The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs now has a permanent home in Baltimore City Council, after serving Baltimore’s immigrant population for more than a decade.
Mayor Brandon Scott signed a bill Thursday morning to establish MIMA as a permanent office. The office facilitates economic development and the integration of immigrant communities by identifying needs and opportunities.
“This ensures that their work and services for Baltimore’s immigration community will continue regardless of who is in power,” Mayor Scott said at Thursday’s press conference. “For a decade, MIMA has been instrumental in providing vital information, advocacy and support to our immigrant population, often in the most difficult circumstances, and helping community members navigate significant obstacles.”
MIMA began in 2013 as a recommendation from The New Americans Task Force, a group of community stakeholders, to “develop a plan to retain and attract immigrants as part of the Mayor’s goal of growing Baltimore,” according to the Baltimore City government website.
“MIMA was founded through tireless advocacy of committed partners who believed in more than just symbolic gestures,” said Catalina Rodriguez, director of MIMA. “We envisioned a city where immigrants were fully integrated into the fabric of our city. This requires impacting systems that were not originally designed to serve our diverse populations.”
Since MIMA’s founding in 2014, Baltimore City has earned the nationally recognized Certified Welcoming designation and is ranked fifth in the U.S. for immigrant integration efforts, according to the American Immigration Council and the New Americans Economy.
“We’re seeing growth in all of our communities because people are coming here from all over the world, and they’re seeing the progress in Baltimore,” said Councilwoman Odette Ramos. “This bill sends a very clear message that everyone, no matter where they come from, is welcome in Baltimore City.”
However, the signing of the bill comes as the community continues to recover from the tragedy of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, which killed six Latin American construction workers.
Meanwhile, the murder of Rachel Morin has intensified the immigration debate among federal lawmakers in Maryland. The man accused of killing Morin is a resident of El Salvador who entered the United States unlawfully, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said.
On June 19, Governor Wes Moore appeared on “Fox and Friends” where he blamed immigration issues on “long-standing inaction in Congress.”
Mayor Scott approached the topic from a different angle at Thursday’s press conference. He argued that immigration is at the core of America’s history and spirit.
“We cannot judge all immigrants from this one person. If this were the case, none of us would be here because we were all immigrants. Unless you are related to the indigenous people here, you are from immigrants,” Scott said. “This whole anti-immigrant movement in the country is like being anti-American. This whole discussion about not letting people in is just ridiculous.”
