Bernal Baca is the Executive Director of Centro Latino, Tacoma. He joins us as a “Wire Insider” to discuss the work being done by groups like his to analyze legislation in the Washington State Legislature through a racial equity lens.

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I’m focussed on the continuance of an organization called the Racial Equity Team to make sure that it continues its work in the community. It is a group that oversees all the legislation that’s coming through Washington State through a racial equity lens. I convene the group in Olympia every Tuesday, and we look at all the bills and determine whether we need to support, alter, or completely kill the bill.

There’s a couple of concerns [this session]. I want to continue establishing the organization I work for, which is Central Latino, to keep that foundation and awareness in the state legislature that advocates for Latinos and indigenous people. The second one is to look at the whole issue of the ICE Detention Center in Tacoma.”

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