Washington Sues County for Helping Federal Immigration Agents

Washington state sued one of its counties on Monday, accusing the local sheriff’s office of violating a state law that limits local law enforcement’s role in federal immigration enforcement.

“The state has an obligation to protect the rights of its residents and defend Washington law, even when that unfortunately requires taking enforcement against its own political subdivisions,” Washington state says in its complaint. “The state cannot stand by when elected officials publicly boast that they are breaking state law and putting their own communities at risk.”

Washington says in its suit that Adams County, which sits on the east side of the Cascade Mountain range near the Idaho border, has been unlawfully holding people in custody based on their immigration status and transferred those people to federal immigration agents to be questioned since 2022.

Sheriff’s deputies have also illegally shared the names and personal information, including fingerprints and home addresses, of hundreds of residents with federal officials, according to the state. The county’s local economy is dominated by agriculture and those operations rely on the labor of non-citizens, the state claims.

Under state law, county officials are not allowed to assist federal immigration agents with enforcing federal immigration law and the state is asking the Spokane County Superior Court to block the county from violating that law.

In 2019, Washington legislators passed the Keep Washington Working Act. The law establishes that it is not up to local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law and restricts the extent to which state, county and local police can enforce it or assist federal immigration officers. {snip}

Until late 2024, the Attorney General’s Office had been working with the county and sheriff’s office to help them comply under the law.

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However, that changed after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Brown said.

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One month after Trump took office, the county sent a letter to the Attorney General’s Office asserting that it has “obligations under federal law that directly conflict” with the Keep Washington Working Act.

The county argued in its letter that federal immigration law “specifically preempts state law” and that the Keep Washington Working Act requires them to impede federal immigration enforcement {snip}

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