Ferguson creates WA rapid response team to prep for mass deportations

Gov. Bob Ferguson announced a state rapid response team Monday to try to help families of those targeted for deportation by the Trump administration.

The Family Separation Rapid Response Team, which Ferguson created via executive order, will be housed within the Department of Children, Youth and Families.

The team intends to help children whose parents are deported, especially in situations such as if a parent is taken into custody while a child is in school. The team would work to make sure those kids continue to have someone to care for them and have uninterrupted access to school.

President Donald Trump has been clear about his intentions for mass deportations, Ferguson said.

“So I want to be clear about the impacts,” the governor said at an event Monday morning at the Centilia Cultural Center in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. “It means ripping families apart. It means kids losing their parents. It means businesses losing their workers, it means communities being significantly altered.”

The new team, he said, would include representatives from Department of Children, Youth and Families, the Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance, the Washington State Patrol and the governor’s office.

“I will be directly involved in this,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson said the state, largely through the Attorney General’s Office would push back if officials think the president goes beyond the law, but that the president has a lot of legal authority when it comes to immigration.

“A dozen years ago it would be unimaginable we’d be having this conversation, so even a state like Washington isn’t necessarily prepared for this because who could imagine we’d be going through something like this?” Ferguson said.

David Gutman, The Seattle Times 206-464-2926 or dgutman@seattletimes.com.