SEATTLE (KOMO) — Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell signed two executive orders on Wednesday in response to President Trump’s federal immigration policies and the deployment of troops in U.S. cities.
The first executive order prepares the city for a deployment by preparing and evaluating all legal options in the case there is a deployment. It also lays out how the city will coordinate in the event of the national guard being sent here, and ensures that Seattle police know what they should and should not do.
Harrell said Seattle police will not “enable the behavior” of the federal government. He added that this first executive order will reaffirm the city’s “unwavering support for First Amendment activities,” like peaceful protests and organizing.
The second executive order is meant to protect immigrant and refugee communities.
The order bans the use of face masks by law enforcement, with few exceptions, and requires that all law enforcement have visible badges that identify their agency. Harrell said the enforcement mechanisms of this executive order will be hashed out over the next few weeks.
The second order is to prevent masked ICE agents from carrying out what Harrell called a “cruel deportation agenda” within Seattle; Harrell called immigrants “the fabric of Seattle.”
As of now, Harrell has not gotten any notice that the National Guard will be deployed to Seattle.
The move comes as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Portland Tuesday. Noem was at the ICE facility in that city, one of the latest places Trump has deployed troops.
During that visit, Noem defended the president’s actions, saying, “We believe the president has the right to keep every single citizen safe in this country.”
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Gov. Bob Ferguson recently signed an executive order to protect immigrant communities statewide.
Washington state also has a law known as the Keep Washington Working Act (KWW).
The KWW has been in effect since 2019 and limits the extent to which local and state officers can work with federal immigration officers. In light of all the recent actions by the Trump Administration, state leaders are considering changes to that law. KWW has already been in the spotlight, catching the Trump Administration’s attention for creating a “sanctuary jurisdiction” within Washington state. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the KWW thwarts state law.
Trump has not said he is going to deploy the National Guard to any city in Washington state as of the publishing of this article.