Clarifying Federal Way’s stance on immigration enforcement

Published 3:52 pm Thursday, March 19, 2026

Cities around South King County are responding to the federal administration’s push for aggressive immigration enforcement in a variety of ways.

In the past two months, many cities and local jurisdictions have passed local resolutions banning the change of use or construction of facilities for the purposes of immigration detention, transportation or other services. These cities include:

• SeaTac (Feb. 10)

• Tukwila (Feb. 23)

• Kent (March 3)

• King County Council – on unincorporated King County land (March 3)

• Renton (March 9)

• Seattle (March 10)

City leaders around the South Puget Sound have also shared statements, and passed welcoming resolutions and other measures to affirm support for immigrant communities.

Burien passed a resolution on Feb. 9 re-affirming its support of immigrant communities and opposing aggressive immigration enforcement tactics that have been impacting their community.

In Federal Way, neither the mayor nor city council members have brought forward any resolutions or ordinances related to immigrant communities or immigration enforcement.

The council did discuss the issue of immigration enforcement at its annual retreat on Jan. 24, clarifying the role of the Federal Way Police Department (FWPD) in that context.

Keep Washington Working Act

The Keep Washington Working Act was enacted in 2019 and limits the role of state and local agencies in enforcing civil immigration laws.

“One of the things we can’t do in our daily practice is we can’t inquire about people’s immigration status,” Federal Way Police Chief Andy Hwang said.

Local authorities are also prohibited from honoring immigration “detainers” or holding people solely for federal immigration enforcement, although this is less relevant in Federal Way than in other cities because the city does not have its own jail, Hwang said.

Flock cameras

Flock surveillance cameras have also been the subject of a variety of local legislation and contract cancellations in the region, especially after a University of Washington report came out in October 2025 that found immigration enforcement had been accessing Flock data in Washington in a variety of ways.

Senate Bill 6002 introduced statewide guidelines around Flock camera data and is now awaiting Gov. Bob Ferguson’s signature. The bill will make it unlawful for any automated license plate reader system including Flock to be used for immigration investigation or enforcement, or for any protected health care services.

At the Jan. 24 council retreat in Federal Way, Chief Hwang explained that “FWPD does not authorize or permit access of Flock camera data to immigration and custom enforcement.”

Only two individuals in the police department can allow access to the data, Hwang said. These two people are Deputy Chief Casey Jones and Record Supervisor Amanda Hewer.

“They’re the only two people that can authorize an outside entity from coming into accessing our data. So anytime somebody wants to access our data, they have to ask for permission,” Hwang said, explaining that this is true even for local law enforcement organizations like the Seattle or Tacoma police departments.

“We also turned off our out of state national lookout feature. So nobody from outside the state can even come into our system or even request,” Hwang said.

The police department also does a monthly audit: “I get a report just to show which agencies are on our Flock system and the fact that no unauthorized entry inadvertently might have been made,” Hwang said.

Federal Way has relatively few Flock cameras with four in active use compared to other jurisdictions, but has been looking to add more.

The city does have 260 Safe City cameras, eight mobile surveillance trailers, four vehicles equipped with automatic license plate reader technology and a Drone as First Responder Program.

Hwang shared several success stories related to these surveillance technologies, including the rescue of a kidnapped infant due to intercity collaboration through Flock data sharing.

“We really ratcheted it up the last 12 years or so in terms of using technology to make our community safer,” Hwang said.

Past actions

The council members also briefly discussed the Welcoming City proclamation made by Mayor Jim Ferrell in 2017 and the idea of doing something similar again, although they have not revisited this action since then.

The 2017 proclamation recognized that “cities that proactively welcome immigrants and create opportunities for our new neighbors to pursue their version of the ‘American Dream’ will be strategically positioned as globally competitive in the 21st century” and stated that “the City of Federal Way is committed to building a welcoming community, where all people including recent immigrants, are welcome, accepted, and integrated.”

The proclamation also stated that “policies that discourage opportunities for new ideas and contributions to our community hinder Federal Way’s prosperity and compromises our steadfast commitment to the timeless American values of ‘Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.’”

Councilmembers Les Sessoms, Lydia Assefa-Dawson and Martin Moore have shared statements during council meetings in support of immigrant communities in Federal Way in the past several months.