As reported by Fox News, King County, Washington engaged in a local executive order in 2019 that attempted to counteract then-President Donald Trump’s deportation policy. The Ninth Circuit ruled that in particularly violating its contract with ICE through the prohibition of deportation flights, the County unlawfully discriminated against the agency.
As a result of the ruling, ICE began using an airport in Yakima, just under 150 miles away, adding nearly two and a half hours to each transport from the Northwest detention center.
In the text of the ruling, Judge Daniel A. Bress wrote, “The relocation increased operational costs due to the greater distance from ICE detention facilities to the airport. It also led to increased security concerns.”
In its conclusion, the court observed that the county argued “it issued the Executive Order ‘due to its concerns about business disruptions and liability from potential protests on airport property.’” However, the judges found, “The Executive Order is based on King County’s view that ‘deportations raise deeply troubling human rights concerns which are inconsistent with the values of King County.’ While King County and its leaders are entitled to hold that view, the obvious policy and regulatory basis for the Executive Order prevents King County from invoking the market participant doctrine, even assuming it could be invoked as a defense to otherwise improper discrimination against the federal government.”
Bress identified two primary legal violations, stating that discrimination against federal agencies violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and that the county breached a World War II-era instrument of transfer agreement between the County and the Federal government, which regulated the government’s use of the airport.
The court order resulting from the ruling requires that the county “in its capacity as the owner of a public airport facility, to lift a discriminatory prohibition on private parties’ ability to engage in business with the federal government that supports federal immigration efforts."
The ruling further requires greater transparency surrounding deportations. At present the airport has a conference room set aside for the public to observe the chartered deportation flights via video feed and a log of all deportation flights is available on the airport’s website.
