Libraries, Education & Neighborhoods Committee 3/27/2025

Good morning, everyone.

The March 27th, 2025 meeting of the Library's Education and Neighborhoods Committee will come to order.

It's 9.31 a.m.

I'm Maritza Rivera, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Council Member Solomon?

Here.

Council Member Moore?

Present.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Present.

Vice Chair Rink?

Present.

And Chair Rivera?

Present.

Five council members are present.

Thank you, Clerk.

If there's no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

There are two items of business on today's agenda.

We have the appointment of Janet Ceballos to the Families Education Preschool and Promise Levy Oversight Committee and an update from the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs on the status of federal immigration actions.

We will now open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comment should relate to items on the agenda or within the purview of this committee.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Currently, we have no in-person speakers and no remote speakers signed up.

All right.

Since there are no speakers, the public comment period is now closed.

We can proceed to our items of business.

Clerk, will you please call today's first agenda item into the record?

Agenda item one, appointment 03109, the appointment of Janet Ceballos as member of the Families, Education, Preschool and Promise Levy Oversight Committee for a term to December 31st, 2026.

Thank you, clerk.

This appointment has been read into the record.

I believe Ms. Ceballos was joining us virtually today, but I don't see her.

Is she on the?

She's on.

Okay, great.

Excuse me.

Welcome, Ms. Ceballos.

Janet has more than 20 years of experience as a social worker in King County.

She received her master's of social work from the University of Washington and has held roles as a social service manager for the Alzheimer's Foundation, a medical social worker for Providence Health in Seattle, a school social worker at the Highline School District, and is currently serving as a school social worker for Seattle Public Schools.

In her role, Janet delivers direct mental health and social emotional services to students, and is experienced in crisis prevention and intervention.

Janet is bringing a wealth of professional insight and experience to the Levy Oversight Committee, and I really want to thank her for agreeing to serve and volunteering her time.

Janet, would you like to say a couple words?

There you are.

And here I am.

Hello, everybody.

Thank you so much.

I'm very excited to be part of this committee and I hope, you know, I can work collaboratively with everyone.

Thank you, Janet, and I know you will, and I really appreciate you volunteering.

I always say this, and I'm going to say it again, these are volunteer positions, and we very much appreciate folks' willingness to jump in and help with these important issues and give oversight to this important levy.

So thank you for agreeing to serve.

Colleagues, do you have any questions or comments?

No, all right, seeing none, I move that the committee recommend confirmation of the appointment.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Vice Chair Rink.

It is moved and seconded to confirm the appointment.

Are there any further comments?

All right, will the clerk please call the roll on the confirmation of the appointment?

Council Member Solomon?

Aye.

Council Member Moore?

Aye.

Council Member Hollingsworth?

Yes.

Vice-Chair Rink.

Yes.

And Chair Rivera.

Aye.

Five in favor, none opposed.

Thank you, Clerk.

Again, thank you, Janet, for being here this morning.

We're really looking forward to working with you on the Levy Oversight Committee.

Thank you.

I'm looking forward to it.

I appreciate it.

And this...

committee recommendation will be going to full council and then you, where you will be confirmed by the full council.

So thank you.

Wonderful.

Thanks.

All right.

Clerk, will you, well, is...

Her scheduler says she should be here on time, so she should be here.

Okay.

We are waiting for Director Muhammad to join us.

I'm going to call for a four-minute recess to give her opportunity to come up from her office.

It is 9.36.

We'll recess till 9.40.

you

Thank you, colleagues.

It's 9.41 a.m., and we're actually going to take recess until 9.52 a.m.

to give Director Muhammad an opportunity to get here.

She won't be able to join us until then.

We had a quick meeting this morning, a quick part of the first half of the meeting, so she will be here momentarily.

So we'll recess until 9.52.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, colleagues and those who may be watching the Seattle channel, thank you for your patience.

It's 9.53.

We're ready to resume our library's education and neighborhoods committee meeting.

Clerk, can you please call the roll?

Council member Solomon.

Present.

Council member Moore.

Present.

Council member Hollingsworth.

Present.

Vice Chair Rank.

Present.

Chair Rivera.

Present.

We have five council members present.

Thank you, clerk.

All right, colleagues, we are joined up by Hamdi Muhammad, Director of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

Director Muhammad will be giving an update.

I will say, colleagues, that, as you know, this committee oversees four departments, and so what I try to do is rotate the departments and then, of course, It depends on what might be coming up and we hadn't had an opportunity to have our great friends and partners at the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs yet.

