Judges Reject Washington State’s Effort to Shut Down Federal Deportation Flights; Appeals Court Rules US Can Deport Illegal Immigrants Despite Local Objections In Win for Incoming Trump Admin

By admin On Dec 20, 2024

Judges Reject Washington State’s Effort to Shut Down Federal Deportation Flights:

A federal appeals court has denied pleas by a Washington state county government that claims it has the right to block ICE deportations of illegal migrants to satisfy its liberal “sanctuary” policies.

On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled against the “sanctuary” jurisdiction of King County, in Washington state, where county officials tried to prevent U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using a local airport to facilitate deportations.

King County officials insisted that since they were a so-called “sanctuary” county, they could legally stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using King County International Airport as a base to ship illegals out of the country.

The airport is close to a major ICE operations base outside of Seattle, and the office had been using the airport to facilitate deportations since 2012, however in 2019, King County Executive Dow Constantine doled out an executive order that made the airport off limits to ICE. The order caused ICE to shift its deportations elsewhere causing extra logistics and a corresponding rise in operating costs.

The then-Trump administration sued the county and maintained that deportation was a legal federal activity, and the county had no constitutional right to take away its use of an airport given to the county after WWII by the federal government and interfere in ICE deportation actions.

In the case The United States v King County, Trump’s administration cited the Supremacy Clause’s intergovernmental immunity doctrine and a World War II-era Instrument of Transfer agreement allowing the federal government to use the airport in King County, Just the News reported.

Now, in this month’s 29-page ruling, the three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with the federal government and ruled against the county and its citing of its “sanctuary” policies as a basis to stop deportations. —>READ MORE HERE

Appeals court rules US can deport illegal immigrants despite local objections in win for incoming Trump admin:

ICE used a airport in Washington state to deport migrants, but was stopped by a local executive order

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can continue using a Seattle airport for chartered deportation flights in a win for incoming President-elect Trump’s administration, a federal appeals court ruled.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling rejected a 2019 local executive order that sought to counter then-President Trump’s immigration policies, saying that King County, Washington violated its contract by prohibiting deportations at King County International Airport, which is also known as Boeing Field.

The court ruled that the order was unlawful because it discriminated against ICE and targeted federal operations. In 2019, Trump used Boeing Fields to deport illegal migrants from the U.S. and the local county sought to block the president’s removal operations.

The order prompted ICE to begin using an airport in Yakima, Washington — a much longer drive from ICE’s Northwest detention center— for the deportation flights.

“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 legal battle with King County ensued. The U.S. in 2020 sued the county, alleging that it violated the terms of a World War II-era contract that guarantees the federal government’s right to use the airport along with discriminating against ICE.

In a ruling on Friday, Nov. 30, 9th Circuit Judge Daniel A. Bress upheld the court’s decision. In the ruling, obtained by Fox News Digital, he wrote that, “this is not a situation in which King County officials are being conscripted into carrying out federal immigration laws on the federal government’s behalf.”

“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,” the ruling states. —>READ MORE HERE

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