Seattle Council Considers Limiting Immigration Role

- The Seattle City Council's Public Safety Committee advanced two measures on February 24, 2026; one is a resolution to reaffirm professional conduct standards for all law enforcement, including federal agents, and the other is an ordinance to ban federal immigration agents from using city-owned property like parks and community centers for staging civil enforcement operations. - On February 20, 2026, the City Council unanimously passed Council Bill 121158, which prohibits all city departments from sharing non-public personal information—such as home addresses or social media handles—with federal immigration authorities for civil enforcement purposes unless a judicial warrant is provided. - This legislation aligns city policy with the state's Keep Washington Working Act and repeals older city code that previously directed cooperation with federal immigration authorities. - Seattle's history with such policies is long-standing; it first passed a "Welcoming City" ordinance in 2003 which established a "don't ask" policy regarding immigration status for city employees, including police, except in specific felony-related cases. - The recent council actions are part of a broader city and county response to increased federal immigration enforcement activity; in November 2025, the city budget allocated $4 million for immigrant and refugee protection, and the King County Executive recently signed an order prohibiting federal access to non-public county spaces. - The ordinance concerning city property would lead to signage being placed at approximately 656 city-owned properties, starting with high-priority sites like parks and child care centers, to notify federal agents that civil immigration staging is prohibited. - An exemption in the information-sharing bill allows Seattle Police to share information if an officer believes an individual has been previously deported and is committing or has committed a felony. - These local measures build on a 2019 King County law preventing the honoring of ICE detainer requests without a judicial warrant, a policy based on the premise that doing so would violate constitutional rights and erode community trust in local law enforcement.