Statement on ICE Activity in Issaquah
A mother was taken by ICE while dropping off her children at a preschool in Issaquah. Two children went to sleep without knowing where their mom is, and don’t know when they will see her again. This is absolutely outrageous and heartbreaking. Every child and family in our community deserves to feel safe. None of our children should live in fear, especially of going to school.
I’m calling on our state legislators to take action. At a local level, our police department follows the Keep Washington Working Act, which prohibits local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with ICE. Our police are here to protect all of our community members, regardless of immigration status. I’m grateful that state law provides us with this baseline, but that should be the bare minimum.
We need our state legislature to step up with additional protections for our community, including:
Protecting schools from ICE by prohibiting ICE from accessing schools and childcare facilities without proper legal authorization. AB 49 in California offers a good model.
Banning law enforcement (including ICE) from hiding their identities using masks, and requiring them to show clear identification through uniforms, name tags, or badge numbers. See California’s “No Secret Police Act” as an example.
Passing strong data sharing guardrails for automated license plate readers (ALPRs), such as Flock cameras. ALPR data has already been inadvertently shared from local law enforcement to ICE.
In the last few days, there’s been a massive outpouring of support from our community. Issaquah is a place where we love and support our neighbors, regardless of country of origin or immigration status.
Several and my colleagues and I are working with community groups on ways that we can support our immigrant communities. We are planning to share more information on how community members can help as that becomes available. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.