Yesterday a U.S. District Court judge issued a summary judgment finding for the United States in a three-year-old dispute with King County. In 2019 King County Executive Dow Constantine issued an executive order prohibiting FBOs at Boeing Field from contracting with the United States to support ICE deportation flights flying in and out of Boeing Field. The U.S. government sued.
The judge found that under the terms of the post-WWII property transfer agreement that gave ownership of Boeing Field to King County, the federal government retained access to use the airport under nondiscriminatory terms — and that Constantine’s executive order violated that term of the agreement.
Today Constantine issued a replacement Executive Order that prohibits Boeing Field from using discretionary resources to support ICE deportation flights, and directs for monitoring and data collection to be done on ICE’s use of the airport.