And then when I was speaking with Director Mohammed, it seemed in bringing the department through chambers at this committee, it made most sense given the climate to give an update on all the things that are happening in the immigration space, particularly regarding all the chaos and really the, terrible things that are happening as a consequence of the actions of this latest administration.

So, Mohamed, Director Mohamed, I'm gonna turn it over to you to give an update, and then if you'll hold your questions, colleagues, and then there'll be opportunity for questions and comments after Director Mohamed gives her update.

Go ahead, why don't you state your names for the record, and then you can start your update, Director, and thank you for being here.

both this morning.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Good morning, honorable members of the council and Madam Chair Rivera.

Thank you for having me for the record.

My name is Hamdi Muhammad and I serve as the director of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs.

I am joined today by my colleague, our communication manager, Azmi Haroon, who will introduce himself shortly and also will provide some updates regarding communications.

But before I begin, I just wanted to give a huge thank you to Councilmember Rivera for your steadfast leadership and for elevating these critical issues.

Our department is in your committee.

And you consistently ask questions of our department to figure out how to support the community and also just ensuring that both constituents, your colleagues have timely information that has been a priority of yours.

And so I just want to make sure that I elevate that and thank you because these are unusual and challenging times.

Our office is truly pressed right now.

And people are asking for information.

And it's helpful when we have our council members also supporting that and ensuring that their constituents have accurate information.

And you consistently ask me for that.

And I appreciate it.

And you consistently ask for information to pass along to your colleagues.

And it's very thoughtful.

And I just want to recognize that and say thank you.

I haven't presented in front of the committee, but I have been in front of council several times.

We presented on January 13 and then came back in front of council for the select committee on federal administration and policy change on March 6. So for the listening public, this has been obviously a priority of this council.

and in our office.

During those sessions, I did provide an overview of the evolving immigration issues and the landscape and the policy shifts that we are all seeing, and how that is impacting our community, how it's impacting our economy, and and also how it impacts the way that our constituents and our community members are engaging with our government agencies.

And for background purposes, during that time, I did share a little bit about what we saw happen in 2016 and then throughout 2020 from the federal government where there was a number of executive orders that were introduced, family separation policies, the travel ban in 2017. Then again, we saw an attempt to end DACA in 2017. There was the public charge rules that basically discouraged immigrants from accessing services like health care and housing, and then asylum restrictions in 2019. the Remain in Mexico policies, and so forth.

And I share that to say that those similar policies are being reintroduced.

So fast forwarding today, the recent executive orders that have been put in place, and I've shared this, on January 20, 2025, President Trump did sign a series of executive orders.

There was the expedited removal, the federal-state agreement trying to have local law enforcement serve as immigration officers, the sanctuary jurisdictions threatening to strip federal funds from cities that are deemed sanctuary cities, information sharing, Section 18A, increasing pressure on local governments to share immigration status, and then Section 20, where they introduced the denial of So all of those executive orders were introduced.

A lot of them are being challenged in court.

And there's many that I obviously did not state.

But I do want to remind us all that despite these federal actions, state laws do remain in place in Washington state.

The Keep Washington Working Act is still in place.

That limits the state of the state of the state.

local collaboration with federal agencies, immigration law enforcement.

Without a judicial order, there is the Courts Open to All Act that was put in place guaranteeing public access to courts regardless of immigration status.

The city of Seattle has its policies in place ensuring that we're not asking immigration status of our residents to access services or to report things like crimes against themselves.

And so I say that to say that these policies are in place.

And I know that there is a lot of misinformation that is out there.

And so just a reminder.

Again, the executive orders that was introduced by this federal administration, the federal President Trump, a lot of those executive orders are being challenged in multiple courts.

Across the country, legal experts and civil rights groups argue that many of those executive orders violate constitutional protections and federal immigration laws as well.

Courts have historically checked executive overreach.

And we expect that tradition to continue.

And so our office continues to track those policy changes.

And we know that our attorney general, A.G.

Brown, is also challenging a lot of those executive orders as well, or is part of those lawsuits.

And then I want to say that regardless of the implementation of these executive orders, we do see the chilling effects, the confusion in our immigrant communities.

And families are afraid to access essential services, go to work, or even send their kids to school.

And I know you all are hearing that.

We're hearing it as well.

And so local cities are stepping up.

