Link to original article https://capitalpress.com/2025/08/19/201860

By Don Jenkins, Capital Press

OLYMPIA — Washington will fight the Trump administration’s crackdown on states that refuse to help federal agents enforce immigration laws, Gov. Bob Ferguson said.  

Speaking at a press conference Aug. 19 in Olympia, Ferguson said he won’t yield to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s demand that states start eliminating sanctuary laws.  

“Pam Bondi seeks to have Washington bend the knee to a Trump administration that day by day drags us closer to authoritarianism,” he said.

Bondi sent letters Aug. 14 to governors of 13 states, including Washington, Oregon and California, and the mayors of 18 cities, including Portland and Seattle. She asked them to report back to her by Aug. 19 on their plans to comply with federal laws that bar harboring illegal immigrants, or face investigations and possibly prosecutions.  

“Any sanctuary jurisdiction that continues to put illegal aliens ahead of American citizens can either come to the table or see us in court,” Bondi said in a social media post.  

Ferguson said Bondi would see Washington in court.

“I am prepared to defend any litigation the Trump administration wishes to pursue,” he said.  

The governor said he was confident Washington’s sanctuary law would withstand a court challenge. The law, titled The Keep Washington Working Act, was passed in 2019. One of its purported benefits is to help agriculture.  

The USDA estimates more than 40% of farmworkers are in the country illegally. President Trump has said he wants to ensure farms can keep valued workers, but his administration has not yet provided a path for undocumented farmworkers to gain legal status.

With the exception of cannabis farms in California, Immigration and Custom Enforcement seems to be staying away from farms, National Council of Agricultural Employers President and CEO Michael Marsh said.  

“There seems to be an effort by the administration to not necessarily prioritize the deportations of farmworkers from their worksites, farms. And that’s welcome,” he said.  

ICE has not targeted Washington farms, said Enrique Gastelum, CEO of the Worker and Farmer Labor Association, a Lacey, Wash.-based organization that recruits foreign farmworkers.  

“We still haven’t seen the workplace raids — knock on wood,” he said. “I don’t want us to go through what we’re seeing in California.” 

Growers tell him local farmworkers are “still coming out in force,” Gastelum said. “I do think we have enough people for this year.”  

Sanctuary laws, including Washington’s, typically forbid local officers from detaining illegal immigrants, or turning them over to federal agents.  

“We’re not going to change that law and weaken it in response to these threats. That’s not going to happen,” Ferguson said.  

The Trump administration has sued sanctuary states Colorado, Illinois and New York, as well as sanctuary cities Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.  

The lawsuits allege sanctuary laws violate a federal law that requires local law officers to give federal agents information regarding a suspect’s immigration status.  

Most lawsuits are unresolved, but U.S. District Judge Lindsay Jenkins in July dismissed the lawsuit against Illinois and Chicago.  

While local law enforcement officers must give information regarding the immigration status of people in custody, they do not have to be more helpful to federal agents, Jenkins ruled.