Two weeks after UW report, WA’s driver data is still accessible for immigration enforcement
WA State News:
I’ve written two big stories about surveillance, personal data, and the state over the past two weeks.
One of them covers a recent University of Washington (UW) Center of Human Rights report that found that the Washington State Department of Licensing is almost certainly still sharing personal driver data with ICE.
Yesterday, I received an update from the UW Center of Human Rights saying they’ve been able to identify an additional six cases in which ICE or the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) queried data from the Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) prior to conducting immigration arrests. At least two of these six cases are confirmed to have been civil immigration arrests. The center expects to continue discovering more such cases in the future.
In addition, the center confirmed that the state has not taken any action to cut off CBP from accessing Washington state’s driver information from the DOL, even though the majority of relevant queries are performed by CBP. ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) also retains the ability to query the DOL’s data.
It has been two weeks since the UW Center of Human Rights’ report was released showing the DOL’s data is still being used for civil immigration enforcement in the state of Washington.
Angelina Godoy, founding director of the UW Center for Human Rights, was the guest on an episode of the podcast In the Meanwhile, released today. During the podcast, Godoy said, “We need to demand more of our state governments to hold them accountable to promises that they have already made. I think many state governments, and I believe Washington is one of them, are scrambling to figure out ways to keep folks safe, but this is a way they can do that. It’s a vulnerability they have known about, and it’s a decision on their part not to have taken action to date. So that’s why this is alarming.”
My other story covers an automated license plate reader (ALPR) bill currently working its way through the legislature. It just had its first hearing on Tuesday. It’s important to note that while regulating the use of these cameras is an improvement over the complete lack of regulation that is the current status quo, privacy advocates told me it would be much safer if ALPRs were banned altogether.
During an executive session of this bill on Thursday, a substitute bill was approved that raises the retention time of the ALPR data from 72 hours (which advocates already said was too long) to 21 days. Negotiations are ongoing, and some local privacy groups have set up an action to take.
Unsurprisingly, some people are unhappy with all the cuts proposed in Governor Bob Ferguson’s 2026 supplemental budget. Rep. Shaun Scott’s bill to impose a payroll expense tax similar to the JumpStart tax across the state received a hearing on Thursday, but we already know Ferguson is “not a big fan.”
In other tax news, the legislature is revisiting the idea of a tax on short-term rentals like Airbnb and Vrbo, to be used by local municipalities for affordable housing and rental assistance. In favor are the aforementioned cities and counties; opposed are Airbnb operators.
Rep. Julia Reed’s bill, HB 2098, would close a tax loophole for big tech companies and use the money to provide a fully funded higher education for Washington families earning 100% of median family income or below. It had a hearing on Wednesday, and both the University of Washington and Washington State University Pullman testified against the bill in spite of the cuts to higher education in Ferguson’s budget proposal.
Reed noted on social media that both of those universities receive donations from Amazon and Microsoft, who are current beneficiaries of the tax loophole.
Fewer people are buying Obamacare coverage for 2026 due to the failure of Congress to renew the enhanced federal subsidies that made such coverage more affordable. In Washington State, 277,255 people enrolled for Obamacare in 2026, compared to 291,493 in 2025–a difference of 14,238. I’ll take this opportunity to remind us all that studies show that expanding Medicaid eligibility decreases violence. Assumedly, kicking people off their insurance (or making it unaffordable) could have the opposite effect.
PubliCola reported on a few bills that would help codify the rights of unhoused people in the state. HB 2266 would prohibit shelter and temporary housing bans and make it easier to site these housing resources, while HB 2489 would prohibit cities from passing bans on sleeping and other survival activities unless they can show they have enough available “adequate” shelter, which means shelter that wouldn’t involuntarily separate a person from their partner or their pet, for example.
PubliCola also reported on HB 1125, which would allow people to apply for resentencing. (Washington State doesn’t have parole, making this bill especially salient.)
Seattle News:
During her first week in office, my Urbanist editor Doug Trumm and I were able to go to City Hall to interview new Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson.
Last week I also sat down and spoke to Nilu Jenks, who is running for the Seattle City Council District 5 seat this November.