Cities and counties across the nation are working to counter the chilling effect by increasing outreach, legal services, and know your rights education.

And we are committed to also doing the same, to protecting our residents, regardless of immigration status, and making sure that they feel safe and supported and that they have accurate information.

And I wanted to also just share, and maybe I have in the past, too, that Section 17 of Trump's executive order on sanctuary jurisdiction, the city of Seattle, is in a joint multi-jurisdictional lawsuit challenging the federal government's attempt to deny federal funds, deputize local law enforcement for federal immigration enforcement.

As our city attorney, Ann Davis, stated that this is an issue of federal overreach into local control.

And those lawsuits reflect our city's stance that the decisions impacting our community must be made at the local level and not through political pressures from D.C.

And so we're tracking that lawsuit as well.

And Seattle joined other jurisdictions like our jurisdiction, King County, Portland, San Francisco, New Haven in these legal challenges.

One update that I was not able to share during the previous times that I've come before this committee is unaccompanied minors and legal access to aid.

I wanted to provide an update on that.

migrant children who are among the most vulnerable in our immigration system have been under attack.

On February 18th, the Trump administration issued a sudden stop work order that halted federal funding for legal services supporting approximately 26,000 unaccompanied children navigating the immigration proceedings.

These legal services often are the only support that is available for minors, some who are just too young to come in front of a judge and to share their case and their issue, and are often without parents or any legal guardian.

Following a lot of just public outcry outreach to DC and Congress, the administration did rescind the order for three days later on February 21st, allowing legal aid organizations to temporarily resume services.

However, unfortunately, that was short-lived.

This last week, on March 21st, 2025, the administration issued a termination of the Unaccompanied Children's Program, UCP, effectively ending federal funding for legal representation for minors.

And this is like a...

This is one of the worst things that can honestly happen in our immigration system because young kids coming before judges you might have seen, they're expected to represent themselves, to share what their issues are, and to undo this is unconscionable and something we have not seen.

And our Mayor Harold did say in a press release on March 23rd, I quote, the decision to cut the unaccompanied children's program forcing migrant children as young as three years old to represent themselves in court is unconscionable and stands in direct opposition to our values as a welcoming city.

No child should ever be punished for where they were born.

Seattle will continue to support local organizations that provide critical legal assistance, including representation to immigrant and refugee children, some of whom are the most vulnerable members of our community.

And so our office is working in coordination with a number of the local organizations that will be affected by this.

Organizations like KIND is having to consider shutting down some of their offices because of these cuts.

And so it's something that we monitor and are trying to figure out ways to support them at this time.

With that said, the next steps, I'll let Azmi talk about our communication strategies.

But our office is focused on two things.

One is external and internal efforts in responding to the many changes that we're seeing in the immigration space.

Externally, we are working closely to provide accurate information through trainings, service provider trainings, know your rights, timely responses to questions that we receive from the community, and just working on building trust between our government entities and internally we are I'm happy to take questions.

And at this time, I would like to invite Azmi Haroon, our communication manager, to share more about how we're ensuring that we're providing clear information.

And in this moment, let me just say communication is not just about messaging to us.

It's really about building trust and making sure that our residents know their rights and where they can turn to for support.

Azmi.

Thank you so much, honorary council members and Madam Chair Rivera.

It's really great to be here for the first time, and I look forward to more collaboration as well.

So I started in mid-February, and before I'd started, there was already this kind of really pronounced need for more communications from our office.

And as Hamdi mentioned, you know, both externally and internally.

So one big thing that we've worked on has been making sure that you know, our any official OIRA communication, whether it's our website, newsletter, social media, has vetted trusted information that's on there and that's also locally contextualizing what's happening federally.

So that's our approach, you know, working on designing and creating new original infographics, fact sheets, things that are also contextualizing what's happening to our community, and making sure that we're putting out translated and accessible information as well.

A big part of my role now too is reestablishing our relationship and trust with ethnic media partners as well, and acknowledging the massive role that they play in their communities and that they are also working to vet and make sure that they put out trusted information.

We want to work hand in hand with them.

So that's a big focus right now as well.

And as Hamdi mentioned, it's also enhanced consultation with the mayor's office and making sure that we're keeping them up to date on what's happening federally and then advising at times to comment on certain things that, as Hamdi mentioned in the mayor's quote, maybe go against our values or our truly unconscionable things that we've been seeing.

There have been a few examples, like the statement from Mayor Harrell last week.

a press conference around the refugee resettlement ban that there was an injunction in February.

