At the July 2, 2019 City Council meeting, Council directed staff to provide documents related to ICE flights and the use of Yakima Air Terminal for these flights for a discussion on the July 16 City Council agenda.  The following documents are attached per Council's request.

1.       Statement on ICE Flights: Staff developed this statement when it learned that ICE was intending to use Yakima's airport.

2.       King County Conversation: This is a report of the conversation the city manager had on June 4 with King County Deputy Executive Rachel Smith.

3.       ICE Flight log: This is a document staff started on May 7 which is updated after every flight. 

4.       SB 5497: This is a review of the requirements of SB 5497, passed by the legislature in the 2019 session and signed by Governor Inslee as the session closed. This bill has been referenced by several members of the public at recent Council meetings.

5.       King County Executive Order re ICE: This is the April 23, 2019 Executive order signed by Dow Constantine.

6.       US DOT Response to King County: This is the response sent to King County after the Executive Order.

On July 3, 2019, the city manager spoke with Geoffrey White, ICE Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer based here in Yakima. He asked the question about the possibility of ICE using Joint Base Lewis-McCord rather than Yakima. Mr. White's response was that he would have to  “kick that upstairs” for a response. He said he would do so and follow up. On May 7, as the first ICE flight came  into Yakima, city manager asked Mr. White this same question and his response at the time was “We considered all options before selecting Yakima”. Although this possibility has been raised in public comment and general community discussion subsequently, ICE has never suggested this option might be possible.