By Dee Anne Finken, Communications Portfolio Director, LWV of Washington and Local News & Democracy Issue Chair
Inspired by the wisdom that one can make a difference even by taking a single step, Kittitas County League members are educating Washingtonians across the state, one by one, about their rights if they encounter a federal immigration official.
As of last week, Kittitas League members had distributed 34,000 wallet-sized “Red Cards,” or, in Spanish, “Tarjetas Rojas,” originally produced by the national, nonprofit Immigrant Legal Resource Center.
Even as small as it is, the effort launched in Kittitas County by a handful of League members is putting critical information into the hands of people from King County to Spokane and locations in between.
Printed in English on one side and Spanish on the other, the cards explain a person’s constitutional rights if they encounter a federal immigration agent on the street or at the door to their home.
Those rights include not having to open the door to an immigration agent, not having to answer questions and not signing any documents.
Longtime Kittitas League member Charli Sorenson said the Red Card Civics project began in March when she and fellow members reached out to area organizations and agencies serving vulnerable populations, specifically those that assist immigrants, the homeless, people with disabilities; those who identify as LGBTQ+ and students.
The goal, Sorenson explained, was to learn how the Kittitas League might best serve vulnerable communities under the administration of a president who had announced he would be dictator on Day 1.
Foremost, Sorenson said, Kittitas League members didn’t want to assume they knew best what the people they hoped to help needed. “It was the groups themselves who suggested we print the red cards and fliers,” she said.
After all, it was two to three months into a new year with a new president. And with growing concerns about the rights of immigrants and others, the agencies and organizations had nearly exhausted their own budgets to print the informative cards and fliers, Sorenson explained.
Kittitas League members raised $1,500 and set out to print and distribute the cards. In addition to the Red Cards, the Kittitas League is also distributing an 8½ by 11-inch flier produced by the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network with messaging similar to that on the Red Card. By September, they had delivered 6,400 cards and fliers to the Apoyo Food Bank, another 4,010 to Central Washington Justice for Our Neighbors and 2,102 more to Central Washington Disability Resource Center, all in Kittitas County.
Before long, the Kittitas League was hearing from other agencies, like Central Washington Legal Aid and La Casa Hogar, both in Yakima, where they sent 5,600 and 4,700 cards and fliers, respectively. Unidos Nueva Alianza in Ephrata made use of another 5,150 cards and fliers provided by the Kittitas League.
Seeing the expansive need, and with a nod from the LWVWA board, the Kittitas League also used a $2,000 grant from the Education Fund to send cards and fliers to local school districts, public libraries, and local businesses. “We also sent emails to our sister Leagues east of the Cascades and explained our red card civics project educating state residents on their constitutional rights and invited the Leagues to join us in distributing the cards and fliers,” Sorenson said.
Since then, 2,265 cards and fliers were distributed to the Spokane League and another 1,000 cards went to Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and Northern Idaho. LWVs in King, Skagit and Snohomish have also received cards and fliers to distribute.
“The network just got bigger and bigger as we reached out,” said Sorenson.
The Kittitas League has printed three runs of cards and fliers and has about 30,000 left to distribute.
“It’s just been incredible,” said Sorenson.
The Kittitas League also added a Know Your Rights webpage to their website to provide links to red cards, WAISN and ACLU rights fliers, making the information available past the end of the grant. But Sorenson and fellow League members in Kittitas don’t envision stopping after distributing the remaining Red Cards and fliers.
“We’re hoping this effort will enable us to collaborate with these organizations in other ways in time.” Perhaps with additional civics education and citizenship training.
One of the challenges, she noted, though, is how fearful many individuals are and how many are reluctant to simply gather in groups.
Sorenson said any Leagues interested in securing Red Cards or the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network fliers for their own distribution should contact her at sorensonkvlwv@gmail.com
