A pastor in a neighboring city to Seattle is pleading with local officials to take responsibility for overwhelming their town with migrants and declare a state of emergency after transporting thousands of asylum seekers to the suburban community.
An article, headlined, "Seattle isn’t claiming Tukwila’s migrant crisis. But it did start here," published in The Seattle Times on Tuesday spotlights the desperation of a small church in Tukwila, Washington, which sits just south of Seattle.
The Riverton Park United Methodist Church, led by its pastor, Rev. Jan Bolerjack, has been turned into a temporary shelter for migrants, many of whom were reportedly sent to Tukwila by Seattle police officers, citing a lack of resources in their city.
Bolerjack has independently stepped up to provide a response to the ongoing crisis in her city as Seattle officials repeatedly tried to look the other way, refusing to open sufficient shelters of their own, The Seattle Times reported.
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The pastor assumed she would temporarily house migrants in her shelter until the government stepped in to help, but despite her repeated pleas and dwindling resources, the Seattle Police Department reportedly continued to send migrants to the Tukwila church for 18 months. Police stopped only when the church hit capacity in March, the report continues, adding that Bolerjack has been forced to turn away families with babies and young children.
Despite being the first to send migrants to Tukwila, Seattle officials seemingly shirked off Bolerjack's requests for help and refused to take accountability for the crisis, having yet to declare it an emergency.
"By 2023, she was beginning to feel overwhelmed by the referrals and seeking help from Seattle," The Seattle Times reported, pointing to an email she sent to Hamdi Mohamed, director of Seattle’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, in January 2023. Bolerjack was asking for assistance connecting six migrant families in her shelter with services for "things like ID, work, Asylum paperwork,… Can you give me some help?"
Mohamed reportedly told Bolerjack to try calling 211, King County’s crisis line, and to "search for information" on Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network’s Resource Finder, according to The Seattle Times.
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"By March, the number was up to 35, and Bolerjack again asked Seattle for help. By July it was over 200," The Seattle Times reported.
"Elderly people, newborn babies, pregnant women and jobless men crowd every inch of the church property. More than 2,000 have come through the property and more than 300 people live there now. Bolerjack lies awake at night, worrying about a fire," The Seattle Times writes.
"Do you have any ideas that I may not have already explored?" she pleaded with the city in one email cited by the outlet.
Jennifer Tenorio, a former border patrol agent who oversees Seattle’s community service officers, said she would go down a list of shelters in Seattle each time she had to place a migrant family, but was repeatedly told they were "full." She'd then phone Bolerjack in Tukwila, "who said 'yes' in the summer of 2022 and kept saying ‘yes’ for much the same reason Tenorio keeps calling her. Because she can’t imagine doing nothing," the Seattle Times wrote.
As more migrant families continued to pour into Seattle, Tenorio urged the city to take more action.
"This problem is pressing and appears to be growing," she wrote in a letter to city leaders in April 2023. "We appeal to you now before there is an even greater humanitarian crisis on our hands."
She told The Seattle Times that she never received a response and wonders whether her message ever made it to Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, who has been reluctant to activate an emergency response, arguing that the city lacks the budget to tackle the issue.
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"I do not think it’s risen to the level that I have sort of defined and trained my team as to when I would declare an emergency response to be put in place," Harrell said in an interview. "That is my discretionary call."
In the meantime, donations at Bolerjack's church are reportedly running out as she waits for Seattle leadership to take accountability.
"I thought we were just kind of holding it until someone else took it," Bolerjack told The Seattle Times in February. "No one’s taken it yet."
An automatic reply email to a request for comment by Fox News Digital reads, in all capitalized letters, "**WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING NEW ARRIVALS TO OUR TEMPORARY SHELTER AT THIS TIME**" The email proceeds to list necessary items for donations, including eggs, milk, toothbrushes, towels and baby wipes.
The Tukwila official website issues a similar warning to incoming asylum seekers.
"Due to the overcapacity at the Riverton Park United Methodist Church and housing and support services shortages, asylum-seekers are strongly advised to seek temporary residence outside of the City of Tukwila," it reads. The website says that as of May 20th, there are over 350 people actively living onsite throughout the church property.
"This includes outside areas, the large white tent, the garage, the church building, church homes, etc…Current Tukwila expenditures, including six-month projections, total $1.4 million."
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King County last week awarded the City of Tukwila a $2 million grant to address homelessness. City and county staff are having discussions over whether the money could be used for "asylum seeker support," according to the website.
When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Mayor Harrell's office expressed their commitment to supporting migrants and asylum seekers "as best we can, particularly in a resource-limited environment."
"Our Community Service Officers (CSOs) have been on the frontline of this emerging issue and made the connection to Riverton Park United Methodist Church in 2022 when no other shelter resources were available to house migrant and asylum-seeking individuals and families," Harrell's press secretary Callie Craighead said. "No one could have predicted that the church would be the landing spot for so many more families, migrants, and asylum seekers, and it certainly wasn’t an intended outcome."
"Over a year ago, the City set up the first regional roundtable to address this complex and dynamic issue, and earlier this year, Mayor Harrell convened mayors from across King County who are aligned on the need for a regional response," she added.
"This is an international and federal crisis that affects our entire region across King County and the state of Washington. Ensuring a coordinated response and regional leadership is critical for immediate and long-term stability. We’re grateful to the state for their financial support to reimburse the City for these hotel stays we are paying for May through June 30. We will continue to advocate for and support a coordinated, statewide response to this humanitarian crisis which cannot be solved by Seattle alone. "
The Tukwila City Hall and the Riverton Park United Methodist Church did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
