(The Center Square) – The Seattle City Council unanimously approved a plan Tuesday requiring the police department to document evidence of potentially unlawful acts by Immigrations and Custom Enforcement agents during immigration actions.
The plan was first announced in an executive order by Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson on Jan. 29. Tuesday’s city council vote codifies it into city law.
Kent Loux, the new president of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild, did respond to an email seeking comment.
But former president Mike Solan had attacked the mayor’s executive order on X, a day after Wilson’s order.
“The concept of pitting two armed law enforcement agencies against each other is ludicrous, and will not happen,” Solan said. “I will not allow SPOG members to be used as political pawns.”
City Council Public Safety Committee Chairman Robert Kettle said Tuesday that the measure was necessary given the unprofessional behavior of federal immigration agents during enforcement actions. He cited the death of two protesters in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE in January.
“Federal law enforcement actions with ICE and Customs and Border Patrol, have not been to the standards that we expect from law enforcement, ” he told the Center Square after Tuesday’s vote.
Under the resolution, Seattle police officers are required to to investigate, verify, and document any reports of immigration enforcement activity.
Officers who are dispatched to the scene are then directed to monitor the immigration enforcement action with in-car and body-worn video, validate the status of federal law enforcement agents by asking for official identification, and secure scenes of potentially unlawful acts to gather evidence for transmittal to prosecutors.
Kettle, a retired naval officer who has served overseas in conflict zones in the Middle East, said he accepts the premise that federal immigration agents have the authority to operate in the U.S.
“But what we were seeing from federal agents in Minneapolis was substandard,” he said. “The resolution is about leadership and the expectations we have from federal immigration agents.”
ICE officials and the U.S. Border Patrol did not respond to requests for comment.
Tuesday’s resolution also condemns ICE for the actions in Minneapolis involving the deaths of two civilians.
Another part of the resolution requires the city of Seattle to install more than 600 signs prohibiting ICE enforcement action on city property including parks, city garages and The Seattle Center.
The signs have already started to be installed at the cost of $45,000 as part of Mayor Wilson’s executive order.
