In its growing battle with the Trump administration over the rights of illegal immigrants, the Wilson administration has doubled to $1.2 million, the money it will pay for lawyers to represent ICE detainees fighting deportation orders.
The $1.2 million is part of a broader $4 million increase to the city’s Office of Immigration and Refugee Affairs this year aimed at not only helping immigrants fight ICE, but to gain citizenship, obtain employment and adjust to life in Seattle.
The office receives around $10 million a year in city funding.
Seattle is one of a group of cities in the U.S including New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, that help pay for lawyers representing immigrants.
Unlike criminal defendants, illegal immigrants facing deportation have no constitutionally guaranteed right to an attorney. Conservative groups have contended that cities like Seattle are overstepping their bounds by providing representation.
Paul Guppy, senior researcher at the Washington Policy Center, a conservative leading think tank, said the Seattle policy to represent illegal immigrants comes at the expense of legal defendants.
He said while Seattle is providing legal representation for immigrants, other groups like poor criminal defendants have had difficulty in the past securing adequate legal representation because of a lack of public defenders.
He said Seattle officials have made a policy decision “to choose one group over another.”
