Hundreds of asylum seekers camped near Seattle. There's a vacant motel next door

KENT, Wash. (AP) — Kabongo Kambila Ringo stood outside the tent where he was staying with his pregnant wife and eating from a clear plastic tray filled with Girl Scout cookies melting in the midday sun.

He was one of about 240 asylum seekers camping in a grassy area along a highway south of Seattle, wondering whether police would follow through on his threats to arrest them for trespassing and hoping authorities would let them move into the vacant motel next door.

“It’s very difficult,” the 29-year-old Congolese told the Associated Press in French. “There is not enough to eat. There's not even a way to wash.

The cluster of tarp-covered tents that have covered the grounds of Kent, a Seattle suburb, since last weekend highlights the tension many communities — even some far from the U.S.-Mexico border — face as President Joe Biden is trying to restrict asylum and neutralize immigration. as a political handicap before the elections this fall.

Some Democratic-run northern cities have seen huge influxes of migrants. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sent more than 40,000 asylum seekers to Chicago, mostly by bus or plane.

The Seattle area has seen fewer, but with homelessness already a huge challenge — nearly 10,000 people sleep outside every night in King County, officials say — even that has strained the city's capacity. region.

More than 2,000 asylum seekers have passed through a suburban church, Riverton Park United Methodist, in nearby Tukwila, since 2022 after word got out that it was willing to help. The church allowed hundreds of migrants to stay each night and raised money to place families in motels.

Hundreds of people were moved from church tents to hotels or other short-term rentals as extreme cold hit winter. But as the money ran out, they faced successive evictions.

Ringo said the war forced him and his wife to flee Congo in 2022. They took a boat to Brazil, then spent two years walking to the U.S. 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 found his wife, now eight months pregnant.

Many of those camped in Kent – ​​mainly migrants from Congo, Angola and Venezuela – had previously stayed at the church or were kicked out of motels.

Lacking other options and waiting for permission to work in the United States, they set up camp outside an abandoned Econo Lodge. The county purchased the 85-room motel during the COVID-19 pandemic as emergency quarantine housing.

“We want to put pressure on the county and the city to open the hotel to this group of migrants,” said Ian Greer, a volunteer with a coalition of migrant service organizations that helps the applicants. asylum.

Under a legal agreement between the county and city, the motel can only be used for quarantine housing and other uses approved by the city. Officials say they have no immediate plans to open it to migrants.

“We understand why asylum seekers are requesting short-term use of the hotel, but the reality is much more complicated than simply unlocking the doors and turning on the lights,” said Kristin Elia, a spokeswoman for the king. County Executive Office, said in an emailed statement. “The full operations and capital required for an emergency shelter, even in the short term, exceed the county's available resources. »

Kent Police issued a 48-hour eviction notice to the camp last weekend, saying the migrants did not have permission to be on the county-controlled property. But as the deadline passed on Tuesday, authorities reversed course, giving migrants breathing room in hopes of 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 nonprofits to provide shelter, food, legal services and other assistance. When migrants camped in a Seattle park last month, the city moved dozens of families to motels and is funding their stay at least until July.

Starting next month, an influx of new money from the state should help. The county will receive $5 million to meet that influx — officials with the money are still evaluating how to use it. The state's Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance will begin disbursing $25 million to nonprofits and local governments to develop a statewide network to support recently migrant arrived.

Riverton Park United Methodist hopes to raise $200,000 for hotel vouchers by the end of the month, saying given the time needed to review spending proposals, state money may not be available before September.

Children were running around in the wet grass Wednesday as the sun dried out tents after heavy rain. Facilities included five portable toilets and two hand sanitizing stations. Larger tents served as kitchens and pantries. Volunteers dropped off food and toiletries. Migrants adjusted their tarpaulins and chatted under the awnings.

Linda Gutiérrez remembers leaving Venezuela: “There are no medicines 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 crossed the perilous Darien jungle – the dense, roadless rainforest that separates South America from Central America – with her children. and his young grandchildren all the way to the United States.

They eventually reached 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.

In the encampment, she met José Guerrero, from Puerto Cabello – the same area west of Caracas where she lived. Guerrero arrived in the United States with his wife after leaving their three children with their grandparents.

“All of us here have been struggling for months,” Guerrero said. “I hope the mayor, the county, the leaders open this hotel. As you can see, it is empty and abandoned. We can all, together, maintain it and prepare it to welcome us.

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Associated Press journalists Manuel Valdes in Kent and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed.