Seattle mayor pushes for more culturally sensitive response to immigrant deaths

Mayor Bruce Harrell signed an executive order Wednesday that aims to improve the city's response to the unexpected death of someone from Seattle's immigrant communities.

Harrell’s order calls for the city’s crisis response teams to adopt practices that meet various language, cultural and religious needs.

The order would bring together the Seattle Police Department, the Human Services Department and the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs to look at measures the city could take in the future to be more culturally aware and sensitive.

The order also calls for equitable language access for people who seek out victim and family support services, or medical treatment.

The announcement comes a week after a graduate student, Jaahnavi Kandula, who is from India was fatally hit in a crosswalk by a Seattle police vehicle.

Yahya Suufi, the executive director for the Burien-based Muslim American Youth Foundation, attended a press conference with the mayor Wednesday. He said improving the city's cultural awareness and sensitivity is especially important when families are grieving according to their own traditions and practices.

“It will translate to us having better practices that increase accessibility for our community,” he said, “especially the community of color, and the immigrants that need to have certain needs to be met.”

Suufi says in his faith, there’s a desire to bury someone who’s died, as soon as possible.

A team from various city departments is due to report back to the mayor in 90 days about a strategy to improve access to city resources and make the city's response more coordinated and culturally appropriate.