King County Executive Girmay Zahilay on Thursday moved to ban immigration enforcement agents from all nonpublic county-owned property, part of a suite of executive actions meant to support immigrants and refugees amid unprecedented federal action.
Zahilay’s executive order, the first he’s signed since taking office in November, features a grab bag of actions meant to signal the county’s support for immigrant communities, many of which have been living in fear of the federal government.
It directs $2 million to immigrant communities for emergency food, housing and legal aid. It directs the county sheriff’s office to, in the next month, develop guidance for interacting with immigration agents, including how officers will verify unmarked law enforcement and how they will respond to conflicts between the public and federal agents. It develops a new 13-person “subcabinet” to discuss proposals to support immigrants and refugees.
The county, under the previous administration, had tried to ban the federal government from using county-owned Boeing Field for deportation flights. That was struck down by courts. So Zahilay, on Thursday, ordered an upgrade to security cameras and public observation spaces, in hopes of better monitoring the thousands of deportations taking place at the airport.


