associated Press reporters Manuel Valdes in Kent and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed.
