Rumors about ICE actions spark fear. Leaders urging caution are right | Opinion
Nine years ago, the City of Tacoma took a second look at its relationship with federal immigration enforcement. With Donald Trump newly in office, the presence of what was originally called the Northwest Detention Center on Tacoma’s Tideflats seemed more objectionable to more people.
A years-long legal battle ensued, with state legislation ultimately enabling Tacoma to prohibit the immigration detention center from expanding. As of now, the federal government or a contractor would have a very hard time adding any extra ICE detention capacity anywhere in Tacoma.
So recent rumors that ICE was seeking to take over a now-vacant Fred Meyer site on South 72nd Street were fairly perplexing. That’s false, and would have been extremely unlikely, as Tacoma City Council member Sandesh Sadalge pointed out at a Feb. 2 meeting of the South End Neighborhood Council.
With a detectable trace of frustration in his voice, he went on to explain what the city’s government can and can’t do to protect residents from ICE activity.
“We’re a council that has been unanimously in agreement that this federal administration is reckless, and this federal administration has shown that their tactics are not in keeping with the constitution,” he said. “We’re doing everything in our power in the city of Tacoma to ensure that we do not comply with federal edicts unless we’re given valid court orders.”
He went on, explaining that states have the most authority to affect federal agencies, and pointed residents to a list of state bills under consideration now that could help Washington’s government do that. He urged residents to push their representatives to support the bills.
“Time and again, the federal courts have said local jurisdictions have little to no actual power or authority around federal facilities and policies,” Sadalge said, “but states do.”
Why the speech? City officials face protests and calls to do more to protect the community from federal immigration authorities. Protests outside city council meetings and schools have demanded more action from the government.
It’s not hard to understand why. Many in the community fear the threat of anything approaching an immigration enforcement surge like those seen in Minnesota and Illinois. Advice for individual bystanders is less than empowering. Report and document immigration enforcement activity you see. Don’t interfere. Comply with law enforcement orders. Deal with rights violations after the fact.
I also get why local elected officials might feel flustered by protestors’ demands. Sadalge is right that local governments don’t have many levers left to pull to protect residents. Some local governments in California have passed ordinances to ban ICE activities on government property, but there’s a valid question of whether courts would be able to enforce them.
The problem is that Tacoma and Pierce County residents only have so many people they can ask for help, and there’s a very helpless feeling in the air right now. With a visible, aggressive surge in arrests and deportations in this country, people want to do something, and they want to know who can protect the public.
And I do mean the whole public. We’ve seen immigration actions become arbitrary, violent and increasingly targeted at people who either already have permission to be here, or are in the process of seeking that permission through the proper channels. That’s not to speak of the killing and smearing of U.S. citizens exercising constitutional rights.
Part of the problem is how little we know. There isn’t a lot of concrete information available about how active ICE is in a given community, only word-of-mouth networks. The agency’s own regional statistics aren’t current.
You can report suspected ICE activity to the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, and it can go out to verify the presence of federal agencies and offer what assistance it can to anyone who needs it. But it’s not a crowd-sourced ICE tracking service that anyone can tap into.
Sadalge stressed avoiding the urge to spread unverified reports. Scaring people away from schools or health care centers can cause unnecessary problems.
“That’s not helpful to the families that are affected by that,” Sadalge said.
