Seattle Passes 'Welcoming City' Resolution

SEATTLE, WA - The Seattle City Council on Monday unanimously passed a strongly-worded "welcoming city" resolution, a direct response to recent executive orders regarding immigrants and refugees handed down by President Donald Trump.

The resolution contains a number of specific actions the city will take to protect marginalized groups, including evaluating relationships with local cities that may support immigration enforcement.

Councilwoman Lorena Gonzalez announced that she would introduce such a resolution during a press conference last week after Trump signed an executive order threatening to remove funding from sanctuary cities and counties.

Monday's resolution reaffirm's the city's commitment to being a sanctuary city, which means police will not act as "de facto immigration officers," but it also may have ramifications for surrounding cities.

The resolution asks Seattle police to compile a report of agreements it has with surrounding cities for mutual aid; the report must identify which of those cities has rejected, accepted, or stayed neutral in regards to helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with enforcement - also known as a Section 287(g) agreement.

The resolution asks police to submit "proposed amendments to the City’s mutual aid agreements with jurisdictions that have not explicitly rejected offers to enter into a Section 287(g) agreement to be consistent with the SPD and The City of Seattle’s position related to focusing its limited law enforcement resources on criminal investigations rather than civil immigration law violations, including an analysis of the impact of the proposed amendments ..."

According to ICE, no cities or counties in Washington have Section 287(g) agreements with the agency.

The resolution also contains planks to do the following:

• Replace the word "citizen" with "resident" in the My.Seattle.Gov mission statement
• Resist "any immigration, spending or funding policy that violates the U.S. Constitution and the Laws of the United States"
• Seattle will not cooperate with any surveillance or registry of specific groups, i.e., a registry of Muslims
• Resist any attempt to criminalize the Black Lives Matter movement
• Police will defer to King County when it comes to ICE detainer requests

Read the full resolution here.

Image via Patch.com