February 2026

‘A horrific stain on our state:’ on Tacoma’s Northwest ICE “Processing Center”

/

Tacoma Detention Center:

I wrote about the recently filed lawsuit against the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWICP), aka the immigration detention center in Tacoma. In addition to the lawsuit, I cover other reports that have found human rights violations and abuses within the facility, going back to 2008, as well as new legislation proposed by Seattle Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck to put a year-long moratorium on new or expanded detention centers within Seattle city limits. 

It’s worth noting that The Geo Group, the company that runs the private and for-profit NWICP, is making huge amounts of money right now, reporting an almost 700% increase in profits in 2025 compared to 2024. 

It’s also worth noting I was unable to determine the status of the contract between The Geo Group and the U.S. government. The last contract was set to expire last fall. 

State Senator Yasmin Trudeau told me she didn’t see what else we could call this detention center besides a concentration camp. She brought up that detainees are often held indefinitely, with no right or ability to contact their family or for their family to know where they are. She discussed the possibility that they can be deported to a country that isn’t even their country of origin. She talked about conditions in which people are starving, have feces in their food, put in solitary confinement (which I go into more detail about in the article). She talked about the lack of due process and basic rights.  

While it is horrifying to sit with the reality of what’s happening in this camp in Tacoma, and in concentration camps being stood up and already extant across the country, I urge all of us to refuse to look away. As Trudeau told me, the NWICP is “a horrific stain on our state.”

Seattle News:

I attended DESC’s grand opening of a new permanent supportive housing building called Clover Place. It’s just south of Woodland Park on 99/Aurora Ave. N.

I also sat down and chatted with Julie Kang, who is running for the open D5 seat this November. 

I heard from the new Seattle City Attorney’s Office that City Attorney Erika Evans issued a memo officially ending her predecessor Ann Davison’s policy of seeking blanket affidavits of prejudice, which Davison had instituted to prevent elected Judge Pooja Vaddadi from hearing most criminal cases at the Seattle Municipal Court. The ACLU of Washington and Evans have jointly moved to dismiss the litigation around Davison’s policy. 

The City of Seattle settled with the family of Jaahnavi Kandula, who was killed in January 2023 when then-SPD Officer Kevin Dave ran into her at 74mph while she was in a crosswalk. The City paid the family $29 million plus the $11,000 that then-SPD Officer Daniel Auderer joked about. Both Dave and Auderer were fired from SPD.  (Note: I originally incorrectly said the payment was $110 million, which was the original amount being asked for in the lawsuit. My apologies.)

In January, the City was found negligent in the death of Antonio Mays Jr. in the CHOP in June 2020 and instructed to pay $30.5 million. 

Ben Noble of Council Central Staff is officially retiring in March and will be replaced by Lish Whitson. Whitson’s new deputy director will be Calvin Chow. 

HardPressed has been doing a steady stream of investigative reporting this month, revealing the existence of a secret CCTV camera belonging to SPD that sits on top of the 12th Avenue Arts building in Capitol Hill and another major step taken in SPD’s mission to launch its own drone program. HardPressed also documented SPD’s assistance in providing arrest records for an ICE detention. 

An Office of the Inspector General (OIG) sentinel event review was conducted for the SPD response to counterprotesters at an anti-trans rally held by an extremist group in Cal Anderson Park last spring. The report found that SPD had multiple failures in their response to the counterprotesters. The review process was cut short because DivestSPD published an article about a specific event at the rally with information from the panel, which was supposed to be confidential. 

This leak not only cut the process short, but apparently deeply upset SPD, putting the future of sentinel event reviews in question. However, PubliCola reminds us that SPD has a history of ignoring the recommendations from these reviews, which means their value remains debatable. 

As Glen Stellmacher said on Bluesky, “The specific underlying purpose of the Sentinel Event Review process is to “enhance police legitimacy.” It is not a method of accountability, that’s why it’s conducted in secret. Its whole purpose is to manufacture recommendations that enhance police legitimacy.”

WA State News:

I wrote about why civil rights, privacy, and LGBTQ+ advocates are concerned about the current societal push for age verification systems for social media platforms. In particular, I focused on HB 1834, a bill designed to protect kids from “addictive algorithms” that are common in social media platforms. There was a legal argument about whether the wording in the bill would encourage big tech companies to implement age verification systems in order to avoid liability. 

In an update on Monday, the Attorney General’s Office has said they’re going to stop trying to pass the bill this session. Because HB 2112, another bill that explicitly called for age verification, is also dead for the session, privacy advocates can take a little breath. SB 5984 seems to be avoiding pushing for age verification for now, although it still bears watching. 

