Restrictive zoning laws are proving to be a thorn in the side of progressive politics in Spokane, slowing housing production and limiting projects like neighborhood cafes or day care centers in residential areas — all code the Spokane City Council has been working to roll back. Next Monday, however, new zoning policy could be a strange bedfellow for local electeds looking to combat federal immigration enforcement.
On Tuesday, February 17, Mayor Lisa Brown announced a new policy seeking to ban detention facilities in Spokane city limits. The ordinance, which was proposed as an interim emergency measure, would expand city zoning code — which already bans the operation of detention facilities in downtown Spokane — to cover the whole city, effectively prohibiting any private property owners from leasing their land or buildings for the purpose of operating a detention center.
“From detaining children to withholding access to health care, serious questions have been raised about the legality of current practices in detention facilities run by [the Department of Homeland Security]. We know the Trump Administration is actively moving to expand its detention efforts, and this ordinance is one more step we are taking locally to resist being a part of this agenda,” Brown stated in a press release.
Brown described her proposal as closing a loophole left by a 2021 state ban on new privately-operated detention centers and a previous ban on downtown detention centers that left it theoretically possible for the federal government to buy and operate its own detention center elsewhere in Spokane.
In reality, the mayor’s proposal goes even further.
Because the 9th Circuit of Appeals struck down a similar statewide ban in California in 2024, and Washington is no longer enforcing the ban, Brown’s ordinance would do more than just close a loophole, effectively using zoning code to ban all detention centers across the city.
It could be voted into law as soon as March 2, council members say — though it is currently scheduled for March 16 — taking effect immediately and staying in place for a full year, after which it could be adopted as permanent code in the city’s Comprehensive Plan update.
At that same meeting, the Spokane City Council could also vote to approve an ordinance to bar federal immigration agents from using city-owned property for any immigration enforcement activities, including staging and surveillance, without a judicial warrant. This ordinance, sponsored by Council Members Paul Dillon, Sarah Dixit and Kate Telis, is scheduled for a first reading on Monday, February 23, pending a technical amendment up for a vote earlier in the day, and a vote on March 2.
Once passed, it would take effect immediately, Dillon told RANGE, though it will take a bit longer to get the signage posted at city property, communicating in multiple languages that the land can’t be used for immigration enforcement.
What the ordinances would *not* do
These policy proposals come as the U.S. government has continued to eye expanding federal immigration enforcement operations in Washington. A competitive lease proposal was posted on the government contracting website in September 2025 seeking proposals for fully furnished office space in Spokane that could support at least 70 federal law enforcement agents. The proposal was referenced in a recent article from WIRED detailing expansion efforts across the country, including a new office space in Tukwila.
Because Brown’s new ordinance only targets detention centers — which are defined by city code as places for "judicially required detention or incarceration” where people are held “under 24-hour supervision” — it wouldn’t stop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from leasing more office space.
It also doesn’t cancel the department’s current lease at 411 W. Cataldo Ave., in the historic downtown Broadview Dairy Building, despite the fact that immigrants are regularly held there before being bussed to the ICE detention center in Tacoma. That building is not classified as a detention center either, but as a mixed-use space. It is owned by the LLC Shooting the Moon II and managed by the Goodale & Barbieri company (which is currently trying to rent out the restaurant space in the same building). DHS’s current lease there expires in July.
While Brown’s ordinance wouldn’t stop private property owners from leasing office space to DHS, it could force the federal government to look outside city limits for a new detention center.
The ordinance also can’t stop new detention centers from being opened right outside city limits — that authority would fall to the County Commissioners.
DHS recently posted a presolicitation notice for, “A service provider-owned/service provider-operated detention facility … to provide comprehensive detention, transportation, and food services for ICE detainees located in the Seattle, WA area in support of the ICE Enforcement and Removal (ERO) Seattle Field Office.”
The ICE ERO Seattle Field Office oversees much of the Northwest, including all of Eastern Washington, which means that a new facility responding to the notice could be sited in or near Spokane. The posting was for a space with room to house roughly 1,500 men and 150 women, expanding detention services in the region slighty.
Because ICE has yet to announce whether it will renew its contract with private for-profit detention center operator GEO Group to continue running the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma — despite repeated contract failures and human rights violations — the most recent contract posting could just be in search of a new operator for that facility, but it also lists capacity requirements above what the current building can legally house.
In January 2025, the General Services Administration (GSA), which handles leases for federal agencies, also posted looking to lease at least 2,000 square feet of warehouse space in Spokane. It is unclear what federal agency the warehouse was for, or whether or not a bid has been accepted. The Washington Post recently broke the news that the federal government plans to acquire warehouses across the country to hold immigrants, though none were initially planned for Washington. The GSA roster of federally leased properties doesn’t currently include any properties in Spokane rented after 2025.
While no awards for DHS leases have been announced for Spokane yet, the federal government has been moving quickly to lease spaces across the country for immigration enforcement, with award notices for other cities posted daily, as part of DHS’s breakneck and often secretive campaign to scale up.
As for the Dillon/Dixit/Telis ordinance, it would not be able to ban libraries and parks from being used by federal immigration agents, because the city charter gives that control solely to the Library Board and Parks Board, respectively. If an amendment from Dillon passes on Monday, the city ordinance would make that clear while also requesting that those bodies pass their own bans.
It also wouldn’t require police officers to go toe-to-toe with ICE agents to trespass them, instead creating a civil remedy that allows private citizens the right to sue.
You can sign up to testify on these ordinances at future Spokane City Council meetings here.
