SEATTLE (AP) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can continue to use a Seattle airport for chartered deportation flights, a federal appeals court has ruled in a decision that rejected a 2019 local order that sought to curb immigration policies of then-President Donald to counter Trump.
The agency has long used airports across the country to charter flights deporting hundreds of thousands of noncitizens who could be legally removed from the US.
But in 2019, in line with efforts in the liberal states of Seattle and Washington to resist Trump’s priorities, King County Executive Dow Constantine issued an executive order expressing concern that the deportations could constitute human rights violations. It announced that future leases at the provincial airport, also known as Boeing Field, would prevent operators from operating deportation flights.
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The order prompted ICE to use an airport in Yakima — a much further drive from ICE’s detention center in northwest Tacoma — for the deportation flights.
The U.S. sued King County in 2020, arguing that Constantine’s order discriminated against the federal government by singling out it and its contractors for unfavorable treatment, and that it violated the terms of a contract from World War II that guarantees the federal government’s right to use. the airport.
U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan agreed, and Constantine issued a new executive order early last year to replace his old one. The new order, which was not challenged, does not seek to block deportation flights but instead prevents King County resources from assisting deportations beyond what federal law requires.
The new order also calls for transparency surrounding any deportation flights. The airport now offers a conference room where the public can watch deportation flights on video, and the county posts a log of deportation flights from the airport on its website.
Deportation flights resumed in May 2023, following Bryan’s decision and Constantine’s second executive order. In a ruling Friday, a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed Bryan’s ruling.
“The Executive Order essentially grants King County the ‘power to control ICE’s transportation and deportation operations,’ forcing ICE to stop using Boeing Field or operating government aircraft there.” Bress wrote for the panel.
King County said it would not appeal the case further.
“The Ninth Circuit’s decision allows for a raw assertion of federal power to overcome an expression of local values, even if there is no actual impact,” Amy Enbysk, a spokeswoman for the King County Executive’s Office, said in a statement. statement sent by email. “Although King County disagrees with the court’s decision, it will obviously follow the court’s dictates.”
