Drafter
Clerk 01/08/2025
Title
AN ORDINANCE related to the repeal of RCW 10.70.140; and amending Ordinance 17706, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.15.020.
Body
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. Before May 2019, RCW 10.70.140 required local jail officials to collect and report nationality information to federal immigration authorities. Ordinance 18665, enacted in March 2018, made it the policy of King County to obtain the minimum information then required under RCW 10.70.140 and to provide it to immigration officials only after the person had been convicted and sentenced.
B. The Washington state Legislature repealed RCW 10.70.140, effective May 21, 2019, by Section 10, Chapter 440, Laws of Washington 2019.
C. To align the county's code with current state law and to provide clarity that there is no county obligation to collect and report to federal immigration officials on the nationality of persons committed to county detention facilities, it is in the public interest to eliminate K.C.C. 2.15.020.C. from the county's code.
SECTION 2. Ordinance 17706, Section 2, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.15.020 are hereby amended to read as follows:
A. An agent of King County or county employee shall not expend any time, moneys, or other resources on facilitating the civil enforcement of federal immigration law or participating in civil immigration enforcement operations, except where state or federal law, regulation, or court order or rule shall so require. However, a county agency, employee, or agent ((not)) is not prohibited from sending to, or receiving from, federal immigration authorities, the citizenship or immigration status of a person. Also, nothing in this section prohibits any county agency from sending to, receiving from, requesting from, or exchanging with any federal, state, or local government agency information regarding the immigration status of a person or from maintaining such information.
B. King County...
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