On Friday, July 7, 2017, the City of Burien received an initiative petition asking to place on a ballot the repeal of Burien Ordinance No. 651.

The “immigration status ordinance” directs Burien City staff and law enforcement personnel to not inquire about immigration status or religious affiliation.

This new petition asks that an ordinance repealing Ordinance 651 be submitted to a vote of the registered voters of the City of Burien.

The Burien City Clerk received the signed petitions by appointment on Friday, July 7. Following RCW 35A.01.040(4), the City Clerk delivered the signed petitions to King County Elections on July 11, 2017. Washington state law requires petitions be delivered within 3 business days of receipt.

King County Elections will have the signatures counted no later than July 14, 2017.

According to RCW 35A.11.100, petitions for initiatives must be signed by at least 15 percent of the total number of registered voters within the City on the day of the last preceding City general election. Burien had 24,291 active registered voters according to the 2015 General Election validation summary report. A total of 3,643 valid signatures of City of Burien registered voters are needed to meet the sufficiency requirement of the law.

If there are enough valid signatures, then the County certifies the petition. After certification, the Burien City Council must take one of two actions: either pass the proposed ordinance without any alteration within 20 days of the receipt of certificate or immediately pass a resolution directing the County to place the proposed ordinance on the next general election date (November 7, 2017). The cost of adding this to the general election ballot is paid by the City of Burien.

If the petition is not certified, the petitioners have 10 days from the date of the certification decision to gather and transmit additional signatures.

Read our extensive previous coverage on this issue here.

More information about Ordinance 651:

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22 replies on “City of Burien receives petition seeking repeal of ‘Sanctuary City’ ordinance #651”

  1. Please keep Burien a sanctuary city. Burien is a city of inclusion and the celebration (not just tolerance) of culture and family and love! When this hateful time passes, history will shine on those who stood up with integrity for the rights of all people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!

  2. Sad to see that there are enough bigots in Burien to even propose this initiative. No person is illegal!!

  3. Speaking as a white person, it is my experience that white people are committing the most crimes in Burien. Undocumented persons, for the most part are the most law-abiding group that we have. They came here for a better life, as did most of society’s ancestors. They are much less likely to commit crimes or drive recklessly for fear of running into ICE. They are paying taxes and enriching the community with restaurants, small shops and churches. They are here because rich corporations hire them. If you’re upset about this, you should be venting at the big corporations. As long as there are jobs here, people will come.

    1. Rich corporations like Boeing, Amazon, Microsoft etc utilize the work visa program. Landscaping, painting, private construction and general labor companies etc utilize illegal labor. If every company followed the law and used E-Verify we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Paying taxes at the grocery store is differant than an employer paying it’s workers cash under the table and not contributing to SS etc. What about all the private rental units housing far above its agreement and all those kids now in the school system and not paying for it.

      1. QA – The simple categorizing that you are depicting as ‘fact’ is just not so. If for no other reason than you have skipped many sections of our economy that hire people who come to our country to improve their lot in life. Companies like hotels, resorts, hospitals, clinics and care facilities, the oil industry, the entire produce industry, forest and land management and law enforcement, just to name a few. Stating that you know who is legal and who is not by such ‘job indicators’, is ridiculous. It is best to know people as individuals, rather than try to paint them with a broad brush of unfounded categorization.

        1. That does not preclude the fact that those businesseses, including the big H1b users, still bring foreign indivduals in at the expense of US citizen opportunities. Especially those who don’t comply with the E-verify or particpate in government programs for temporary labor imports for actual demonstrated shortages in agriculture.

          That is encourged as well by paying substandard wages US citizens are not able to live on, then claiming a shortage. Or claiming to pay living wages, and creating contracts that claim it, but ten actually paying them less and pocketing the difference. Illegals don’t complain…

          This has been going on for a long time in residental housing construction especially. E-verify does little to discourage it in reality.

