In August 2024, we published “Paths to Compliance: The Effort to Protect Immigrant Rights in Washington State,” an update from our Immigrant Rights Observatory project monitoring implementation of pro-immigrant legislation in Washington State, finding both signs of progress and ongoing concerns. With provisions restricting many forms of collaboration between local and state agencies and federal immigration enforcement, the 2019 Keep Washington Working (KWW) act was a major victory, but without strong enforcement mechanisms, it was up to immigrant rights advocates to secure compliance with the law.
Since our first report on the early implementation of KWW in 2021, UWCHR staff and student researchers have filed hundreds of public records requests and reviewed thousands of pages of documents to assess compliance with the law. When we found evidence of potentially problematic practices, we shared them with our partner organizations, like the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, who wrote letters to law enforcement agencies across the state raising concerns about KWW violations. In some cases, this outreach led directly to improved policies. For example, in Spokane, the County Council canceled an illegal contract to detain people in the county jail on behalf of Border Patrol.
In other cases, as our recent report reveals, the Washington State Attorney General’s Office got involved, citing UWCHR research in its own advocacy with jurisdictions including Adams, Clark, and Grant counties and the city of Kent.
This update is featured in UWCHR’s 2023-2024 Annual Report.
