Washington bill seeks to prevent bail bond agents from enforcing immigration law

Yahoo

14-03-2025

(Photo by Kameleon007/iStock Getty Images Plus)
Tucked away in a corner of Washington's Yakima Valley is the small town of Sunnyside, made up of roughly 17,000 residents, a majority of whom are Latino and some lack legal status.
In January, shortly after President Donald Trump took office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raised fear in the local immigrant community when they arrested two people in the parking lot of Fiesta Foods, the largest ​Latino grocery in town.
Local leaders later held a meeting to address some of these concerns. In that public meeting, a person who claimed to be a 'bounty hunter' said ICE would soon use bail bond agents to arrest people in the U.S. without legal authorization and pay them $1,000 for every arrest made.
Washington lawmakers have since introduced Senate Bill 5714, which seeks to prevent bail bond agents from enforcing civil immigration warrants and sharing a defendant's immigration status with anyone outside their business.
It would expand the list of unprofessional conduct for the agents to include those activities and enable the Department of Licensing to enforce disciplinary action if agents are found to be in violation.
The bill passed the Senate last week with bipartisan support and will next be heard in the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee.
'It's needed because sometimes people can operate right on the boundaries and clarification of boundaries can help ensure that everyone knows exactly what they are and exactly what will happen if folks step over them,' said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma.
A bail bond agency is a business that sells and issues bonds to guarantee a criminal defendant will appear in court. The agents are not considered law enforcement officers and they must be licensed by the state's Department of Licensing.
Agents are subject to discipline by the department for unprofessional conduct. Consequences can include revoked or suspended licenses, probation or fines.
'I really dislike seeing people acting as law enforcement when they are not truly law enforcement,' said Sen. Nikki Torres, R-Pasco, one of the co-sponsors of the bill. 'They're pretty much a glorified bill collector is what a bail bond agent recovery appears to be.'
For weeks after the incident in Sunnyside, stores were emptier than usual, employees didn't come to work, and kids didn't show up to school, said Mike Gonzalez, the city manager. He said while things have gotten better, people are still worried.
In a small town like Sunnyside, this can affect the local economy. If fewer people are out making purchases, sales taxes can decline and that can eventually undermine services.
Meanwhile, in Missouri, the Legislature looked into awarding a $1,000 bounty for tips resulting in the arrest of an immigrant without legal authorization to be in the U.S. The bill would also have allowed for bounty hunters or bail bond agents to track down people identified using the information. This Missouri bill failed to move forward.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment about whether they plan to use bail bond agents to enforce immigration law.
'We're going to just make it crystal clear that sharing information and collaborating, whether that is contracting or any other form of collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is outside the scope of professional conduct,' Trudeau said.
The person who made the comments at the public meeting in Sunnyside was not a bail bond agent, Torres and the Washington State Bail Agents' Association confirmed.
In written testimony to the Senate Law and Justice Committee, the president of the association, Courtney Wimer, said bail bond agents do not currently have authority to get involved in immigration enforcement.
Gonzalez still has concerns. 'The problem is when there's dollars to be made, people will try to make the money and in this particular case I think it's particularly egregious to target individuals to make money off them because of their immigration status.'
'We need to eradicate these types of endeavors,' he added.