Carolyn Bick recently published some top-notch investigative reporting in The Stranger. They uncovered a recent report from Madison’s Office of the Independent Monitor documenting a failed body-worn camera pilot program stewarded by Chief Shon Barnes at his old police department in Madison. Critically, the report found that “Barnes had ignored City Council’s “multiple directives” for essential, specific guardrails, which likely violated state law.”
The report specifically said the failure was Barnes’.
This information is especially important given Barnes is overseeing the rapid expansion of SPD’s surveillance program. Seattleites may wonder: if Barnes felt comfortable disregarding many of the Madison City Council’s directives about the body worn camera pilot in 2024, will he feel similarly empowered to run Seattle’s surveillance “pilot” as he sees fit today?
Given the current federal risks towards immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and people of color, the stakes around surveillance are very real and very high.
Last week, SPD’s policy office sent an unsigned directive to instruct officers on how to respond to calls about ICE. PubliCola sums up this policy succinctly: “If you see someone being grabbed off the street or attacked by ICE in Seattle, feel free to call the local police—just don’t expect them to do anything about it.”
PubliCola also reported on SPD hiring in 2025, finding that 90% of its officer hires were men.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE are looking into expanding their detention capacity in the local area. According to a 187-page draft contract dated December 2025, “The objective of this contract is to obtain comprehensive detention, transportation, and food services for ICE detainees located in the Seattle, WA area in support of the ICE ERO Seattle Field Office.”
Body camera footage from the protest at last year’s Memorial Day far-right Mayday USA event was released that shows SPD officers’ intent to respond violently to protesters. SPD Officer Matthew Didier can be heard saying, “We’re here to fuck people up now,” and “We’re going in this time with guns blazing and all our pieces in place.”
This was only a few months after the Seattle City Council passed a new ordinance giving SPD greater leeway to use less lethal weapons at protests. This legislation paved the way for Seattle’s exit from an extremely lengthy consent decree that was prolonged due to SPD’s violent behavior during the George Floyd protests of 2020.
The Seattle LGBTQ Council sent a letter last week saying that nearly all investigations relating to misconduct at the 2025 Memorial Day protest have been completed. Out of 28 allegations against 13 officers, only two have been sustained against a single officer, who received a written reprimand.
Finally, the board of the Seattle Social Housing Developer fired its CEO, Roberto Jimenez, last week. Tiffani McCoy of House Our Neighbors has stepped up to serve as its interim CEO.
Recent Headlines:
Related to ICE:
- Security News This Week: ICE Can Now Spy on Every Phone in Your Neighborhood
- We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing
- Why ICE Can Kill With Impunity
- Deaths in Detention Warn of Horrors Behind ICE’s Prison Walls
- ICE is using Medicaid data to find out where immigrants live
- Several Seattle schools shelter in place due to reported ICE activity
- Trump Has Made ICE the Largest Law Enforcement Agency in the Country
- ‘I’m Witnessing a Lot of Emptiness’: How ICE Uprooted Normal Life in Minneapolis
- ICE Details a New Minnesota-Based Detention Network That Spans 5 States
- Neighboring WA sheriffs clash on Facebook over Minneapolis ICE killing
- Worried about surveillance, states enact privacy laws and restrict license plate readers
- US appeals court lifts order curbing immigration agents’ tactics against Minnesota protesters
- ICE Recruiters Are Using Neo-Nazi Memes and Seeking Out Extremists at Gun Shows
- Public Rage Against ICE Sends Democrats Scrambling for a Response
- Minnesotans Launch General Strike Against ICE
Everything else:
- Seattle’s CARE Department makes three responses a day around Capitol Hill — That number is expected to rise in 2026
- SPD Stands by Decision to Promote Administrative Staffer to $315,000-a-Year Top Civilian Job
- OPINION | Seattle Says Police Accountability Is Complete. Victims’ Families Know It Isn’t.
- King County Prosecutors Won’t Charge Pedro Gomez
- State Bills Bring Farmworkers to the Table
- In sheriff’s testimony, WA legislators hear a clear threat
- Key Trends that Will Shape Tech Policy in 2026
- How We Determined Crime Prediction Software Disproportionately Targeted Low-Income, Black, and Latino Neighborhoods
- The police guild wants to rewrite the Public Records Act in the courts
- Safer Cities: Three Things to Read this Week