And Deputy Mayor Greg Wong spoke at that press conference and offered some really nice comments as well.

And I think it's partially the communication messaging is, like Hamdi said, making sure that community members know that their government officials and civil servants see them and are here to protect them in every way that they can.

And another way is, you know, we're trying to really meet people where they're at with both safe of in-person and virtual trainings.

That's both internal and external.

Internally, it's a lot of trainings around city staff knowing how to interact with federal immigration enforcement, and then also developing new trainings based on the other shifting laws and orders.

And then externally, we've worked with service providers like NERP, Northwest Immigrants Rights Project, and a bunch of our other partners to do Know Your Rights trainings that will also enable other service providers to then give training so we've kind of tried to do have a few approaches and the types of events we do so that the knowledge is as shareable as possible so we're doing another know your rights training for working with OED for business owners and employers so that you know people at different levels of the community in Seattle understand their rights and understand how things are shifting as well I think as well As Hamdi mentioned, the internal communications is a massive part of this because we want to make sure that city staff are empowered as they're in community, as they're in city buildings as well, that they know as much about the changing laws as well, and that they know about the protections locally that we have in Seattle and Washington as well.

Another part is that when we work with other departments, we want to make sure that they're kind of thinking about language access and translation as a function of a lot of their communications as well, because we see that Our city is really diverse, and we want to make sure that people are getting the information in a way that speaks to them.

And that also means that's part of the reason that we've kind of tried to boost our social media kind of presence.

And I would say that looking forward, we're also consulting very closely with the mayor's office on what other trainings or city official graphics or things that we can put out that we can put our stamp on and feel like it's something that's communicating what people's rights are.

We also are having constant conversations, as Hamdi mentioned.

It's really a daily checking in with our staff at Oira and service providers to see what the situation is on the ground day by day.

And I will say it's really been a constant process and then taking that information and deciding externally how we're gonna communicate that, and then also internally.

So that's kind of become part of the flow of things, is making sure that we're checking in with service providers every day, checking in with community members every day, and then doing the kind of tandem act of communicating that externally and internally.

And then also making a lot of decisions with community partners and with ethnic media outlets and with internally as well about which messages to elevate once we can really vet things as well so that we're also not spreading fear and that we're giving people context as to how things are evolving.

So yeah, I think the renewed relationship and trust with ethnic media a bigger bolstered presence kind of externally, and then a really much deeper coordination internally is kind of how we're approaching things with communication.

And then again, a lot of events that are trying to meet people where they're at, and also trying to be very safe in how we organize the events.

So that's kind of, you know, we kind of see communication and as Hamdi said, communication beyond just messaging, communication in terms of building trust as a key function of this political moment, however long it lasts.

Thank you, Director Mohammed and Azmi for being here and for sharing the information.

It's really important.

I've done outreach.

Outreach was one of the first things I did when I started my career almost 30 years ago.

And so it cannot be underscored the importance of doing outreach, particularly with the chaos that is being intentionally created by this administration.

You know, the idea as a human and as a mom, the idea that they would try to take away legal services from children, is really, I can't even find words, but I'll say abhorrent.

And I am glad that they reversed that, but this is the point, all of this chaos, to your point, Director Muhammad, they're reversing things, but then the chaos that has been created by the initial putting out of an order and then the reversal of it, it has, lasting impacts, whether or not it's reversed.

And so I want to say that I'm so grateful, and I've said this before, I'm going to say it again, I feel very grateful for your leadership, Director Mohamed Azmi, for everything you're doing on the communications piece of this at this moment is really critical because we really need to make sure that we're communicating accurate information in the midst of the chaos.

The chaos is by design.

They want to confuse people.

And so we wanna make sure that folks in community have the proper information, all the Know Your Rights trainings, equally important, both externally and internally, so that our staffs throughout the city know what they need to do.

And toward that end, I was very proud to co-sponsor with under Council President Sarah Nelson's leadership and with my colleague here, Council Member Moore, who's joining us virtually the shield law that we passed this week to make sure that we are shielding our employees from, you know, not, not, not enforcing the things that this administration is trying to do and really make sure that we are continuing to provide all the services that we provide.

to anyone who's in Seattle.

And so I am glad to do our part that way.

And I will say that, you know, this is really has been a one Seattle approach.

Mayor Harrell did send down also that shield law.

So it was very much in partnership with the executive and the council and everything that we've done has been very much one Seattle approach under your leadership director Muhammad.

