OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
A federal appeals court said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can keep using a Seattle airport for chartered deportation flights, which is positive news for the incoming Trump administration.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a 2019 local executive order that tried to go against President Trump’s immigration policies. The court said that King County, Washington, broke its contract by not letting deportations happen at King County International Airport, which is also known as Boeing Field.
The court said the order was illegal because it was unfair to ICE and went after federal processes. Trump used Boeing Fields in 2019 to remove people who were in the U.S. illegally, and the local county tried to stop the president’s operations.
The order made ICE start using an airport in Yakima, Washington, for the deportation planes. This was a much longer drive from ICE’s Northwest detention center.
“The relocation increased operational costs due to the greater distance from ICE detention facilities to the airport. It also led to increased security concerns,” the ruling noted.
In response, a court case started in King County. In 2020, the U.S. sued the county, saying it broke the rules of a contract from World War II that gives the federal government the right to use the airport and was unfair to ICE.
On Friday, November 30, 9th Circuit Judge Daniel A. Bress agreed with the court’s decision. In the ruling that Fox News Digital got, he wrote, “This is not a case where King County officials are being forced to enforce federal immigration laws on behalf of the federal government.”
“Instead, the United States is asking King 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,” it says.
Fox News reported: “The new order also calls for transparency around any deportation flights. The airport now offers a conference room where the public can observe deportation flights on a video feed, and the county posts a log of deportation flights from the airport on its website.”
