SEATTLE, WA – Seattle is pushing for a state-level backstop to help fund immigrant services and other top priorities as the Trump administration escalates federal immigration enforcement nationwide.
The Seattle Office of Intergovernmental Relations briefed the city council on a proposed state legislative agenda for next year’s session during a council briefing on Monday. Priorities ranged from public safety to homelessness to affordability.
According to Office of Intergovernmental Relations Director Mina Hashemi, establishing the city’s legislative agenda starts in the summer with a collection of priorities throughout city departments. The most pressing needs listed in the proposed agenda come from these agreed-upon priorities.
“The city’s priorities for 2026 were carefully crafted to consider the realities of a 60-day short session and continue to build on progress made in 2025, while balancing new policy and funding requests,” Hashemi said during a city council briefing.
At the top of the agenda listed the city’s priorities in regard to federal response, with the inclusion of more protections for the city’s immigrant population, including 21,000 undocumented people.
Seattle – a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants – has continued to oppose the Trump administration’s demands to repeal local laws barring city employees, including police officers, from inquiring about someone’s immigration status, leaving ICE alone to conduct searches and arrests of illegal immigrants.
The proposed Seattle 2026 state legislative agenda includes adding protections and benefits for immigrant workers, including notice to employees of interactions with immigration officials and job and wage stability for any detained workers. Seattle also wants more support from the state for the Seattle–King County Public Health Clinic for access to health services for uninsured and immigrant communities as well as maintaining funding for asylum and migrant support services.
Typically in December, state legislators begin meeting with their committees and start previewing the biggest issues expected to be raised in the 2026 session. Legislators’ top priority will likely be a projected $2 billion funding gap in the 2026 supplemental budget caused by slowing revenue growth combined with rapidly rising costs for state programs.
Despite the budget issues facing the state, Seattle’s proposed agenda seeks more funding to provide the city and others across the state with more resources to address affordable housing and homelessness. This includes funding service-intensive shelter options, supporting permanent supportive housing operations, and expanding homelessness response funding tools in wake of an expected $40 million shortfall created by new requirements made by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Public safety – which ties affordability as the second biggest concern by Seattleites in a recent survey – is highlighted in the agenda as well. Seattle seeks more tools and increased funding from the state that supports diversified 911 and civilian alternative response models. The city is seeking more funding to help local governments hire more police officers, which is a major need across law enforcement agencies throughout Washington. The city also seeks improvements to the states’ Involuntary Treatment Act to make it more effective for first responders.
Seattle City Council Chair Sara Nelson said she intends to propose an amendment that would add language to the legislative agenda indicating support for updating the state’s controlled substance statute to include fentanyl and synthetic opioids. According to her, it currently only entails amphetamines.
The agenda is expected to be voted on by the Seattle City Council on Dec. 9. Council members can propose additional amendments to the legislative agenda before that city council meeting.
The 2026 regular state legislative session will start on Jan. 12 and conclude on March 12.
