(The Center Square) – The president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild said Wednesday that the city’s plan blocking officers from cooperating with federal immigration agents could put the public in jeopardy.
Kent Loux, in an interview with The Center Square, said that the city’s plan makes police officers reluctant to separate protesters and keep them a reasonable distance away from ICE agents engaged in enforcement actions.
The plan dates back to former Mayor Bruce Harrell last year but was expanded by new Mayor Katie Wilson in January.
A Wilson spokesman Sage Wilson did not respond to requests for comment.
Loux said Seattle’s plan is similar to the city officials’ stance in Minneapolis when two civilians were killed in January protesting ICE enforcement actions.
“So what happened when you sideline those officers is that you’ve allowed the demonstrators, those protestors, to directly make contact with ICE agents,” Loux said.
“And they reacted,” he said of the ICE agents shooting to death the two civilians.
Loux said the two civilians would not have died in Minneapolis if police had the ability to separate the public and ICE agents.
“That’s why two people are dead,” he said. “Because it was between the protestors and ICE.”
Loux said ICE agents aren’t trained in crowd control, a responsibility that would normally fall to the Seattle Police.
But he said Seattle political leaders have created confusion.
“So they create this feud with the federal government and SPAG(Seattle Police Officers’ Guild) gets put in the middle of it,” he said.
Seattle Police Department spokesman Sgt. Patrick Michaud referred a reporter to a March 5 police blog post that states that during major protests, the department focuses on facilitating free speech and safety.
“SPD does not directly engage with individuals unless there is a threat of harm to individuals and/or significant property damage,” the blog post reads.
The spokesman did not directly address the question of police separating protestors and ICE agents.
The plan of non-cooperation goes back to June 11 of last year, when former Mayor Bruce Harrell publicly declared Seattle would not cooperate with federal immigration raids following reports that ICE might deploy tactical units to the city.
While immigrant arrests have increased in Seattle in the last year, there have not been large surges of ICE actions in Seattle, as has occurred in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Mayor Wilson expanded Mayor Harrell’s order. Her executive order on January 29 barred ICE agents from enforcement or staging actions on city property, required police officers to videotape ICE actions and requested police ask agents for identification.
“Successfully protecting our community from federal agents will require bold leadership by elected officials, close coordination between different government bodies, and extensive community organizing,” the mayor said in a January 29 statement.
Loux said officers support the public’s right to demonstrate.
He said the question is why the Seattle Police Department can’t stand between protestors and ICE agents like it has done many times before with other groups.
