(The Center Square) – Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown’s Office has filed a legal complaint against Adams County and its Sheriff’s Office, arguing that aiding or assisting the federal government in enforcing its immigration laws violates state law.
In 2019, the state Legislature passed the Keep Washington Working Act, which among other things prohibits state and local resources from being used to enforce federal immigration laws. It also prohibits law enforcement from notifying federal officials of the immigration status of someone in their custody. Additionally, the AGO has a webpage on its site offering guidance on how individuals should interact with immigration enforcement officers.
However, the legal complaint filed in Spokane County Superior Court alleges that since at least 2022, Adams County and the Sheriff’s Office have aided federal law enforcement in various ways. The county is currently facing a lawsuit accusing the Sheriff’s Office of detaining a man and then turning him over to U.S. Border Patrol without a judicial warrant. The AGO’s legal complaint also alleges that the county shared nonpublic personal information with federal immigration officials.
“All of this conduct expressly violates state law,” the complaint states. “As a sovereign state, Washington has the right and the responsibility to decide for itself how to use its own resources to keep residents safe and the economy strong. The federal government has no authority to coerce or direct local law enforcement for its own purposes.”
The fight concerns the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and anti-commandeering, a legal doctrine championed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Although the Supremacy Clause says the U.S. Constitution is the “supreme law of the land,” the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in cases such as Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842) that states cannot be compelled to enforce federal law. Anti-commandeering is similar to the concept of nullification, in which a federal law or policy are illegal for anyone to enforce in the state, though latter has been ruled by SCOTUS to be unconstitutional.
A Feb. 25 letter to the Washington AGO from Adams County Special Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joel Ard argued that the county “simply desires to follow federal immigration law and to cooperate with the lawful requests of federal officials”
Citing 8 U.S.C. § 1373, he said federal law makes it illegal for the state to restrict public officials from sending or receiving information with the federal government concerning citizenship or immigration status of an individual. Ard’s letter also argued that state and local officials knowingly concealing individuals who are violating federal immigration laws constitutes harboring a criminal.
“In other words, Adams County has obligations under federal law that directly conflict with the Sanctuary State Statute,” Ard’s letter states.
Earlier last month, the U.S. AGO sent a letter out threatening to withhold federal tax dollars form sanctuary jurisdictions, warning that “the Department will also seek to take any appropriate enforcement action where state or local practices violate federal laws, regulations, or grant conditions.”
