Seattle council passes yearlong ban on new immigration detention centers

David Kroman, The Seattle Times on Mar 11, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council unanimously passed a moratorium Tuesday on new detention centers in Seattle, an effort to preempt the construction of any new facilities — no matter how hypothetical — intended to hold people picked up by immigration enforcement.

"We know that detention centers are sites of serious harm, and any expansion of them will only enable this federal regime to ramp up their inhumane and in many cases, illegal enforcement actions," said Council member Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who sponsored the bill.

The yearlong moratorium leans on land use concerns having to do with the effect of a new facility on surrounding areas, rather any explicit mention of immigration enforcement, a legal maneuver aimed at giving the proposal stronger legal footing.

But the intent is clear. The bill specifically targets the expansion of privately owned and operated detention centers, of the kind often used for immigration-related detentions, including the facility in Tacoma run by The GEO Group.

It also comes after a “presolicitation” posting by the federal government late last year seeking feedback on a facility of more than 1,600 beds in the Seattle area. The posting is careful to say the federal government is not yet requesting proposals to build a new facility, nor had it committed to ever doing so.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not said the posting is for a brand-new facility or describing future operations at the existing facility in the Seattle area.

But the mere mention of Seattle was enough to stir immigration rights groups fearful President Donald Trump’s $45 billion push to expand immigration detention centers could come here.

Similar efforts have unfolded in neighboring jurisdictions SeaTac, Tukwila and in the Metropolitan King County Council. Kansas City, Mo., Baltimore and elsewhere have also passed similar moratoriums.

Rinck’s original bill established a blanket moratorium on both privately run detention centers and publicly operated jails, but was winnowed down last week.

The Seattle area has not seen the same surge of federal officers as Minnesota, though immigration enforcement has increased since Trump's inauguration.

Seattle and Washington were already both "sanctuary" jurisdictions, barring local law enforcement from collaborating with immigration enforcement. The city, though, has taken action to expand prohibitions, including a ban on all city employees from sharing information with immigration enforcement and an order from Mayor Katie Wilson for Seattle police to document and report on immigration operations.

The King County Council passed a similar moratorium last week. Unlike Seattle, that vote was not unanimous.

Councilmember Reagan Dunn, a Republican and one of two votes against the county's ban, rejected the premise there was a specific emergency in need of addressing and called a moratorium a "blunt tool."

_____