Spokane voices support for Washington’s sanctuary law in most crowded meeting in years
A non-binding resolution to signal the city of Spokane’s commitment to Washington’s sanctuary state law, the Keep Washington Working Act, was the focal point of the City Council’s first truly contentious meeting of the year.
Roughly 500 piled into city hall Monday to voice support for undocumented immigrants or to demonstrate their desire to see deportations continue unabated and their frustration with the state’s protections. Emotions flared, with immigrant activists booing the first public speaker of the night and one speaker each from either side of the issue telling the City Council that they felt physically unsafe sharing the room with advocates from the other group...
The Spokane City Council voted 5-2 Monday to symbolically commit the city to enforcing the statewide Keep Washington Working Act, which restricts law enforcement in the state from supporting the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The resolution, which is purely symbolic and does not create or modify existing law, states the city will also attempt to find funding for the legal services of undocumented immigrants…
Carmela Conroy, a former deputy prosecutor for Spokane Country, argued that local law enforcement should not be diverted from enforcing local crimes, and that federal authorities should be expected to handle federal immigration law themselves.
Conroy and Councilwoman Kitty Klitzke both argued that the current proliferation of undocumented immigration was a direct result of the failure of federal lawmakers to reform immigration law in decades.
“The U.S. congress must reform our decades-old immigration system that is hampering our economic growth and creating human tragedy for many essential workers and other members of our communities,” Conroy said.
By Emry Dinman, Spokesman-Review, February 10, 2025.