This Seattle baker is using his passion for pastries to help immigrants

Since immigrating to Seattle from Mexico 14 years ago, Carlos Leon says he's built a community from scratch — built on a shared love of baking.

Now, he's using that community to help raise money for immigrants in the Northwest.

Leon launched the "Seattle Rising Together" fundraiser the day after 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis.

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The founder of the Seattle Baking Club has partnered with over 150 different restaurants, bakeries, and artists to raffle off food, gift cards, and cookbooks for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.

"I want to show the diversity of businesses and people here in Seattle who are joining the cause," Leon said. "It doesn't matter where you're from, you can still help the cause, even if you're not personally affected yet."

As protests and memorials have popped up in Seattle for Pretti and against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies, Leon has been unable to join because of the risk to his family.

"I'm honestly kind of scared to go to the protest, and I feel bad that I don't do that," Leon said.

Launching "Seattle Rising Together" gives Leon a chance to organize from home.

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Bakeries like the James Beard award nominated Temple Pastries and Saint Bread have signed on to contribute to the raffle, as well as acclaimed restaurants like Pancita and Atoma.

"I was hoping that could incentivize people a little bit more," Leon said.

While putting together the fundraiser has been a way for Leon to bring people together for a cause, he's had to navigate the potential risk for participating businesses, and had to consider whether he was placing a "target" on them, or even himself.

"I had some restaurants tell me that they want to contribute, but they don't want their name on the poster because they have Latino employees," Leon said. "They don't want to put them at risk."

Leon says only three businesses declined to join the fundraiser, and with the interest partners have created by sharing the fundraiser online, they've managed to raise $25,000 as of Thursday morning.

"I feel like there's strength in numbers," Leon said. "It's hard to target just one or two [businesses] if you have 150 there. My hope is that it's just not going to attract any bad energy."