Mayor Harrell speaks to our members
“So I commit to you fully as the leader of the executive branch, as your mayor, that I will protect your rights as protestors -- because we're gonna have to be loud and organized.”
On July 13, 2025
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell addressed our members for 15 minutes about what the city will do to maintain its sanctuary city status in the face of a militarized ICE coming after our immigrant neighbors (and the protestors who support them).
Then he stayed for another hour to answer our questions. Watch the full video below and form your own opinion!
NOTE: this video is divided into chapters. If you run your cursor along the playbar, you will see thumbnails and names of the chapters. You can click to skip around.
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During the meeting that focused on the Trump Administration’s crackdown on immigration, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell pledged his support to West Seattle Indivisible.
But he also acknowledged that the details of how the city and its police department should respond to raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement remains unclear.
“I will protect your rights as protesters,” Harrell said to the standing room only crowd at the Center for Active Living. “This is our time to shine. This is our time to shine as a region to show what our country stands for.”
He called the crackdowns that feature armed and often masked ICE agents who arrest people on the street, in parking lots and at businesses “one of the most atrocious policies in our lifetime.”
The Seattle Police Department will not cooperate with ICE, Harrell said. Nor will police cooperate with federal troops if they are deployed to enforce immigration crackdowns here.
more about the meeting…
In a response to a question, he said police actions at a protest in June against ICE at the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building are under review. Police made some arrests at that protest, where protestors set up barricades to block the vehicles of federal agents.
Several of those who attended the meeting wanted to know how police will respond to an ICE raid. Harrell said that question is made more complicated because in some cases imposters have posed as agents,
Also complicating matters is that ICE does not alert local police to its raids.
Police can’t interfere with federal agents, Harrell said. “Our officers are not going to get into fisticuffs or arrests with ICE agents.”
He urged people who are worried that ICE agents have committed crimes to call 911.