And I know that what you've shared today is only based on our conversations, which I report back to my colleagues when we chat.

I report back usually at council briefings on Mondays.

But I know you are doing so much more even than you have shared out today just in terms of communicating with our county partners.

We have a King County council member, Boron, Jorge Barón, who used to be the executive director at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.

So we have some really great partners at the county and the state level under the leadership of Governor Ferguson and, of course, Attorney General Brown.

We really are all working together to make sure that our communities in the state and in the city and in the county are supported and that we are not going to follow these abhorrent executive orders that the administration has decided to plague us with.

So I really want to say that I value your partnership.

I value everything you're doing.

The building relationship is critical.

because people are very afraid, and we want to make sure that we are the calm in this storm.

And that really falls on you all, and I recognize that, and also we're doing it in partnership.

And to you colleagues, as Director Mohammed said earlier, We're in constant communication to see how things are going, where we are, to make sure we're sharing information.

And toward that end, Director Muhammad, if you send us fact sheets, Asmi, we can share, because we have newsletters that we send out so that folks know what the city's doing, they can feel good about, our constituents can feel good about the work, the hard work that you're doing, the work that we're doing collaboratively, with the council, the mayor's office, the departments on this and that they have information that they can share with the neighbors and folks that they're interacting with on a regular basis.

So my commitment to share information as well.

Colleagues, does anyone have any questions or comments?

No?

Council member Moore?

Yeah, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for this presentation.

It's very helpful.

It's also very reassuring to know that this work is going on and that we have such a commitment to ensuring that all of our immigrant residents are protected and well informed.

One question I had relates to um the legal representation for youth and juveniles i know that there i can't remember the back name of the program now but the trump administration uh just eliminated funding for the special visas um and i'm wondering if The city is working with some of the private law firms to ensure that there's pro bono representation, because we know without a lawyer in the immigration proceedings, particularly when you've got children who are five, six, seven to eight years old, that they wind up being deported when many of them are actually here on an asylum, seeking asylum, because they are victims of violence and abuse in the countries that they've fled.

Thank you, Council Member Moore, and thank you for your comments always that you provide to ensure that our residents know that you stand with them in these really challenging moments in our history.

The program that they just ended on March 21st, the unaccompanied children's program, UCP, this is gonna have a huge, huge impact on organizations like Kind Kids in Need of Defense, NERP, some organizations are having to actually shut down their entire office because their funding all comes from the federal government and through the UCP program, and so they won't be able to actually provide that legal assistance to those children that are going through our immigration system.

And let me just say, our immigration system is a civil system and not a criminal system, but the two look alike.

Even if you look at the immigration detention spaces or centers, they operate like jails.

And similarly, when kids are coming through the court system, they're having to defend themselves in court and prove their case.

This is a moment where organizations that do provide assistance to children do need additional support.

And so we're doing what we can in our office.

We have set up a rapid response program and have redirected some of our citizenship program dollars to address some of the the issues that are more pressing happening in this time to meet the moment.

And we are in coordination with KIND and will provide support to them.

But in all honesty, the impact is so huge and so great that what we can offer as a as an office is a drop in the bucket.

And so we're trying to figure out other creative ways to elevate that need.

And so we're talking to our partners at the state, we're gonna elevate it to the county.

And there's even some foundations that are interested in providing support.

So to your point, Council Member Rivera, this is a time where we recognize that these issues are regional and we got to come together to help address them.

And so we're thinking about other ways to elevate the need and bring new partners to the table that could potentially support.

But as of right now, KIND in particular is considering or in the process of having to shut down their offices because of that UCP program being rescinded or term being terminated.

And I can just add really quick.

We have our legal defense LDN program, and we are still working with NERP, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Colectiva, and Kind as things are shifting.

So we are, with those groups, representing close to 100 children at any time.

So as things are shifting.

But as Hamdi mentioned, the shifts are extremely abrupt right now.

I think KIND is assessing, and a lot of these groups that have more national presences are assessing where they can and can't work with the funding streams that they have.

And KIND, in particular, worked with over 900 law firms that were helping provide that pro bono support.

So that entire network is being disrupted.

And we still do have some funding to still help some of those groups.

But as Hamdi mentioned, things are shifting very rapidly.

And we're working on rapid response funding to meet a lot of those needs as well.

Thank you.

It sounds like, well, we provide funding through our legal defense network that you all administer for the city.

