Today's headlines:
- Immigrant advocates celebrate signing of law enforcement mask ban, officer impersonation laws in WA.
- Crime victim services escape funding cuts in WA despite budget concerns.
- GSI State of the Region speakers urge bipartisanship as a matter of security.
- ID lawmakers look to expand tuition subsidy eligibility.
- Zag men advance, Vandals end their run after first round of March Madness.
Plus, for five years, a small urban farm in Vancouver, Wash., has grown produce that’s culturally specific to Latino communities. As Erik Neumann from our partner station OPB reports, it’s had to adapt because of increased immigration enforcement.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Monica Carrillo-Casas, Mitch Borden, Doug Nadvornick, James Dawson and Erik Neumann.
Owen Henderson hosts and produces the show.
TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Friday, March 20, 2026.
On today’s show, law enforcement officers in Washington, including federal immigration agents, are now banned from covering their faces when interacting with the public.
Advocates say it’s a step in the right direction but not enough to repair relationships between police and immigrant communities
And crime victim services in Washington won’t be taking the multimillion-dollar hit that some lawmakers had pushed for this session, but abuse survivors and victim advocates say a long-term funding solution is still needed.
Plus, we visit a grocery store that’s adapting its programs to deliver food to families afraid to leave home as the federal immigration crackdown continues.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Spokane immigrant advocates are praising Washington Governor Bob Ferguson for signing a pair of laws meant to improve public safety during immigration enforcement crackdowns.
SPR’s Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas reports.
MONICA CARRILLO CASAS: More than 30 people attended a watch party at Nuestras Raices Community Center Thursday morning.
They were there to celebrate as they watched a big screen while Governor Bob Ferguson signed a bill that prohibits law enforcement officers from wearing masks. It takes effect immediately.
Executive Director Fernanda Mazcot says while there’s still work to be done in easing tensions between police and immigrant communities, this is a step forward.
She says the collaboration between multiple local organizations and leaders are what make changes at the state level.
FERNANDA MAZCOT: “As an immigrant woman, I'm very proud to have a lot of solidarity in my community from different community partners, different leaders.”
MCC: Ferguson also signed a bill that would criminalize impersonating a peace officer with fake badges. It takes effect mid-June.
I’m Monica Carrillo-Casas reporting.
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OH: Funding for Washington’s crime victim services won’t take the multimillion-dollar cut that some legislators proposed this session.
Lawmakers have sent a budget to the governor that earmarks about 21 million dollars for those programs.
KNKX reporter Mitch Borden has more.
MITCH BORDEN: Funding for crime victim services helps sustain programs like rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters and legal aid.
Washington lawmakers granted enough money to keep these types of programs running over the next year.
But, victim advocates believe the state needs to eventually commit long-term to supporting these life-saving initiatives.
Elizabeth Montoya is with the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault.
ELIZABETH MONTOYA: “What we really need is a long-term solution. So, programs can keep providing these services in their communities, and we don't have to do this scramble every year.”
MB: Groups in Washington that help domestic violence survivors and other victims of crime have come to rely on the state’s support as federal funding has dramatically decreased in recent years.
I’m Mitch Borden reporting.
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OH: The partisan gridlock gripping the U.S. isn’t just a problem for Congress: It makes municipalities less effective and the nation less safe.
That was the message from speakers at Greater Spokane’s State of the Region event yesterday.
JILLIAN YOUNGBLOOD: “Dozens of national security leaders in the past 10 years or so have been issuing these rolling warnings that the distrust, and the level of polarization we see in each other is actually a national security risk.”
OH: That’s Jillian Youngblood from the National Civic League and the organization Civic Genius.
JY: “Without a foundation of basic trust, discussions and negotiations are at constant risk of falling apart. But we know how to build trust. We know how to find common ground.”
She says leaders can restore trust within their communities through more frequent and sincere communications with people with whom they disagree.
— — —
Republican lawmakers are hoping to expand eligibility for Idaho’s private school subsidy program.
James Dawson has more on the measure filed yesterday.
JAMES DAWSON: The bill would give tax credits to families of children in private and home schools for participating in public school sports or extracurricular activities.
Until this point, they’ve been excluded from the tax credit, which gives parents up to $5,000 per child only for private or homeschooling education expenses..
House Republican Leader Jason Monks, who sponsors the bill, says the measure would also clarify other technical details of how applications for the tax credit are processed.
Lawmakers set aside $50 million for the tax credit last year, which more than 6,000 families applied for.
Democrats and a handful of Republicans have opposed similar legislation in the past, but not in great enough numbers to stop it.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio News.
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The Gonzaga men’s basketball team advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament last night, but the Idaho Vandals’ season ended.
The Zags trailed Kennesaw State for much of the first half, but came back for a hard-fought 73-64 win.
Gonzaga moves on to a second-round game against the Texas Longhorns Saturday in Portland.
In Oklahoma City, the University of Houston Cougars knocked out the Vandals with a 78-47 win.
