After weeks of delay, City Council unanimously passed a one year moratorium on new detention centers this week, one of half a dozen anti-ICE bills that have been working through the legislative body this year.
Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck introduced the bill last month, as a protective measure after the feds posted a “presolicitation” for a detention facility in the Seattle area. The first draft of the bill pressed pause on permits for any new jails or detention centers in Seattle, but last week, Rinck had to introduce a new version, removing the word jail, “in order to get it over the finish line,” she told The Stranger.
On Tuesday from the dais, Councilmember Maritza Rivera told the chamber that she had been the barrier to that finish line. She instigated the new version as a result of her “due diligence,” but was non-specific about what the issues had been in the bill, but both she and Councilmember Bob Kettle spoke at length about how important Rivera’s legal diligence had been in getting this bill passed. Kettle said, repeatedly, that the council needed to do things “the right way.” (With… jail?)
According to a spokesperson for Rinck’s office, at least, their legal review showed that jails are in a legal gray area. Removing the word “jail” could actually “slightly increase the legal risk,” not diminish it, they told The Stranger, “but would not be the determining factor in a potential lawsuit.” Rivera’s office did not respond to The Stranger’s request for comment before publication.
In the public comment period before the vote, SeaTac City Councilmember James Lovell spoke in favor, reminded the body that SeaTac had passed similar legislation weeks earlier, and encouraged them to unanimously do the same. “[Democracy] lives or dies in the institutions we allow to operate,” he said.
The bill did pass unanimously, and there was a general vibe that everyone really wanted credit for doing their part to fight ICE.
Council President Joy Hollingsworth “set the stage” before Rinck introduced the bill, emphasizing that it was one part of the council’s greater effort to fight federal incursion. Kettle framed it as one bill in a “package of bills,” and Councilmember Debora Juarez said that it was a “national extension” of the city’s laws. “We’re really trying hard,” she said to the public commenters in the room. “I hope every now and then, you can say thank you.”
Thanks? They’re right that Rinck’s bill is part of a greater movement on the council to build up some protections against federal harm, though. Rivera already reworked the city’s municipal code to affirm that Seattle Police should not cooperate with ICE, and Councilmember Dionne Foster passed a resolution protecting city-collected information from getting into the hands of the feds, and emphasizing that city officials should not collect immigration information if it’s not necessary to provide services to citizens.
And several are still moving through committee. Kettle introduced a bill that would effectively codify the mayor’s executive order barring immigration agents from staging their work on city-owned land. Rinck introduced a bill that mirrors the (very imperfect) protections on our CCTV program on our automatic license plate readers, forcing a 60-shutdown if the federal government subpoenas that information.
They’re all democratic tools against an authoritarian government, but they will make Seattle slightly less pleasant to bully.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated since its original publication to include a new statement from Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck’s office.