And it sounds like you've got some children that you're supporting, but it also sounds like KIND is working with pro bono attorneys to provide the service as well.

I'd love to hear at some point, Director Muhammad, I know things are shifting and it's hard to figure out what the need is. how many kids are getting caught from our city.

It would be helpful if KIND is tracking this or who is tracking what the need is in terms of legal services, for instance, that would be really helpful.

I know it's a moving piece.

So when things are moving and shifting so rapidly, it becomes hard to figure out, but you all have partnerships.

Let's stay in touch about that so we can get more information to figure out how to best support, if you will.

That will be important.

Council member Moore, did you have any other questions or comments?

Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off if you were trying to say something.

Oh, no, I just wanted to just express my huge dismay at the information that was provided, but also thank you so much for your rapid response team and doing what you are doing to try to fill the holes.

And also to the extent that council can be of assistance in that around dollars, getting messages out to the community, more than happy to entertain that.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Moore.

Councilmember Rink, Vice Chair Rink.

Thank you, Chair Rivera.

And thank you colleagues today for today's presentation.

I wanna publicly express my heartbreak and anger that we're here and seeing what we're seeing in this moment.

I wanna thank Council Member Moore for her question as well about what are the plans and what are we doing to address this major change in our service ecosystem right now?

And I had a similar question along those lines just, I'd like to understand and get a sense of what it would even take to backfill that loss of that funding for legal services for kiddos.

And certainly would love to hear if there are updates.

Should Kind be put in a position where they are closing their doors?

Would like to hear updates on how that is shaping up.

And certainly would love to know if Foundations in the philanthropic world is able to come in and step in support in this moment.

So any updates on that front would certainly be really welcome.

I'm tremendously concerned about that.

And building on that point, I want to highlight two cases that have been, you know, grabbing some headlines specifically, and I want to name specifically Llewellyn Dixon as well as Lelo Juarez, two cases in our community that have really activated a number of members in this community.

Cases of detention, I believe both are currently detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, and I know there's Some actions going on tonight, some calls to action.

I'm curious.

I know these are our two cases that have made some headlines, particularly related to what seems to be unconstitutional detainment, candidly.

I'm wondering if your office is tracking any other cases as well of our community members that are experiencing unconstitutional detainment.

Thank you, Councilmember Rinks, vice chair of the committee.

I appreciate your questions and also your commitment to helping address these issues and for standing up the select committee on all things federal administration and policy changes.

With the question about Kine and some of these offices closing, I'm happy to circle back and see if we can get you guys specific data that would be helpful for you.

I don't know if they've pulled that information just yet, but happy to.

The short answer to that is having to shut down an entire office means hundreds of caseloads that will not be addressed and that they'll have to figure out what to do about it and parcel.

But I can try to see if we can get the exact numbers that they're dealing with.

The question about detention, there's a lot of stories we definitely hear.

The organization White Wisen, the Washington Solidarity Network, has a hotline and their hotline receives calls from community members who are either detained or know somebody that's getting detained.

And they have said that their calls have tripled and a large amount of their calls do come from the city of Seattle is what they've recently shared with us.

I don't have a breakdown of that data, but that is something that I can ask them for and provide back to the council.

Certainly.

Thank you.

And I think what is clear, again, as we are seeing more and more cases of detainment within the city, we are seeing a chilling effect.

People are, there is a culture of fear.

And I know our office has heard about people deciding not to send their kiddos to school out of fear of what could happen in family separation.

So the impacts have just been so real.

And again, wanted to take a moment to name these two particular cases that are of community leaders.

And certainly there's a lot of rallying around their cases.

particularly for today.

My second or third piece here that I want to name, something that came to our office's attention recently is related to data security, and we've been getting a lot of questions about data security, city-based data, and I want to thank you for starting your presentation off by really naming the importance of Keep Washington Working.

It is tremendously important.

We want to make sure people know and understand just how powerful that law is, and it's fantastic.

And it has also come to our attention that there are some elements of this that could present a challenge.

And namely, I want to say that it's come to our attention that any data storage outside of Washington State is not covered by Keep Washington Working.

So we've been fielding a number of questions about whether or not city data is stored on cloud-based services.

And if it is, that could present a challenge of being able to circumvent and take that data.

And we've seen other cases happening in California and Illinois with subcontracting out for cloud-based services and that data then being able to be taken and used by ICE.