Idaho finishes with a 21-and-15 record and a Big Sky Conference tournament championship.
Today, the Gonzaga women’s team plays a 12:30 game against the University of Mississippi in Minneapolis.
The Idaho women play at 7 p.m. in Norman, Okla., against the University of Oklahoma.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
For the past five years, a small, urban farm in Vancouver, Wash., has grown produce that’s culturally specific to Latino communities.
But as Oregon Public Broadcasting's Erik Neumann reports, lately they’ve had to change their programs because of increased immigration enforcement.
ERIK NEUMANN: Dark green poblano chiles, big bunches of cilantro and red Roma tomatoes fill black plastic crates inside the common room of a housing complex in Woodland, Washington.
People buzz around, choosing produce or trying the pink, yellow, and brown Mexican pastries, or pan dulce, that are laid out on a table near the door.
Michelle Vasquez is the executive director of Latinos Unidos y Floreciendo.
MICHELLE VASQUEZ: “We have it set up as a farmer's market style where folks could come in and choose the foods that they want to take instead of a food box.”
EN: The nonprofit started doing food distributions like this in 2024 in places where it’s hard to access healthy produce in Woodland and Kelso.
In the last six months, things have changed. Many of their clients are undocumented and are too afraid to go out in public.
So now, it’s often teenagers who come to get produce for their families.
One little girl who comes for food is just five years old.
MV: “That one is really heartbreaking for our staff. And our staff will walk her back to her apartment because her mom watches from her apartment window and she's too afraid to leave, so our staff will walk her back up because the grocery bags are too heavy for her.”
EN: One visitor, Maria Calderon, holds several bags of vegetables. She plans to use them for molcajete salsa and sopes—cakes made of masa, sort of like tacos.
(Calderon speaking in Spanish up and under at about 5:14)
Calderon says it’s not easy to find good food with everything that’s going on.
(Calderon speaking in Spanish)
She says she wants to tell people to stay strong and that they shouldn’t be afraid to go out.
“We have to go out for our children,” she says. “They have to eat. We have to go to work.”
Stricter immigration enforcement was a pillar of President Donald Trump’s platform as a candidate, and it’s still one of his administration’s priorities.
The White House has said mass deportations are “freeing up resources” and “restoring safety” to the American public.
But many of those include people with no criminal history.
In Washington state, 47% of the arrests from the beginning of Trump’s second term through Oct. 15. 2025, were people with no criminal history, according to a February analysis by the Seattle Times.
Rachel Feston is the manager of the 10-acre farm the nonprofit runs in Vancouver. Today, she’s giving out produce.
RACHEL FESTON: “They like to talk about what they're going to make with the tomatoes and the poblanos, so we talk about that. And then the little kids are always trying to get extra apples, so that's always fun.”
EN: Normally, Feston works with volunteers on the farm, but in recent months some of them stopped coming.
Feston says, she tries to keep her interactions at the food distribution events upbeat because of the stress the community is under.
RF: “One of the big things is joking around with them. They're always checking to see how my Spanish is doing and testing me, so I try and just be more lighthearted when I'm talking with them.”
EN: The nonprofit has had to adapt in other ways too.
Their federal funding from the USDA was frozen last year, and then later restored. It’s set to expire in May.
Vasquez thinks they were targeted because DEI is a big part of their mission.
Since then they’ve scrubbed diversity language from their websites and social media.
Partway through the food distribution, Vasquez gets interrupted by a woman getting produce.
STAFF: “Yeah, I told her to grab another.”
MV: “I would take them two weeks worth of food.”
(fade under)
EN: She says they just got a text message about a mother who got detained the previous night. Her two 11-year-old kids were left behind.
Vasquez says those kids will now be supported by the moms in their church.
I ask her, where they will live?
MV: “They live in the community and those women know and they're going to walk that food over to that house and make sure those babies are taken care of.”
EN: “Do you think, I mean, I guess in your experience, does that mean those kids end up going to wherever their parents are?”
MV: “No, they'll stay in the community. This is what we're talking about. This is gonna make me choke up because this is what we're doing.”
EN: Vasquez lives in Camas, a nice city east of Vancouver.
She says if she wasn’t at places like this market or the farm, she could live in a bubble, separate from the effects of the current immigration policies.
MV: “How would I know? And it's not about what's on the news. These are real people in our own neighborhoods.”
EN: A few minutes later, the tone shifts. Vasquez starts joking with a man who came in for produce.
He’s drinking a cup of champurrado, a thick hot chocolate drink made with masa.
She gives him a hard time because he has diabetes.
“What happened to your diabetes?” she asks. “Tomorrow,” he says, “tomorrow he’ll deal with his diabetes.”
That levity is another reason for the market: to create a space where people can share food and be comfortable.
I'm Erik Neumann reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Monica Carrillo-Casas, Mitch Borden, Doug Nadvornick, James Dawson and Erik Neumann.
I’m Owen Henderson, your host and producer.
Thanks for listening, and have a good weekend. We’ll be back in your feeds on Monday.
It’s SPR.
