Stories: Mattawa

In Mattawa, Washington as many as 80 percent of the adults are not citizens, many have been in the United States illegally for 10 or 20 years. As a result the civic leadership does not reflect the town: 99 percent of Mattawa’s residents are Hispanic, but the mayor, the police chief, the school board, and half the City Council are white. The battle over immigration in Congress has lasted for so long that Immigrants who are not citizens are now the majority, or close to it, in Mattawa.