Washington officials are responding to a letter from the federal government last week demanding they end so-called “sanctuary jurisdiction” policies — local laws stopping police from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“You are hereby notified that your jurisdiction has been identified as one that engages in sanctuary policies and practices that thwart federal immigration enforcement,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote to Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson on Aug. 13. “This ends now.”
Ferguson posted on Facebook that “Washington has no intention of changing our values in the face of threats from the Trump administration.”
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown told KUOW the letter is an intimidation tactic that doesn’t rely on “a sound analysis of what the law actually requires.”
“I just think the threats from the Department of Justice and from the Trump administration are fairly hollow when it comes to the actual law,” Brown said Monday. “I think the letter is bluster, but it’s a letter from the most powerful law enforcement officer in the country. So I, as the [state’s] attorney general, I need to take it seriously.”
Washington’s “Keep Washington Working Act” strictly limits how local law enforcement can interact with federal immigration authorities. Adams County’s sheriff and Snohomish County prosecutors have recently landed in court for sharing inmate information and immigration status with federal authorities, and holding people in local jails based solely on immigration status.
The letter contained vague threats to cut federal law enforcement funding to Washington state, which Trump tried to do to other states during his first term — to mixed success. Brown said he expects the feds to try and cut federal law enforcement grants again.
“It’s really absurd, and it’s really sad, frankly, that we have an administration that is so vindictive and reckless with public safety, because every law enforcement agency in Washington state relies on assistance from the federal government to some degree or another,” Brown said.
Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank, a newly-elected conservative with a history of inflammatory posts online, recently went to D.C. to ask the federal government to intervene in Washington. Swank has been involved in litigation with his own county prosecutor over the state’s law.
“I’ve been waiting for the US Attorney General to give us a hand here,” Swank said. “I’m looking forward to warrants being issued. I’m going to have to dust off and oil up my cuffs.”
Swank didn’t make it clear who he was planning to arrest or on what grounds, and his office did not respond to a request for an interview.
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