The “sanctuary state” policies promoted by current Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson and state Attorney General Nick Brown undermine federal immigration law, put the state at significant risk of economic damage and enable Washington’s secret shame — a growing crisis of human sex trafficking.
How did we get to this point?
In 2019, the state Legislature — under pressure from then-Gov. Jay Inslee and with the support of then-state Attorney General Ferguson — passed Senate Bill 5497, the so-called “Keep Washington Working Act.” The law prohibited state and local law enforcement agencies in Washington from engaging with or assisting federal agencies enforcing immigration law. It prohibited state and local agencies from sharing personal information of illegal aliens or initiating communication with federal agencies in matters related to illegal aliens.
Several months later, Ferguson’s office issued a “guidance” that lectured state and local law enforcement agencies about all the things they can’t do in any way to help or cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement. That “guidance” is still in force today.
The 2019 law, combined with a group of executive orders that former Gov. Inslee issued and current Gov. Ferguson has left in place, constitutes Washington’s so-called “sanctuary state” policies. These policies effectively made, for years 2019 through 2024, federal immigration law unenforceable and unenforced in this state.
Reports from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that, during the same period of time, crime rates in Washington rose dramatically. The murder rate nearly doubled. Today, Washington stands as the fourth-most crime-ridden state in the U.S. on a per capita basis. And human sex trafficking has grown rapidly. On a per capita basis, Washington now rivals California for the largest number of reported human sex trafficking cases each year. These cases usually involve foreign-born children and young teenagers smuggled into the U.S. and into Washington, where they are used as sex slaves by pimps and traffickers who are often illegal aliens themselves.
Our state’s executive officers — including Ferguson and Brown — ignore this crisis. Why? Because they fear what many people in law enforcement know to be true: Ferguson and Brown’s “sanctuary state” policies have been a major factor in the rise in human sex trafficking in Washington.
Because of laws like the “Keep Washington Working Act” and related Inslee-Ferguson executive orders, pimps and traffickers believe they — like other illegal aliens in this state — are untouchable.
But this is beginning to change.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi recently sent Ferguson a letter, dated Aug. 13, that warned the current governor his “sanctuary state” policies are illegal and need to be dismantled. The letter gave Ferguson and Brown, who was copied on it, six days to respond with a plan for getting rid of their “sanctuary” policies.
Specifically, Bondi wrote:
“For too long, so-called sanctuary jurisdiction policies have undermined … and obstructed federal immigration enforcement, giving aliens cover to perpetrate crimes in our communities and evade the immigration consequences that federal law requires. … You are hereby notified that your jurisdiction has been identified as one that engages in sanctuary policies and practices that thwart federal immigration enforcement to the detriment of the interests of the United States. This ends now.”
Bondi then described the several ways in which the U.S. Department of Justice or other federal agencies might respond if Ferguson, Brown and Co. refuse to comply.
First, federal agencies may withhold (or not issue in the first place) grants, contracts or federal funds to “combat sanctuary policies that violate federal immigration law.”
Next, the U.S. Department of Justice may file civil action lawsuits against state, county or city governments that refuse to dismantle or renounce their “sanctuary” policies.
Finally, “individuals operating under the color of law, using their official position to obstruct federal immigration enforcement efforts and facilitating or inducing illegal immigration may be subject to criminal charges.”
That final point seems to have frightened Ferguson to his core. In the days after he received Bondi’s warning letter, the current governor gave several media interviews in which he whined about Bondi “threatening” and “bullying” him. These remarks were so erratic that some pundits questioned whether Ferguson would respond to Bondi’s letter at all.
But he did. On Aug. 19, the deadline Bondi had set, Ferguson sent a response back — and released it to the public. It included the following:
“You are hereby notified that Washington state will not be bullied or intimidated by threats. (W)e resolve our differences peacefully through public discourse and, if necessary, through the courts — not by threatening political opponents with imprisonment. You threaten me, police officers, state troopers, sheriffs, judges and other officials with prison time. … You seek to have Washington state bend the knee to a Trump Administration that, day by day, drags us closer to authoritarianism.”
Oddly, Ferguson uses the words “threat” and “intimidated” several times in his response. Those are unusually emotional terms to include in a formal response to the U.S. attorney general. Rather than seeking points of agreement from which to build toward a rational — and lawful — solution, Ferguson throws a tantrum.
Pam Bondi is right. Lawlessness breeds lawlessness. Ferguson, Brown and Co. need to stop picking petulant fights with the feds and stop encouraging pimps and sex traffickers.
We need to secure the safety of all Washingtonians by mending our state’s frayed relationship with the federal government.
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State Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, is the chair of the Washington state Republican Party.
