Tag: Port of Tacoma

The lawsuit claims Tacoma has tried to keep the detention center from expanding because the City Council objects to President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies. The private company that runs the immigrant-detention center on Tacoma’s Tideflats is suing over an ordinance the City Council passed that makes it almost impossible for the detention center to expand. A deputy city attorney said in a statement the ordinance was meant to protect economically valuable land in the Port of Tacoma from encroachment by nonindustrial uses, including detention and correctional facilities. “At this time we are still reviewing and assessing GEO Group’s specific claims, but maintain that the zoning and regulatory changes at issue are a lawful exercise of the city’s authority.” New land-use limits The City Council began looking at ways to limit the expansion of the detention center in early 2017, soon after Trump took office. In March 2017, the council voted to severely limit where new public correctional facilities could be sited and voted to ban new or expanded private correctional facilities across the city. That was meant to include the Northwest Detention Center, the only private detention facility in Tacoma. When the City Council took up the issue again last month, it had three new council members and a new mayor. The Northwest Detention Center now is considered a nonconforming use, and any expansions that would increase its capacity would be processed as “major modifications” under the city code, the lawsuit says Effort to disrupt? “While city staff and officials may not agree with the federal government’s current implementation of immigration policies, its attempt to disrupt these critical federal functions through land use regulations is beyond the city’s land use regulatory authority,” it reads. GEO said in a statement that while the company never takes a position on issues related to immigration enforcement, “It is important to understand that banning a privately-operated immigration center in Tacoma will not stop or change federal immigration policies.