Community Government Police & Fire

County council affirms commitment to state’s sanctuary law over sheriff’s objection

Posted on May 1st, 2025 By: Carolyn Bick

Pierce County has affirmatively upheld the state’s Keep Washington Working Act in a narrow, party-line vote.

Following several hours of testimony and discussion among councilmembers at the council’s April 29 meeting, the council passed a resolution stating that the county would uphold KWW. The vote was 4-3, with the council’s four Democrats in favor and the three Republicans opposed.

The resolution the council passed affirms the county’s commitment to upholding the act. The act, which is state law, recognizes immigrants’ economic importance and their legal rights.

Sheriff Swank against resolution

Among the resolution’s opponents is new Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank, who made his feelings regarding the resolution known at that meeting.

In an interview with Gig Harbor Now the following evening, Swank said that he has already gotten the ball rolling on judicial review of KWW in Washington, D.C.

Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank speaks during a county council meeting on Tuesday, April 29, in Tacoma.

Swank said that he met with a few federal officials on a trip to Washington, D.C., in early April. He said that he has reached out to the Department of Justice, ICE, and Customs and Border Protection. He has asked them to help fast-track Washington’s legislation for review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Swank doesn’t know where the legislation stands in the review process. But he referenced a recent executive order by President Donald Trump that takes aim at sanctuary cities.

“I’m assuming that the Department of Justice and federal government wants to review this and fast-track it, I’m hoping … through the process of the U.S. Supreme Court, to have a ruling on it generally stating whether it’s legal or not,” Swank said of his request to the federal government to review Washington’s laws. “And then that would probably hold true for the vast majority of states that have sanctuary laws, whichever way they decide.”

Court precedents

Swank’s comments at the Pierce County Council’s Tuesday meeting offered a little insight into what he thinks about sanctuary cities.

“Local jurisdictions are not sovereign nations,” Swank said. “Local jurisdictions cannot create their own immigration laws. My sworn duty is to enforce the law and protect the citizens of Pierce County, not to carry out unlawful orders and political mandates.”

The 10th Amendment to The Constitution states that “[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

In 1997, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia ruled in Printz v. United States that this meant that the “Federal Government may neither issue directives requiring the States to address particular problems, nor command the States’ officers, or those of their political subdivisions, to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program.”

The Supreme Court has held that the federal government holds the power to directly regulate immigration and that state and local governments may not pass laws that directly affect the work of federal agencies.

However, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled that this does not prohibit states from passing laws that indirectly touch on the matter, and that the Anticommandeering Rule holds that the federal government may not issue direct commands to states, and that states may refuse to adopt federal policies regarding immigration.

“I propose we focus on fully funding law enforcement first, prioritizing patrols and the strict enforcement of existing laws, protecting the federal partnerships that help keep our county and nation safe, and upholding the independence and integrity of the elected sheriff’s office,” Swank said, in closing his remarks to the council.

‘Everybody should feel safe’

Councilmember Robyn Denson, who represents Gig Harbor, was a sponsor of the resolution and voted for it. She agreed with Swank on the staffing issue.

“We have very limited public safety resources,” Denson said, “and I want the good people that work for the Sheriff Department to be keeping our residents safe and making sure that everybody should feel safe in Pierce County.”

Pierce County Councilmember Robyn Denson

In voting for the resolution, District 5 Councilmember Bryan Yambe pointed out that ICE unlawfully detained Carlos Rios, a U.S. citizen, in 2022. Rios sued Pierce County.

Other recent cases show ICE is still detaining people who are here legally.

In February, ICE detained Llewelyn Dixon, a legal green card holder, for a nonviolent criminal offense that was more than 20 years old. Dixon is being held in the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma. Another legal green card holder, a Filipina immigrant named Michelle, was also detained in February, and recently moved from a California detention center to the NWDC.

Republicans vote against resolution

Paul Herrera, one of three council members who voted against the resolution, said it “doesn’t do anything to help anybody” and that it would give people “a false sense of security.”

Though he said he would not vote in favor of the resolution either way, Herrera introduced an amendment that passed, after being verbally modified in-meeting. The added language specifies that federal agents must have judicially authorized criminal warrants based on probable cause to arrest and detain.

Dave Morell, another councilmember who voted against the resolution, said that “this really didn’t have to happen” and that the resolution only existed to make “us feel good that we are attempting to promote something.”

Morell said that because he is a Republican, many people in the room would not have voted for him.

“I get accused of being a certain type of individual. I’ve taken my arrows. I’ve taken my spears,” Morell said. “I tried to get an amendment that basically said that Pierce County Council affirms the county’s commitment to fostering a community where all individuals feel secure in accessing public services, engaging in civil life, and contributing to the economic and social vitality of our community.”

Morell had earlier tried to introduce an amendment that would have struck multiple sections of the resolution, and added the word “legal” in front of the words “residents” and “immigrants.”

Immigrants have ‘all kinds of help,’ councilmember says

Councilmember Amy Cruver also voted against the resolution. She characterized it as a “feel-good” measure and spoke at length about undocumented immigrants who also committed violent crimes.

The National Institute of Justice released a study in September 2024 that found that “undocumented immigrants are arrested at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens for violent and drug crimes and a quarter the rate of native-born citizens for property crimes.”

Nationwide data compiled by the American Immigration Council between 1980 and 2022 found that “immigrants — including undocumented immigrants — are less likely to commit crimes than the U.S.-born. This is true at the national, state, county, and neighborhood levels, and for both violent and non-violent crime.”

Cruver added that “this county — they’ve got all kinds of help for immigrants.”

“Don’t say we don’t help them,” Cruver said. She proceeded to hold up a sheet of paper she said contained information about a “Know Your Rights” program, and highlighted the county’s immigration and refugee commission. She also said she recently attended an open house where several different groups offered to assist immigrants with necessary paperwork, and talked briefly about sponsors for immigrants.

“I agree that they need help, but they don’t do what they need to do,” Cruver said, regarding undocumented immigrants.

When meeting attendees protested, she said, “Well, I get it that there are issues, but there is plenty of help. … I’m just not seeing this rounding-up of people going on in Pierce County.”

“I have been to the detention center … it was quite some time ago,” Cruver said. “I know that life is not fair. And I cannot speak to those stories of people who have been to the detention center.”

What if ICE shows up at the courthouse?

“If you’re not feeling safe, we need to know about that so that we can do whatever we can to help,” Denson said. “And I know our Sheriff would want to know about that as well so that he can make sure that he’s doing what he can to help. So I want our taxpayer resources going to help the residents of Pierce County,” as opposed to enforcing federal immigration laws.

Undocumented immigrants pay taxes, despite not receiving many of the benefits that they pay into, including Social Security.

The resolution will also help county employees know what to do if ICE agents show up, Councilmember Rosie Ayala said. Keep Washington Working has been in effect for years, she said, and “[t]he fact that we don’t have [a clear policy] opens us up for liability.”

She also thanked Yambe “for putting a fiscal risk to this, because, if we don’t do this, taxpayers will be paying for our mistakes, and we are avoiding those mistakes right now by passing this resolution.”

Before casting her “yes” vote, Councilmember Jani Hitchens highlighted that even she does not know what to do if ICE shows up at a council meeting — “and I am the chair of the County Council.”

She said she wanted people to feel safe enough “to be part of our process” and for people to “call 911, to go to the hospital, to access resources, and say, ‘I need help.’ I want them to show up for their jobs. I want their kids to go to school, I want them to be part of our community.”