Background
The League of Women Voters adopted a 
national position on immigration in 2008. This position focuses primarily on the criteria for admission of immigrants and due process in the adminsitration and enforcement of admission policies.
In 2023, LWV Washington began a study focused on issues affecting the lives of immigrants and their families after entry into the United States. In 2025, League members in Washington state used the consensus process to adopted a Protecting Immigrants position.
LWVWA is asking us to support their efforts to have the National Convention adopt this position by concurrence. Adopting this position at the national level, would allow members of League throughout the nation to take action on this position.
The Concurrence Process
All League positions result from a process of study and consensus. Any given study, whether it be National, State, or Local, is thorough in its pursuit of facts and details. After completing their research, study committee members fashion consensus questions and then shares the study and the consensus questions with the membership. Members hold consensus meetings to discuss the study and each consensus question, submitting their responses and comments to the study committee. It is the consensus statement -- the statement resulting from the consensus questions -- that becomes a position.
A League may also adopt a position through the concurrence process. Instead of responding to consensus questions developed by a study committee, the local membership or delegates are asked to agree with a position statement that has already been arrived at through study and consensus by another League. Members of a local League or delegates to a convention are provided with the same kind of thorough and unbiased information as when using the consensus process. When adopting a policy by concurrence the entire position, as written, must be adopted or rejected.
Proposed LWVUS Position on Protecting Immigrants
POSITION IN BRIEF: The League of Women Voters believes that all residents, regardless of immigration status or citizenship, should be treated with dignity and respect. This means that residents, regardless of immigration status or citizenship, should have access to essential state-funded services, have the opportunity to avail themselves of legal representation in court and immigration proceedings, and have the opportunity to live and work in safety. The League encourages all elected officials and government leaders to take action to ensure these fundamental rights. It also means that political leaders have an obligation to condemn xenophobia, discrimination, and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Specifically, the League believes
I-1: Xenophobia, racism, discrimination against immigrants, and anti-immigration rhetoric must be condemned at all levels of government, business, and civil society. Elected officials and government leaders should take clear and consistent actions to counter these threats to democracy.
I-2: States should encourage federal policies that protect the rights of immigrants, including through litigation when necessary.
I-3: States should take leadership in ensuring access to legal services for all persons, regardless of immigration status. This is particularly important for immigrants in removal proceedings.
I-4: State and local governments should seek to provide essential services to all residents, regardless of immigration status.
I-5: States should take steps to ensure effective coordination among state agencies and other organizations that interact with immigrants and refugees, including funding to permit such coordination.
I-6: States should ensure safe working conditions, fair pay and benefits, and the right to unionize for all workers, regardless of immigration status.
I-7: States should urge the federal government to issue timely work authorization permits to immigrants and refugees.
Welcoming Immigrants to Washington State Study
LWV Washington 2025
The LWVWA position is based on their "Welcoming Immigrants to Washington State Study" completed in 2025.
The study team has focused on four principal issues with respect to immigrants:
- Economic opportunities
- Language facilitation and skills acquisition
- Social inclusion
- Civic engagement
In Washington state just over 15% are immigrants. Half are naturalized citizens. Undocumented immigrants, those who have entered the U.S. without permission or who have overstayed or violated their visas, make up 3.4% of Washington’s overall population and 4.3% of its workforce.
Nearly half of Washington’s immigrants come from Asia, and most immigrants (63%) have been in the U.S. since before 2010. More than one in five Washingtonians speak a language other than English at home.
Immigrants are important to the workforce. Nearly one in five workers in Washington are immigrants, concentrated in both high end and low end job.
- 77% of agricultural workers
- 51.3% of software developers
- 48.9% of maids and housekeepers
- 36.4% of health aids
The immigration system is very complex; there are more than 30 different categories of immigrants, each with different rights and benefits, some with pathways to citizenship and others without (See Appendix 1 the Study). Members of the same family may have diffent status and be eligible for different rights, privileges, and services. Legal representation is the key to obtaining immigration status, but there is no right to public representation in immigration court. Immigration status affects access to jobs; jobs affect access to housing and health care; and language affects access to almost everything.
Immigrant needs are often addressed in a piecemeal way by nonprofits and state agencies that lack resources. Study interviews revealed repeated calls for one-stop resources for immigrants and the need for advocates and navigators to assist immigrants with bureaucracy, language, and culture.
Washington state is also home to one of the country’s largest immigration detention facilities. Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC), located in Tacoma, is operated by a for-profit company. Among detention facilities in the U.S., it has among the country’s highest use of solitary confinement, the longest times in detention, the lowest granting of bonds, and among the highest values of bonds set. Many of the people in detention are asylum seekers who have no right to free legal representation. Legal representation is the most crucial factor in winning their cases.
Read Executive Summary of the Study
