Washington State's Reckless Gamble: Noncitizen Law Enforcement
Allowing foreigners to patrol America's streets and prosecute its citizens is immoral and dangerous.
Instead of exclusively hiring American citizens, one of the most liberal states in the nation is now allowing foreigners to become police officers and prosecutors. This comes less than a year after this state weakened penalties against criminals who committed crimes abroad.
In a dangerous escalation of leftist lunacy, Washington has passed a law allowing noncitizens to become police officers. Senate Bill 5068, signed into law last month, expands eligibility for public-safety roles—including law enforcement support, corrections, and prosecution—to anyone "legally authorized to work in the United States under federal law."
What makes this even more egregious is that just last year, the state's Supreme Court ruled that convicted criminals cannot have convictions in foreign countries count toward their sentencing.
Ironically, Seattle attempted to defund its police force just a few years ago. Now, the liberals who run Washington are looking to do something even more insidious for its citizens—replace American law enforcement with foreign occupiers.
This marks an erosion of national sovereignty dressed up as a hiring fix—a problem itself created by Washington's Democrat leaders.
From Defund the Police to Deputize Foreigners
During the Seattle riots following George Floyd's death in 2020, most of Seattle's city council members agreed with the thugs who took over several blocks of the city that the city's police department should be halved. Although they never followed through, they did cut roughly 13 percent of the police's budget, even as crime spiked following those riots.
But the actual budget cuts weren't the worst aspect of this anti-police activism. Anti-police sentiment and the threat of being prosecuted for detaining violent criminals created a shortage of law enforcement that good vibes and social workers cannot fill. Without the support of elected officials in the face of braying mobs of communists, over 400 Seattle police officers resigned, leaving an even larger hole in the city's law enforcement.
However, as voters soured on the anti-police policies putting their city at risk and elected more moderate officials, finding replacements to fill the holes their policies created became increasingly difficult.
Now, after running patriotic Americans out of police stations, Washington is proposing to do what most employers have done since former President Joe Biden threw open the border to millions of poor people from around the world—hire those noncitizens.
Despite the damage this does to the country, this is a win-win for the Left, which has never really bought into the whole idea of nations and borders.
Foreigners—already accustomed to lower wages—get to patrol American streets at a discount to the state and local budgets. These foreign officers then feel loyal and indebted to the local liberal power structure. They are much less likely than Americans to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, making Washington communities even greater magnets for the foreign-born population in the U.S. Then, if the time comes when the liberal power structure needs them, these officers will be much more inclined to crack down on "racist" Americans who don't want them in their country, much less patrolling their streets.
An even more troubling aspect is the fact that last summer, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that crimes committed by people in foreign countries cannot be considered by judges toward their "offender score" when sentencing in Washington.
Imagine a person who committed a double homicide abroad, who gets convicted for a misdemeanor in Washington. As long as it is not a "gross misdemeanor domestic violence offense," that person could realistically become a police officer. It becomes even more troubling when one considers that noncitizens can now become prosecutors in the state.
The tribalism of foreign nationalities cannot be discounted here. Most immigrants who move to the U.S. do not come as isolated individuals. Allowing noncitizens to enter law enforcement creates moral hazard that could exacerbate the potential for discrimination and abuse against American citizens.
The U.S. as a whole, across every industry, has a problem with hiring lower-wage foreigners to do these jobs Americans allegedly won't do. Hiring noncitizens as police officers and prosecutors is the ultimate insult to Americans, especially when the reason it's difficult to hire Americans to do those jobs is because liberals in Washington turned against them and made their jobs impossible.
Law enforcement is not just another job; it is a core sovereign function. U.S. citizens alone swear the oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Noncitizens, no matter how legally present, retain primary allegiance to another flag. Americans of all political persuasions should oppose this. Giving foreigners the right to detain and prosecute Americans on American soil should be illegal nationwide.
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