        2. All right, I’ll agree to coming to America to better ones life and all the ways to earn a living but follow the immigration laws to do it. Border jumping is blatantly disrespectful to the rule of law and sets a bad precedent to continue breaking them.

  4. Indeed no person is illegal, but people commit illegal acts. Being in this country without a proper visa or immigration documents is illegal. Same as a intoxicated driver is an illegal driver.

    The United States has immigration laws and procedures. Just follow them and there is no need for this kind of nonsense.

    What other sanctuary city provision is needed? Let Burien become the sanctuary city for the people that are fleeing Seattle for its income tax. That will be good for the economy.

    1. Being here is illegal, but not like drunk driving, which is a clear danger to others. The crime and penalties are more like those for setting off illegal fireworks and I find the latter to be more of a hazard than an illegal resident.

  5. The most dangerous folks i see in Burien are closeminded white folks who are allergic to community and diversity. This ordinance harms no on but hurts plenty in taking it away.

  6. Signature gatherers have been lying to our citizens about the ordinance, claiming that it has the support of the King County Sheriff (it DOES) and that it prohibits the enforcement laws (again, it DOES NOT).

    If you signed this petition and regret doing so, you can change your mind by writing “I wish to remove my support of the petition to repeal Burien ordinance 651” along with your name, address, and signature. Take a photo of that letter and email it to [email protected] (Jacob is the Elections Supervisor) Then, tell your friends who may have signed it how they can remove their names from this awful list.

    Please use your real name if you want to continue the discussion on this site; anonymous comments are from cowards.

    1. I had one petition bearer tell me a police officer said it kept them from investigating gang members or activities. I asked how they knew that was true, and asked if they made any attempts to validate that claim. I strongly suspect it comes down to trusting Facebook and the classic “appeal to authority” I guess….

      Fear and propaganda are not a substitute for facts….

  7. I am neither pro nor con on Sanctuary Cities in part because the term is so variously interpreted. I tend to think of a sanctuary as a place for refugees of war torn and dysfunctional countries. This could include people from Mexico with its drug lords/wars, but there are many other places in the world that people are fleeing for their lives. Imagine having to give everything up, to save yourself, your family. None the less, being a sanctuary city might make Burien a target for Trump and Attorney General Sessions anger. That would imped Burien’s near future development and may not help any aliens in our area by drawing attention to them.

    On the possibility of a pro side, we might look at the way Seattle is in it’s largest growth spurt in many year … and it is a sanctuary city. Aligning our selves with what they are doing to welcome the high tech industry, might be worthwhile.

  8. This petition is coming from out-of-state Tweetler adherents. “Sanctuary” simply means that the cops are not going to go out of their way to do ICE’s job for them. We pride ourselves in being a fair and welcoming community.

  9. Cities should be a sanctuary for its citizens. Illegals, even those here by virtue of an anchor baby or ten, are not citizens. They are illegals. Illegals place a huge burden on schools and welfare systems. These parasites slurp up welfare dollars and help to deny American children an adequate education, as schools must cater to illegals who refuse to assimilate into American society. If it is not practical to deport ALL of them then the only other alternative is to make their life in this country so miserable (deny them work, shelter, and all things necessary to exist) that they are forced to self deport. Those who claim that enabling illegals to violate American Law is “compassionate” are no better than the savage illegal rapist who violated a CITIZEN of Burien. While she recovers from this hideous crime illegals still wander our streets, looking for new victims. Build the wall, deport them ALL!

  10. Who are these people on the city council that want to keep violent criminals in your neighborhood? Rapists, drug dealers, MS 13 gang members, murderers.

    e-verify is a voluntary program. WHY? Ask your politicians.
    H1b visa immigrants are highly skilled/educated. Doubt they commit violent crimes at the same rate as illegals coming across the southern border – where, coincidentally, 99.99% of all drugs come from which, also coincidentally, is the main reason for this homeless epidemic we have in every town/city.

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