Enacted in 2019, the Keep Washington Working Act (KWWA) sets forth restrictions for state agencies, including law enforcement, on assisting in the investigation or enforcement of any federal registration or surveillance programs or any other laws, rules, or policies that target Washington residents solely on the basis of race, religion, immigration, citizenship status, or national or ethnic origin. Certain state agencies are also required to review their confidentiality policies and make any necessary changes to ensure that information collected from individuals is limited to information necessary to perform agency duties and is not used or disclosed for other purposes.
The KWWA requires the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to publish model policies and guidance for limiting immigration enforcement at public schools, government-operated health facilities, courthouses, and shelters and to ensure that state and local law enforcement agencies carry out their duties in a manner that limits engagement with federal immigration authorities for the purpose of immigration enforcement. All public schools, government-operated health facilities, courthouses, and state and local law enforcement agencies must either:
Adoption and implementation of the model policies must be consistent with federal and state law.
The AGO model policy for public schools recommends that schools designate as nonpublic those spaces within school grounds where schools have legitimate privacy interest and adopt requirements, such a judicial warrant, on how nonauthorized persons may access those nonpublic areas. In addition, model guidance recommends that public schools, government-operated health facilities, courthouses, and shelters implement training that educates their personnel on the ability to differentiate between administrative warrants and judicial warrants signed by a judge or magistrate.
Collection of Information on Immigration or Citizenship Status.
Early learning providers and school district employees are prohibited from collecting information or documents regarding immigration or citizenship status of students or their family members, except as required by state or federal law, or as required to administer a state or federally supported early learning or child care program or educational program.
Access to Nonpublic Areas by Immigration Enforcement Officers.
Institutions of higher education and health care facilities other than adult family homes must develop policies to designate areas of those organizations' premises as public or nonpublic. Adult family homes must adopt policies that designate as nonpublic the entire residential home in which care is provided to adult residents. County auditors must designate as nonpublic any place where ballots are handled, processed, counted, or tabulated.
Early learning providers, school districts, institutions of higher education, health care facilities, adult family homes, and county auditors' offices may not allow an officer or employee of an agency conducting immigration enforcement to enter a nonpublic area of those organizations' premises without a valid judicial warrant or court order.
For nonpublic areas of a health care facility and for areas designated as nonpublic by a county auditor:
To the extent possible, early learning providers and school district employees must request a valid form of identification from an officer or employee of an agency conducting immigration enforcement seeking to enter a nonpublic area.
For the purposes of these provisions, "nonpublic area" means any area in which authorized individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy. A nonpublic area may be established through methods including, but not limited to, mapping signage, key entry, and policies limiting access to authorized individuals.
Notification to Collective Bargaining Representatives.
Early learning providers, school districts, institutions of higher education, health care facilities, and adult family homes must contact the collective bargaining representative of a worker who is subject to an immigration enforcement action on the premises of those entities.
Policies on Immigration Enforcement.
No later than 90 days after the effective date of the bill, health care facilities must develop policies on responding to requests relating to immigration enforcement and seeking access to health care facilities, patients, or residents. Adopted policies must be consistent with the model policies under the KWWA, as well as relevant state and federal privacy laws.
Early learning providers are encouraged to adopt model policies developed by the AGO. The AGO must consult with the Department of Children, Youth, and Families, early learning providers, and other relevant stakeholders and publish a model policy limiting assistance with immigration enforcement at early learning provider settings and facilities. The AGO may elect to publish more than one model policy to address the needs of different early learning providers and to take into account differences in facilities, settings, available resources, and other relevant factors.
By the beginning of the 2027-28 school year, each school district board of directors must adopt or amend, if necessary, a policy and procedure for limiting immigration enforcement at schools.
The amended bill makes several revisions related to health care facilities and:
(In support) This bill simply provides that employees at schools; daycares; hospitals, both public and private; nursing homes; and more, may not permit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter without a judicial warrant. This is not a theoretical concern. There has been publicly reported ICE activity outside of a school in Spokane and outside of a daycare in Issaquah. We do not want to have ICE inside of schools or daycares unless they go before a federal judge and convince a federal judge that there is a specific reason that they have to be in a specific place.
This bill roots back to the Keep Washington Working Act (KWWA), which the Legislature passed with bipartisan support some years ago. But people do not realize the KWWA policies are in place and they do protect public colleges and universities, as well as public schools. One of the reasons to do the bill is to emphasize in a public hearing that the state does have these policies and to write them into law so that they cannot change unless a future Legislature votes otherwise.
The bill expands the scope of KWWA to cover daycare providers and private health care facilities. Those were not included by oversight when the KWWA was enacted. There are a variety of early learning programs and childcare businesses that operate in different types of settings, such as family homes, mixed-use buildings with a shared lobby, and municipal community centers, for instance. It is often unclear where the public and nonpublic threshold is. Early learning providers want to implement this policy with clarity, and creating model policies will provide that clarity.
Washington schools have a constitutional obligation to ensure access to education for all Washington residents. The bill reinforces that obligation, and the obligation in the KWWA, particularly because it requires school districts to amend or adopt policies that make clear they will not collect data on immigration status and will not allow civil immigration enforcement agents to access nonpublic spaces without a judicial warrant. That sort of clear, publicly available policy reassures students, parents, and community members that school districts are protecting student rights, especially with growing reports of ICE activity around Washington schools.
(Opposed) Public policy must be grounded in constitutional structure, not symbolism, emotion, or virtue signaling. Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility and a necessity. Border encounters, fentanyl trafficking, and transnational gang activity are real public safety concerns. Federal law enforcement exists to address those realities. States cannot regulate or obstruct how federal officers execute federal law, and this bill attempts to condition access to certain facilities on the presentation of a judicial warrant. What this creates is confusion for school administrators, health care workers, and county officials, who will be placed in the middle of federal enforcement questions they are not constitutionally positioned to adjudicate.
(Other) The bill needs to define the term "health care facility" to clarify the broad array of facilities that have been targeted by ICE raids. Policies developed under the KWWA should be used in training and educating staff for appropriate guidance. The bill needs to include reasonable enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance and offer meaningful protection.
The bill should specifically state that the enforcement responsibility lies with the management of a health care facility, and that any staff encountering a federal official with a warrant should direct them to management. This provision is already in the section that applies to institutions of higher education.
The bill should require adult family homes to designate all areas within the dwelling as nonpublic. This would help avoid creating additional administrative barriers for adult family homes and their residents.
County auditors want to make sure they can maintain the ability to have nonpublic places, as is currently specified in the bill, to ensure security of the ballots.
(In support) Senator Drew Hansen, prime sponsor; Vanessa Hernandez, ACLU of Washington; and Kristin Wiggins, OneAmerica.
Jean Hill, Washington State Catholic Conference; Natalya Yudkovsky, Washington State PTA; Daniel Emiliano Zamora, Communities for Our College; Angelita Cervantes, Communities for Our College; Ryan Bikdash; Adan Rodriguez, President of the Associated Students of the University of Washington Bothell; Mahmood Alkhazraji, ASCWU; Matthew Altman, CWU Faculty Legislative Representative; Callidora Liapakis, Associated Students of Tacoma Community College; Jamie Eymann; Christina Staebler; Faith Flaherty; Nandana Jaideep, Associated Students of the University of Washington; and Zosia Stanley, Washington State Hospital Association.