Here’s what Mayor Ed Murray’s declaration that Seattle will remain a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants means: It means that in Seattle, it will keep being against city law for police to ask someone’s immigration status unless there’s reasonable suspicion they committed a crime. It means police won’t be profiling and rounding up suspected immigrants, checking them for identification, and deporting them—not if Murray can do anything about it.
Sergeant Sean Whitcomb said the mayor is “showing leadership on all these fronts” and the police department stands fully behind him. Whitcomb’s boss, Chief Kathleen O’Toole, said the undocumented “need to know we will be there for them, for ordinary police services and also when they are exploited, threatened, or victimized.” Sergeant Whitcomb added: “We’re not some state apparatus that’s here to squelch people’s rights.”
Still, protests often disrupt business as usual. City council member Kshama Sawant is calling for a complete shutdown of business as usual on Inauguration Day. If push comes to shove, will police crack down on protesters who want to grind the city to a halt as a show of resistance to Trump?
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