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BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund announced during a community forum on Tuesday night, Oct. 6, that U.S. Customs and Border Protection will no longer conduct swim training at Arne Hanna Aquatic Center.
Community members voiced their concerns after a notice posted at the city-run facility stated that CBP would be using two lap lanes and part of the dive tank between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 7. A local organization called Bellingham Troublemakers had planned a peaceful protest, claiming it went against city policy to support federal immigration enforcement.
But Lund said CBP called to say they’ve voluntarily “reconsidered their decision” to hold the training.
Lund added that CBP’s swift water rescue team has used Arne Hanna for the last 10 years. She told the forum that there are “layers of complexity” to these issues, as that same rescue team was rescuing seniors in Everson and Sumas during last year’s flooding.
“I think that helps us all be informed about the importance of how we hold space to consider what it means to be a government that’s accessible for all,” Lund said at the meeting. “And when we’re defending equal provision of city services for all, that groups like this can sometimes be part of the ‘all’.”
Lund addresses using litigation against federal government
Lund also addressed the broader state of the city’s response to recent federal actions at the meeting.
The mayor says Bellingham is among many cities that have partnered with a legal advocacy group called the Public Rights Project in what she calls “affirmative litigation.”
Lund noted that the city is involved in several lawsuits over federal grant funding to areas such as housing, transportation and healthcare.
She says Bellingham risks losing funding previously approved by Congress if the city doesn’t comply with federal directives on immigration enforcement, DEI policies and more. According to Lund and her legal team, participating in the lawsuits as part of a coalition protects the city from having to comply with the directives the coalition is challenging in court.
Lund, Chief Mertzig speak to local efforts to support immigrants, residents’ privacy
Lund also touted the city’s Keep Washington Working Act work group, which made approximately 50 recommendations on how the city can improve its compliance with state law to ensure that civil immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. She says the state’s attorney general office told them that Bellingham is the only city in the state to have convened such a group.
“The foundational belief that unites all of us in this action is that, together, we can use government in this moment for good,” Lund said. “The ultimate end goal of these actions is to build a multiracial democracy that truly can deliver on equity and justice for all.”
Lund also looked back on detainments that took place in a parking lot outside of Bellingham Municipal Court in fall 2025 and said Bellingham has looked to other cities on how they handled similar actions.
“City of Bellingham property is not to be used for staging for actions like this or the actual enforcement actions,” Lund said at the meeting.
Lund reiterated that the city doesn’t use Flock cameras, but does utilize automatic license plate readers for parking enforcement. She says that information carries much less risk of any data breaches since the city has full control over the data, which exists for just 15 minutes.
Lund and Bellingham Police Chief Rebecca Mertzig say the city is currently evaluating all the ways it uses cameras and plans to post that summary online in an effort to be transparent with the public.