Also on Monday, the Senate passed the so-called ‘Millionaires’ tax, which will now head to the House. Governor Bob Ferguson had some additional requirements for the new tax, which he’d like to see implemented before signing. 

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen and Rep. Shaun Scott–who represent the same Seattle district–had a public spat in the middle of a Stranger article. Scott said his Well Washington Fund, which would levy a statewide payroll expense tax, could be implemented and start being assessed by 2027 or possibly even late 2026. Pedersen said this wasn’t true. 

So The Stranger checked with The Employment Security Department, who said Scott was correct. Oops. Both lawmakers are up for election this November. 

State Democrats are also considering backtracking on an increase to the estate tax they passed last year, with the proposal passing the Senate on Monday. 

The new state revenue forecast came out on Monday, and in pleasant news, it’s not looking quite as terrible. The state’s revenue is up $1.855 billion from the last forecast in November. This forecast covers the bienniums of 2025-2027 and 2027-2029. 

Finally, in surveillance news, Amazon-owned Ring canceled its contract with Flock Safety after a controversial Super Bowl ad. However, it seems like their contract with Axon might still be on, at least for now. 

Recent Headlines:

About ICE:

About Everything Else:

 

‘A horrific stain on our state:’ on Tacoma’s Northwest ICE “Processing Center” Read More »

Seattle, Washington State brace for potential ICE impact

/

AI, ICE, Surveillance:

During the last two weeks, I’ve written two in-depth articles. 

The first takes a look at Washington state legislators’ attempts to regulate AI this year. 

The second takes a look at state and local leaders’ response to ICE actions in Minneapolis and elsewhere. Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown said we’re now experiencing a constitutional crisis. 

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson released some responses to prepare for ICE’s possible invasion of Seattle. Notably missing from the list was anything having to do with surveillance. 

404 Media reports that a Houston-area police intelligence center has instructed police to “be as vague as permissible” about why they’re using Flock license plate reader surveillance data. These kinds of instructions will make the audits available via public record request less useful for determining if and when surveillance data is being shared for purposes such as immigration enforcement or seeking out people trying to get reproductive care.

WA State News:

Wednesday marks the policy committee cut-off for this short legislative session. Any bills that haven’t been passed out of their respective policy committees by the end of the day Wednesday will be officially dead for the session. The fiscal committee cut-off is Monday, February 9. 

The Washington State Democrats have finally dropped the bill containing their much touted “millionaires” tax. The bulk of the new tax, which wouldn’t be collected until April 2029 and is expected to generate more than $3 billion a year, would go straight to the state’s general fund, with a few tax breaks and 5% dedicated to a new fund to help counties pay for public defense costs.

Meanwhile, Governor Bob Ferguson, who used his support for this tax to paper over the budget cuts he was proposing, has come out and said he actually cannot support it after all–at least, not without changes. He wants more tax breaks and less investment in services.

Other proponents of the tax would like to see more of the new tax allocated for specific uses such as education, rather than all go into the general fund where it could be used for a mishmash of priorities.

Meanwhile, state Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen says there’s no path forward for a state-wide payroll expense (a la JumpStart) tax. Pedersen implies that big business’s dislike for this tax has played a role in his lack of support for it. 

The Washington State Supreme Court is having a big election in November, with four justice seats (out of nine) up for grabs. These races will shape the future of the court for potentially years to come.

Seattle News:

A King County jury found the City of Seattle negligent in responding to the fatal shooting of teenager Antonio Mays Jr. in the CHOP in 2020. 11 out of the 12 jurors agreed on the verdict, which is sufficient for a civil trial in Washington state. The city will be paying out $30.5 million. 

Last week, Mike Solan, who is still president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG)–although he is expected to step down later this month– responded to Mayor Wilson’s announcement of actions to prepare for ICE’s eventual descent onto Seattle. Solan wrote the following message on X: “Toothless virtue signaling rhetoric like this has already cost two people their lives. The concept of pitting two armed law enforcement agencies against each other is ludicrous, and will not happen. I will not allow SPOG members to be used as political pawns.”

PubliCola reported that CARE Chief Amy Barden has not had a single one-on-one meeting with SPD Chief Shon Barnes since he began in the position a year ago. 

Barden told PubliCola that “the sergeants who decide whether to dispatch CARE are increasingly sending out community service officers (CSOs)—civilian SPD employees without formal training in mental health care or social work—to calls that Barden says should go to CARE.”

Recent Headlines:

Seattle, Washington State brace for potential ICE impact Read More »