The Trump administration’s practice of using masked federal agents during immigration detentions has sparked panic over whether people are being abducted, and if so, by whom.

If Seattle Police are called to these encounters, Chief Operating Officer Brian Maxey said they will treat them as Priority 1 calls attended by an officer and a supervisor.

“We do our best to identify [if] this is a legitimate federal agency of some kind,” Maxey said. “What we’ve been hearing from other jurisdictions is while the agents don’t always identify themselves to community members that ask, they typically do to local law enforcement.”

Maxey said SPD is developing new guidance for officers responding to these calls, as announced in executive orders signed by Mayor Bruce Harrell on Oct. 8.

Maxey said police can’t obstruct federal enforcement, but under state and city laws they won’t facilitate or help coordinate it either.

“What we’re very focused on are the collateral effects of any actions they take,” Maxey said. “If a demonstration gathers, we don’t abdicate our responsibility to the people of Seattle to facilitate that demonstration and make sure it proceeds lawfully and peacefully. That could be seen as us facilitating ICE, it’s not. We’d be responding to that within our jurisdiction.”

RELATED: As tensions rise in Chicago, volunteers patrol neighborhoods to oppose ICE and help migrants escape

Maxey said a supervisor’s presence is meant to provide a coordinated response to any issues that arise.

“We just don’t want to be in the world of having an officer having to make these high-level complicated nuanced decisions without access to additional guidance as necessary,” he explained.

Greg Wong, Seattle’s deputy mayor and general counsel, said SPD’s presence can at the very least shed more light on federal operations.

“That’s why under the directive there’ll also be a requirement that body-worn cameras are turned on, and that we’re documenting these interactions as well to increase transparency,” Wong said.

Harrell’s office is also drafting two ordinances – one banning the use of face masks by law enforcement, and the other prohibiting the use of city property for federal immigration enforcement “to the extent permissible by law.”

Those ordinances are expected to be completed in the next two weeks.

The city is taking these measures amidst concerns that Trump could deploy the National Guard in Seattle as he’s attempting to do in Portland.

“It’s all speculative until it’s reality,” Wong said.

Wong called the use of tear gas by federal agents against residents and local police in the city of Chicago “unnecessary and scary.”

RELATED: Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow National Guard deployment in Illinois

Maxey said such a deployment in Seattle would be “counterproductive to all.”

“This really needs to be handled on a political and legal setting rather than out on the streets in public,” he said.

Wong said he’s hoping Seattle remains peaceful, since any confrontation during the upcoming “No Kings” anti-Trump protests could inflame things further.

“If there’s something that goes sideways on that at all or any sort of thing that happens that damages federal property, that could be the excuse” for federal intervention, he said.

Maxey said he’s currently attending a conference of police chiefs from major cities.

“I was just talking to Chief [Bob] Day out of Portland and admiring the absurdly peaceful protests that are happening down there that are so wonderful, because you can’t do much in a frog suit,” he said. “If we could go that direction, we’d love it.”

RELATED: Naked bike ride protest caps week of demonstrations in Portland

Those protesters have gathered outside a federal immigration facility in Portland.

KUOW sought a response to these proposals by the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

She responded with a statement referencing the federal administration’s efforts to deploy the National Guard in Portland.

“Secretary [Kristi] Noem visited Portland where she met with state and local officials and made it clear that these sanctuary politicians must take action and deliver security measures to protect law enforcement and the public from violent agitators and rioters, ” the statement said.

McLaughlin said Secretary Noem “is willing to send 4 times the number of federal law enforcement to Portland to re-establish law and order and keep the community safe from the violence of Antifa and other dangerous rioters.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/20/is-seattle-ready-for-portland-like-federal-response-police-city-leaders-take-preemptive-steps/