OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington state has officially fully launched and expanded its Migrant and Asylum-Seeker Support Project, better known as MASS, statewide. The project soft-launched in only certain counties on Oct. 1, but took full effect Nov. 1.
MASS comes as a result of the Washington state legislature passing House Bill 2368 during its 2024 session, created to help expand the legal authority of the Department of Social and Health Services’ Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance in supporting the basic needs of asylum-seekers.
The Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance, also known as ORIA, received $25 million in funding to provide support services for people recently arrived in the United States and Washington that are ineligible for federal refugee services…