In protecting the rights of all workers in Washington, including migrants without legal permission to be here, state lawmakers carefully crafted policy limiting local authorities’ participation in federal immigration enforcement. A notable and important exception: Dealing with people who have committed serious crimes.
The state’s corrections department shares information about inmates, including their immigration status, with the federal government. That makes possible the deportation of non-U.S. citizens convicted of murder, rape and other felonies after they’ve served their time. That’s a policy both Gov. Bob Ferguson and state Attorney General Nick Brown defend — and they’re right to do so.
The state’s sanctuary status must not become a free-for-all — one that also risks further backlash from the Trump administration and its harsh immigration enforcement tactics.
Yet some state lawmakers disagree with Ferguson and Brown. They see the corrections department’s practice of automatically sharing new inmate lists with the federal government for immigration enforcement as a sign the state is still too cooperative with an administration that is operating “incredibly inhumanely,” in the words of state Rep. Sharlett Mena, D-Tacoma.
“If we believe in the rule of law and judicial system, why should we allow anyone’s rights to be violated by this administration?” Mena asked Friday.
That’s a bridge too far. Washington law strikes an appropriate balance by keeping local police focused on protecting residents while respecting migrants’ civil rights. At the same time, the state’s corrections department, custodians of those convicted of serious crimes, has kept ties with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency whose proper job it is to deport criminals after they’ve done their time.
Times columnist Danny Westneat, in referencing King County’s separate but related attempt to ban all ICE charter flights from Boeing Field, wrote that King County’s definition of sanctuary “really is more like anything goes.”
There must be limits to Washington’s welcome mat.
Let’s be clear: The Trump administration’s roundup of immigrants, both here legally and not, has reached an alarming pace: nearly 1,500 deportations per day by the first week in August. The Times newsroom reported recently that 57% of Washingtonians arrested by ICE in June had no criminal record.
In 2019, Washington lawmakers rightly erected safeguards to limit local police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The Keep Washington Working Act ensures residents here can, for example, call 911 with greater confidence their immigration status will not become the subject of the police response.
But U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s threats against Washington and other states with sanctuary laws is deeply troubling. As The Times editorial board said recently: “The average Washingtonian has reason to be concerned.” Mena and other lawmakers are smart to scrutinize what they see as an undermining of due process rights by the administration.
But Washington leaders also have a duty to ensure community safety. More than 500 prisoners in DOC custody have ICE detainers. More than a third are murderers; more than a quarter were convicted of rape, according to DOC statistics.
Those who’ve entered the country illegally and who have committed crimes like these should be deported, no matter who is president.
Worryingly, prohibiting the Department of Corrections from any collaboration with the federal government for deportations once more will place a target on Washington’s back as a sanctuary state that’s gone too far.
The governor and attorney general have found a way to preserve Washington’s welcoming ways but not at the expense of the state’s credibility — and safety.