And so I'm wondering if you can speak to a little bit more of that and particularly if there are avenues where we as the city can explore trying to find ways to keep that data within Washington State so we can really empower, keep Washington working to do its job and really protecting that data.

Yeah, and thank you for that question.

And obviously data security breaches and even cyber attacks is something that we are seeing across the board.

And I think it would be an important conversation that we could have with Seattle IT as well.

Our city policy that says we don't ask about immigration questions should help the city from collecting any information that would then jeopardize someone's status.

And so that's what we encourage all departments to do is not collect that information.

And I just want to say that the city is focused on using its resources on city business, but the city does not interfere with federal agencies acting under judicial order or otherwise within the law.

And so we just don't collect the information.

And so a lot of that information should not be stored in our system.

But to do a more deeper dive, I would be happy to see if we can connect with Seattle IT and provide you with a briefing.

Madam Chair, I don't know if that's something that maybe is an executive session discussion or if you all want to, if you want us to make that connection.

Not sure how we start that conversation, but I'm happy to look into it and help the council.

Yeah, certainly appreciate that clarification and, again, what kind of laws we are abiding by and the kinds of data collection that is happening.

I'll be specific and say the point around some of the new forms of surveillance technology that have online and the capturing of video, so things that we're not intentionally collecting or asking questions about, but some of this video footage, which would, to my understanding, be stored on cloud-based technology and technically across state lines could be vulnerable.

Um, and so would like to have a continued discussion about that and what kind of, if there's any, um, it, it sounds like there could be some vulnerabilities in that.

And so how can we be able to keep that data stored perhaps within Washington state is certainly the conversation I'd like to have.

Yeah, those are obviously serious concerns that you're elevating.

And if there's any way that our office could be helpful and, and those conversations happy to, um, be at the table to, to discuss and figure out how to best address that.

Thank you, Council Member Rank for raising that.

When Council passed that, and Council Member Moore, I'll let you weigh in too, because I know you and I both had privacy concerns when we passed that legislation that we included in the ordinance, in part because of these particular issues that you're raising and some other issues as well as people are getting reproductive and gender affirming care, all that went into consideration and we put some safeguards into the legislation.

Council Member Moore, I know you wanna weigh in on this as well.

I'll let you, excuse me.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I just saw the article about, I think some jurisdictions cooperating with ICE and their data and I had been really concerned about that vis-a-vis ALPR.

So did put in some additional provisions relating to contract terms because the data is stored on the cloud, not in the state.

So had put in some additional provisions relating to notification and also requiring that as a term of the contract that they agree not to share the data and to keep us surprised if they received any subpoenas.

But we recently followed up after reading that article on The Guardian and received the message from Brian Mack, that Axon, who's our vendor, has confirmed that they do not share any of our data with third parties, which would include the federal government.

That is their company policy.

It's also baked into our contract, SPD's contract for all data, not just ALPR.

per the ordinance and also previously submitted contract language.

SPD does not share ALPR data with any third-party companies.

They have not received any PDRs, subpoenas, warrants, or other requests from any party for ALPR data since we went live with Axon last year, and they do not respond to federal administrative warrants per law and policy.

um so again i think there's always uh room we always need to be vigilant and mindful about uh data being shared and i'm i don't share that information to minimize this as a concern uh just to provide a little bit of reassurance that we're paying attention and to date data per policy and law is not being shared um but again something that we do continue to need to be vigilant thank you

Thank you, council member Moore.

And thank you for providing additional information there.

Cause like I said, you and I were very much active when this, we were going to pass this legislation to make sure that we were protecting folks as part of that, the allowance for that type of technology.

So I did wanna say also that, I wanted to mention the two cases that Councilmember Rank you raised, Alfredo Juarez from Cedro Woolley and then Llewellyn Dixon from Pierce County.

And so those are two folks that are outside of Seattle but that are caught up in this.

But that's just two of many, many people.

And, of course, we have Seattle residents who are also caught up.

in this and you know we're doing all we can and I again appreciate all your efforts there and we will continue to work together to figure out how to best support the need in Seattle I, again, can you clarify, um, uh, because the unaccompanied minors, the, the legal assistance was, um, uh, reversed in terms of taking the legal assistance away.

And I want to make sure that we have, we have, and this is the point folks is that since there's so much KSM back and forth people, even we might not have the latest.

And so I want to say again, for the record that this was an executive order that had been issued and it recently got reversed.

in the last couple of days.

Thank you, Madam Chair, for that question.

