ICE’s Potential New Landlord Is Also The Mayor Of A Small Lake Washington Town

According to a flyer circulating social media, advocates want to “pack the room” at a Hunts Point City Council meeting next Monday, March 2nd. It's a seemingly unusual target considering the affluent Lake Washington town has a population less than 500 people, but this isn’t about zoning or potholes or any City policy — it's about the Mayor’s day job, and more importantly, how he may soon profit from the abduction of our neighbors. 

Joseph Sabey became the Mayor of Hunts Point in 2014 and recently won his unopposed bid for reelection with 91% of the vote, which comes out to a cool 129 ballots. He’s also the President of Sabey Corporations, a commercial real estate company that seems poised to rent out office space to ICE. Now advocates are exploring methods to pressure the company to drop the lease. 

Earlier this month, WIRED revealed the Department of Homeland Security’s plans to expand ICE’s footprint, exposing dozens of new leases with ICE nationwide. WIRED listed Riverfront Technical Park, an office space at 2811 S. 102nd St. in Tukwila, among those new locations. The owner of that building, commercial real estate Sabey Corporation, at first did not confirm they would rent office space to ICE, but the Mayor of Tukwila said in a recent City Council meeting that Sabey Corporation told the City to take WIRED’s reporting “at face value.”

Because Sabey Corporation isn’t a public agency, there’s no public comment period, no vote to sway, no re-election stakes to consider. Commercial landlords don’t answer to constituents — they answer to tenants and shareholders. That forces advocates to get creative. 

On Wednesday, dozens of organizations drew a large crowd to Sabey Corporation’s headquarters in Tukwila to register their disgust with the company’s collaboration with ICE. It is unclear if any of the Sabey Corporation team members were at the building at the time or if a loud, but overall contained crowd made them reconsider taking ICE’s blood money. 

Next week, the tactic changes. Advocates will attend Hunts Point’s monthly City Council meeting, typically led by the Mayor, on Monday at 6pm. The agenda for this meeting has not been posted on the City’s website, so it’s unknown what discussion the protesters will be disrupting. 

By showing up at a Hunts Point City Council meeting, organizers are effectively collapsing the wall between Sabey’s public office and his private business, using the only democratic forum available to demand accountability for a deal that would otherwise unfold entirely behind closed doors.

Hunts Point’s waterfront mansions may feel far removed from ICE raids in South King County. On Monday, advocates plan to make that distance a little harder to maintain.