King County Council ordinance targets immigration enforcement

Published 12:00 pm Monday, February 23, 2026

Protests disrupted a King County Council meeting Feb. 17 where the council proposed a new ordinance designed to limit immigration enforcement.

District 8 King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda is sponsoring an ordinance formalizing the county code that limits the use of King County-owned and controlled property by outside agencies, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“Universally, we are saying that county-owned and county-controlled spaces are not allowed to be used for staging or enforcing federal law regulation and this law formalizes the reality that we are applying this to civil immigration enforcement operations,” Mosqueda said.

Federal agents are already not allowed to stage equipment or conduct enforcement in these non-public county-owned areas — such as parking lots, vacant lots, buildings or garages — without a judicial warrant. There are exceptions in “narrow circumstances” deemed by state or federal law, regulation, or court orders. This ordinance would formalize that restriction and its application to immigration enforcement.

The primary way the county will prevent unlawful operations is with proactive enforcement, by physically preventing entry with signage and fencing with locks at non-public county-owned locations throughout King County.

“We’ve already seen federal agents every day violate existing state and federal law, local laws as well. Even though that continues to happen, there is this constant call for accountability and for the laws to actually be adhered to,” Mosqueda said. “We think that the strongest approach is to make sure that the county law is clear that these county properties may not be used for any staging and enforcement. We want to also proactively put in those physical barriers preventing entry and provide signage to private property owners as well who’d like to put up something similar so we have, ideally, private and public properties that harmoniously are saying none of these properties may be used.”

Earlier this year, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay announced an executive order that prohibits immigration officers from conducting enforcement in non-public areas of county-owned properties, as well as other actions to “strengthen protections for local immigrants against federal immigration enforcement activities.”

Mosqueda said they began working on the ordinance before the executive announcement.

“The intent here was to roll out both a list of executive order ideas that complemented the legislation we already had in the hopper. So in essence, the executive order drew from the legislation that we had specific to this part,” Mosqueda said. “The executive order’s intent I think was to reinforce that they planned to move forward with implementing our legislation expeditiously.”

Executive’s office spokesperson Callie Craighhead said the order includes directing King County Sheriff’s Office to develop guidance on their planned response to potential unlawful action by federal officials within 30 days.

“This includes guidance for answering 911 calls with reports of federal immigration officials, how to identify an agent not displaying credentials, and when to use their bodycams. We want to make this guidance consistent across all of KCSO, so that every deputy knows what their role and responsibilities are,” Craighead said. “Our office recognizes that we are living in an unprecedented time where the federal government is actively disregarding local and state laws and the courts. Nevertheless, we have an obligation to do everything within our power to protect our immigrant and refugee communities.”

Many public commenters were not satisfied with the new ordinance at the Feb. 17 King County Council meeting.

“We need you to take more direct action to support the community that’s actively fighting against ICE. We need you to go and work with state and federal officials to abolish ICE,” local community organizer and advocate Sandy Hunt said. “We need much more support from our elected officials for the folks in our communities that are being terrorized by our very own government officials, and if you can’t stand up to that, please step aside and let somebody else take your position.”

Rosario Lopez, an organizer with Super Familia, said she came to the United States when she was 13 years old and identified herself as “undocumented.” Super Familia is a mutual aid group led by undocumented and unaccompanied youth.

“I appreciate you having an executive order, but that is not enough, and from reading what it means, I can tell that you’re not having conversations with the communities most affected,” Lopez said. “We need to make sure that everyone has access to an immigration attorney because it’s not okay for us to have to fundraise.”

Lopez continued to speak after the allotted two minutes had passed. After a recess, protesters joined her at the podium and did not leave when asked. Council Chair Sarah Perry then moved the meeting to online only.

“What we’ve seen at the federal level is an escalation of tactics and we need an escalation of responses,” Mosqueda said before the meeting moved to online only. “I think that in partnership with executive Zahilay, whose team is in part here today, the message is very clear and I think shared. This is a component of many components that we need for a multi-pronged strategy to fight back authoritarianism and the fascist tactics that we see.”

The introduction of new legislation to prevent ICE enforcement will not stop with the new ordinance. Mosqueda said they are actively working on other legislation to put a moratorium on new detention facilities on county property. “We will continue to call for accountability at the Northwest Detention Facility and, in the meantime, we want to prohibit the federal government from using any of our county property to try to stand up similar detention facilities in King County,” Mosqueda said.