And it is confusing, and it can confuse us because there's memos and executive orders and different things that get introduced and overturned at times.

So what happened, the timeline is on February 18, the legal aid was halted.

They basically put out a stop work order.

And then the administration themselves, the Trump administration, then rescinded that.

three days later.

And then now this list week on March 21st, this past week, they permanently terminated the UCP program and put it to an end.

So it went back and forth.

But as of now, they've cut all of the funding for the UCP program, which is the unaccompanied children's program, which is a federal program.

Thank you for the update because again, It's like the back and forth of seemingly every day.

It's hard to figure out what's what, and it's important to get the information out there.

So thank you for clarifying.

Thank you for the question.

And I think, Azmi, you had something to...

I just wanted to add something on before.

As we were talking about various ICE raids that we're seeing in media affecting community members, it's definitely something that we are tracking very heavily locally and then also on a broader federal level as well, so that we're seeing kind of where, in terms of the Know Your Rights trainings that we're giving both internally and externally, that we're making sure that those trainings are as adaptive and reflected to you know, what's happening in terms of, you know, raids or confrontations between federal immigration enforcement.

So we want to make sure people are, have as up-to-date of knowledge in terms of their rights, and also, you know, we're sharing, again, like messaging that makes sense without trying to spread any fear.

But I think that we want to make sure that we give people a sense of the rights that they have, but also the gray areas that are kind of coming out of this administration as well.

Thank you, Asmi, and also just how we're working to Councilmember Moore's point with our partners with KIND, NERP, and others on what do we do now that they now have eliminated the UCP.

That's all really critical, obviously, and so we'll keep partnering and we'll I'm sure I will, my commitment is to make sure we keep our lines of communication open, Director Mohammed, so I'm sharing with colleagues, obviously colleagues, you don't have to wait to get information from me.

Everyone can reach out to our Director Mohammed directly, but just know that she and I are in regular check-ins to get more information.

As I learn more, I certainly will continue to share, so.

Yes, go ahead, Director Muhammad.

Yeah, and if I can just say, I really appreciate the grace that you guys give because it is an evolving space and the immigration policies are, we've all heard is the term our immigration system is broken.

And so the policies change, they evolve, they look similar to each other at times.

And so it's easy to get confused.

And so I just appreciate the grace that you all provide and the opportunities to provide clarification.

And Madam Chair, you always are thinking about your colleagues as you ask me for information and are always being thoughtful and making sure that we give you the information so that you can also accurately get that information out to your colleagues.

And so it's a positive and healthy channel of communication that we have.

And I will try to do my absolute best to make sure that we give you the information that you need so that everyone has timely information.

Thank you, Director Mohammed.

I know how hard you work to make sure that our residents and our community members are taken care of and that we have the information, but more importantly, that you're providing the service to folks in community, because that's the point.

And we can sit here and talk about how well we work together, and we do, and that is important, and so that's why we wanna share how well we're working together for folks that are viewing.

Like, we are all in this together.

We are.

And everyone is giving focus to this at the city and we will continue to.

And it is ever evolving, but I feel confident that with you there and your team, you're doing a great job keeping apprised and with our external partners, you work so well with the external partners that we're getting as best information we can given the changing everyday landscape.

Um, so thank you again for all your efforts, colleagues, unless anyone has any other questions.

Um, I want to thank director Muhammad again, um, and as me, and I'm going to do one last thing because my clerk, um, uh, reminded me that we never read this item into the record.

Apologies for that.

So item, can you read, I mean, clerk, can you read the item into the record?

For clarification, this item that was discussed was agenda item two, status of federal immigration's actions for briefing and discussion.

Thank you, clerk.

Again, thank you, Director Muhammad.

Thank you, Azmi, for being here.

Thanks for having us.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

All right, colleagues.

Seeing there are no further questions, this concludes the March 27, 2025 meeting of the Libraries Education and Neighborhoods Committee.

Colleagues, as you know, we're gonna be starting our select committee for the Families Education Preschool Promise Levy.

The Libraries Education and Neighborhoods Committee meetings will be paused so that we can take up that work.

There will be probably one more of the Libraries Education and Neighborhoods Committee meeting between now and the end of June when we are looking into the levy, doing our levy work, to probably take care of some other appointments.

But this will probably be the second to last land committee meeting until the end of June after we're done with our FEP levy committee work.

All right, if there's no further business, this meeting will adjourn.

Hearing no further business, it's 1044 AM and this meeting is adjourned.