Seattle tries to bar information disclosure to ICE

Feb. 19, 2026 Updated Fri., Feb. 20, 2026 at 6:18 p.m.

By David Kroman Seattle Times

The Seattle City Council on Tuesday stripped the city code of language encouraging cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, a small piece of a broader effort by Seattle to lock down the disclosure of private information that could help immigration operations.

Seattle lawmakers also explicitly barred city employees across all agencies from disclosing nonpublic information to help immigration enforcement without being served a warrant or subpoena. The new language brings Seattle in line with state law, which bars law enforcement cooperation, and expands it to include all city departments.

It is unclear what kind of information would be protected under the new law. Much of the city’s internal communications and written records are publicly available via the state’s Public Records Act with limited exceptions. City employees are already barred from disclosing highly sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.

Nonetheless, Council member Maritza Rivera, who sponsored the bill, said she felt the legislative effort was worthwhile.

“I believe, colleagues, as I think we all believe, ICE officials are acting unconstitutionally, and what they are doing in our city and in other cities is simply unacceptable,” she said. “Whatever actions we can take, we should be taking.”

Before Tuesday’s bill, Seattle law dictated that city employees “cooperate with, and not hinder” federal immigration enforcement. The language, from 1986, has been chipped away at over the years. In 2003, the city passed legislation barring Seattle police officers from asking about immigration status.

And in 2018, during the first Trump administration, then-Mayor Jenny Durkan directed city agencies to route all requests for information from immigration enforcement through her office.

In 2019 and 2020, Washington lawmakers passed prohibitions on information sharing by local law enforcement and court officials.

Now that federal immigration enforcement has become more visible, Seattle officials have scrambled to put up barriers to information collection by Department of Homeland Security officers.

Mayor Katie Wilson directed local police to document and report on any immigration operation in the city and Council member Alexis Mercedes Rinck wants a moratorium on any new detention center in the city.

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