Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund will speak about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other immigration enforcement agencies’ activity in Whatcom County at an event hosted by Indivisible Bellingham on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. at Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship, 1207 Ellsworth St.
The event will feature a presentation and a question-and-answer session with Lund.
Lund will address the increased arrests by ICE, Customs and Border Protection and other Department of Homeland Security agencies in Bellingham and Whatcom County, according to a press release from Indivisible Bellingham.
Lund will focus on what the city of Bellingham is doing in response to the increased immigration enforcement activity.
The press release stated that upwards of 120 people in Whatcom County were arrested on immigration charges from January to the beginning of August.
Federal data and local reports have shown a drastic increase in ICE activity this year, and especially in recent months.
Nationally, ICE made about 43,000 arrests in June and 49,000 in July, The New York Times reported in August.
Less than 4% of those arrested had been charged or convicted with a crime, according to The New York Times.
The Seattle Times reported that ICE arrested about 700 people in Washington in July, up from roughly 230 in February and about 50 in December 2024.
The La Conner Community News reported in September that there had been at least 111 recorded ICE arrests in Mount Vernon, Burlington, Sedro-Woolley and Anacortes from October 2022 to Aug. 5 of this year. Eighty-one of these arrests were made in 2026, mostly in Mount Vernon (64 arrests) and Burlington (15).
Indivisible Bellingham’s event with Lund is free to attend and open to the public.
