Local agencies shouldn’t cooperate with ICE actions

Published 1:30 am Friday, January 9, 2026

I get angry when I see video clips of heavily armed masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tackling one of our people who happen to have a brown skin or look different than them and forcibly put them in a vehicle and take them away to a “detention center,” or put them on a flight to take them out of the country to wherever the administration tells them, many times separating them from their family!

The Hebrew Bible has several passages on caring for the immigrant, one of them is “When a foreigner resides among you, treat them as your native-born. Love them as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:33-34) “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner for you were foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Exodus 22:21) Most of us came from Europe and invaded this land that was the home of many Indigenous nations. Then there are the words of Jesus telling us that ”whatever you did for one of the least of these … you did it for me.” (Matthew 25”35-40)

I’m proud of our law enforcement here in Snohomish County, because they will not allow cooperate with ICE in any way. I’m asking all businesses, schools, churches to keep ICE agents out of private spaces, post signs clearly stating agents need a judicial warrant (signed by a judge, not just Homeland Security) to enter private areas (staff-only, offices) and that administrative warrants don’t count; these signs deter entry and establish grounds for legal action, creating “ICE-Free Zones.”

Dottie Villesvik

Everett