(The Center Square) – A patchwork of “immigration enforcement free zones” will soon land in Spokane under ordinances passed Monday by local officials that also ban detention facilities on private property.
The two 6-1 votes should come as no surprise to residents. The Spokane City Council passed laws last August that prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement from entering permitted events without a judicial warrant. Now, the progressive majority is expanding the policy to encompass more of the city.
Councilmember Michael Cathcart, the only conservative left on the dais, was the sole dissenting voice.
Nearly every lot, building, facility, structure, equipment and space that the city owns, leases, operates or controls could now fall under Councilmember Paul Dillon’s “immigration enforcement free zones.” Seattle is implementing a similar policy to prevent ICE from using city property for immigration enforcement.
“If we start gating off all of our properties and things like that, yes, we can control access,” Cathcart explained. “But if it’s open broadly to the public, there really is not much that our police force can do.”
Under the first measure approved Monday, city employees are prohibited from allowing federal agents to use city property for staging operations, detaining people or conducting surveillance. It directs city departments to identify areas that apply while requiring signage, making the law clear for ICE agents.
According to reporting by The Center Square, Seattle is installing more than 650 of these signs. Dillon sent a message on Tuesday noting that Spokane’s policy is discretionary for areas that “might be more susceptible” to enforcement, but did say Mayor Lisa Brown’s administration has a map of placements.
The Center Square has requested the map, as City Spokesperson Erin Hut said she wasn’t aware of it.
State law already prohibits law enforcement from using resources to assist immigration enforcement.
Cathcart argued that the expanded policy doesn’t achieve anything beyond what the Keep Washington Working Act already spells out in state law. Last month, Spokane Police Chief Kevin Hall told the dais that under state law, his officers must respond if they see unconstitutional or excessive uses of force.
However, he warned that pitting two armed agencies against each other could create a “perilous path.”
“This just doubles down and affirms for us as a city where we stand on this, not to be divisive, but just to affirm for our community members,” Council President Betsy Wilkerson said Monday. “The last thing this council is trying to do, or wants to do, is make one group of people more important than another.”
The other ordinance approved on Monday creates an interim zoning change prohibiting landlords from renting private property to ICE and other entities to use as detention facilities. The mayor proposed it last month after learning that the federal government was seeking office space in Spokane capable of accommodating up to 70 personnel. ICE already has a field office in Spokane, but no detention facilities.
Dillon has said that if the city found out ICE was detaining people at its existing field office for longer than a certain period, that could violate the ordinance, but it’s been hard to get information from ICE.
Last year, the council also passed a resolution reaffirming what some call the state’s “sanctuary” law, with Dillon ripping up a Department of Justice memo threatening federal funding for sanctuary states.
Cathcart previously worried that actions such as that or the ordinances passed on Monday would cast a spotlight on Spokane, inviting federal intervention. However, Cathcart said Monday that he no longer fears this after the government issued only a simple statement opposing the law passed last summer.
“We need a lot of immigration reform, but again, we don’t have any ability to implement, create, to generate, to draft any of that language,” Cathcart said. “Certainly not to pass it into law.”
