Language barrier, fear of targeting complicate immigrant flood response

Some immigrants and farmworkers have been navigating extra challenges this week amid historic flooding in Western Washington, advocates said.

In a heavily immigrant neighborhood by a Snohomish County river where an evacuation notice was issued, some residents expressed uncertainty about moving to an emergency shelter, said Van Dinh-Kuno, executive director of Everett-based Refugee and Immigrant Services Northwest.

Most residents were Spanish speakers, complicating their access to information, and some may have been concerned about immigration enforcement at the shelter, said Dinh-Kuno, who visited the neighborhood Tuesday night with Spanish-speaking employees and county staff.

“My agency and the county reassured them” there shouldn’t be immigration enforcement at the shelter, while stre