King County Hires Flight Monitor to Track Immigration Enforcement Flights

King County in Washington has hired a flight monitoring and outreach coordinator to ensure immigration enforcement flights using its Seattle airport follow safety regulations.

The county's new employee started recently at King County International Airport, aka Boeing Field, after a month of training. The job is not exclusively focused on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flights but all those with more than 18 passengers or involving buses taking passengers to and from planes.

The move taps into the high-profile debate over the airport's role in immigration enforcement, especially during President Donald Trump's administration when his team used restraints on immigrant passengers to illustrate their tough approach.

King County officials have echoed concerns about what they see as inhumane treatment and harms caused by deportation. In 2019, then-Executive Dow Constantine banned ICE from using the airport but a court ruling overturned the order in 2023, saying the county was discriminating against the federal government.

Now, with the help of the new flight monitor, the county is fulfilling its promise to document how ICE uses the airport. The county's website shows passenger counts for every immigration enforcement flight using Boeing Field since August 1.