WA, Seattle brace for second round of fights over ‘sanctuary’ status

It took just hours after his swearing-in for President Donald Trump to reignite a fight he waged for four years against Washington state and its more progressive counties and cities, which insist they will play little part in helping the federal government target undocumented immigrants for deportation.

One of his executive orders takes aim at “sanctuary” jurisdictions, promising to cut funding should local officials refuse to cooperate. An additional internal Department of Justice memo threatened to prosecute local officials who decline to help. 

For the more progressive governments in the state, such as Seattle, King County and Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office, the order is viewed as an affront to their sovereignty and an action to be fought. 

Some Trump-friendly Washington counties, which have chafed at a 2019 state law barring their cooperation with immigration enforcement, are more eager to lend a hand. 

Although Trump has always taken an aggressive posture toward those living in the country without documentation, his second administration has elevated hard-line voices like Stephen Miller’s, a top adviser who has targeted not only those here illegally but also those granted temporary legal status by the Biden administration. With a Trump-friendly Congress and U.S. Supreme Court — and fewer moderate voices in his cabinet — the temperature between local officials in Washington state and the federal government could rise even higher this time around. 

That’s especially true if federal immigration officials start carrying out large-scale raids and arrests in Washington. Rumors to that effect flew around the state last week, magnified in a climate of fear by social media. As of late Friday afternoon, none had been confirmed by either U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, which runs a hotline for reports of ICE activity.

A state law passed during the first Trump administration largely — but not entirely — bars local law enforcement agencies from assisting federal immigration enforcement. 

The law, passed with near-unanimous Democratic support and just three Republican votes in 2019, made Washington a so-called “sanctuary state,” though that term is unofficial and has no set definition. 

Local law enforcement cannot arrest or detain someone solely to determine their immigration status, even to comply with a request from federal immigration agents, unless there is some other criminal issue at hand. Local law enforcement cannot inquire about a person’s immigration status, with very few exceptions. 

“Being undocumented in the United States is not a crime under local, state or federal law,” guidance for local law enforcement written by the state Attorney General’s Office reads. 

The law prohibits local law enforcement from disclosing private information that isn’t involved in a criminal case to federal immigration authorities. There are exceptions. Local authorities, for instance, cannot be barred from sharing information with federal authorities about a person’s immigration status, but they may not share information like a person’s home address, jail release date or court dates. 

And it prohibits local law enforcement and jails from holding someone so they can be taken into federal custody, unless federal officers have a warrant or court order signed by a judge or magistrate. 

In an exception, the law allows the state Department of Corrections to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about prison release dates of undocumented immigrants so the federal agency can pick them up. A bevy of immigrant advocates recently asked Ferguson to end the practice and, in a letter dated Inauguration Day, he declined, saying he did not support amending “sensible provisions” in the law. He noted the law protects the right of people in prison to decline to be interviewed by immigration authorities.

The governor said he would direct his team’s energies toward protecting “Dreamers” who came to the U.S. as children and received temporary, quasi-legal status under a program launched by former President Barack Obama, as well as “preparing for an unconstitutional attempt to end birthright citizenship and protecting our state from any unlawful use of the National Guard to carry out an order for mass deportation.” 

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown sued Trump and his administration Tuesday, the day after the president issued his executive order to end the granting of U.S. citizenship to every person born here. A federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the order from taking immediate effect.

Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown speaks to reporters Thursday after Senior U.S. District Judge John Coughenour blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to rescind birthright citizenship. (Nick Wagner / The Seattle Times)

Many officials across the state — in Democratic- and Republican-voting jurisdictions — pointed to state law in stressing they will not participate in immigration enforcement even under the new presidential administration. 

“The Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office will not take enforcement action based on immigration or alien status,” Kittitas County Sheriff Clay Myers wrote last month.  

The Moses Lake Police Department wrote “the community will not see any changes from how we currently operate.” 

Yakima County Commissioner Amanda McKinney wrote that the 2019 law “effectively makes the State of Washington a sanctuary state.” 

King County Executive Dow Constantine stressed the county’s public health department does not collect immigration information for law enforcement purposes and public transit fare enforcement is unrelated to immigration status. 

“We remain committed and bound to enforce state and local ordinances protecting the rights of immigrants,” wrote Amy Enbysk, a Constantine spokesperson.

David Kroman, Nina Shapiro and David Gutman, The Seattle Times