By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
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Following the shooting death of 37-year-old V.A. nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of an immigration agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, over the weekend, Gov. Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown held a press conference on Monday, Jan. 26 to address the killing. They also outlined Washington’s plans to protect residents, should the federal government send in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents.
“ICE is, to be blunt, completely and totally out of control. To say that I’m angry is not the right word. I don’t have the right word for how I feel about it,” Ferguson said. “It’s outrageous in the extreme and it has to stop. … We are focused on preparing to the fullest extent possible for a similar escalation by ICE against our will here in Washington State.”
Ferguson noted that “this is a non-exclusive list,” but that he and Brown wanted to give an overview of the work the state is doing in light of recent and ongoing events. There is no information indicating that the federal government is going to send immigration agents to Washington, they said, but that doesn’t mean they can rule it out.
He and Brown specifically discussed the federal government’s unconstitutional actions, specifically the government’s authorization for immigration agents to use force to enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant. A few minutes before the press conference, he said, he and Brown sent a joint letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem.
“In short, ICE cannot authorize itself to break into somebody’s home,” he said, and briefly explained that the letter stated that if ICE attempted any such unconstitutional measures in the state, Washington would use legal outlets to combat them.
“That represents a constitutional crisis at the level of everything the founders of this country warned us against—warning us against the tyranny that could arise if we put our heads in the sand,” Brown said. “Judges sign warrants as a neutral party. ICE is not a neutral party, and it has no oversight today. These mass federal agents who roam the streets of Minneapolis have usurped the role of judges and are frequently violating the Fourth Amendment.”
“The Constitution protects our homes from the kind of invasion by law enforcement, because the founders had lived under a royal government that abused its authority,” he continued, appearing to compare President Donald Trump and his administration to a royal regime akin to the one from which colonists freed themselves to create the United States. “The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and requires warrants based on probable cause because our homes are sacred. The president campaigned last year or in 2024 on targeting the worst of the worst, but there are tens of thousands of arrests that show this has not been the case at all.”
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Ferguson and Brown declined to lay out the state’s exact legal playbook on what it would do if immigration agents came to Washington, but Brown said that he, his staff, and Ferguson’s office “have monitored the situation in Minnesota and Minneapolis very, very closely.”
“We are very well aware of the litigation filed by the state and local governments there. We speak with our colleagues in Minnesota (Attorney General’s) office on a regular basis,” he continued. “We have also been in touch with immigration and advocate voices since day one to track the federal actions that are going on in our community. ”
In addition to listing legal actions the state could take, Ferguson specifically noted that he met over the weekend with Gen. Gent Welsh, the head of the state’s national guard.
“We discussed what is happening in Minnesota,” Ferguson said. “I will not go into detail about that conversation for reasons I hope you understand. But I want the people of our state to know that I’ll take whatever steps are necessary to keep our residents safe. Fourth, we’re having many conversations with our state and local partners.”
Ferguson said that he has also made internal changes within Washington’s government to address possible federal immigration actions in the state. In September, he said, he signed an executive order creating an immigration subcabinet, which helps state agencies coordinate on matters of immigration. Sarah Peterson, the head of the Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance in the state’s Department of Social and Health Services, will now sit in on gubernatorial cabinet meetings.
Ferguson has also hired David Kim to serve as his senior advisor on immigrant and refugee issues, and said in the press conference that Kim will handle the state’s work on immigration policy. Kim most recently worked in former Mayor Bruce Harrell’s administration.
Later today, Ferguson will also be meeting with state and local leaders to continue coordination efforts, and to take proactive steps meant to pre-empt federal immigration action. He has also signed a bill barring federal agents from wearing face coverings, which he said the state would work to enforce through the courts. He also said that another bill to prohibit people who are not law enforcement from making and displaying fake badges is making its way through the legislature. This particular bill, which passed the House last week, is a response to reports of a significant rise in ICE impersonation incidents last year.
Brown didn’t directly address a question from a reporter regarding whether local law enforcement can and should step in, if they see federal agents clearly violating a person’s constitutional rights, but did speak generally to such a situation.
“It’s obviously incredibly complicated when you’re talking about the division of authority between state law enforcement, local and the federal government,” Brown explained. “What I would say is as a general matter, state and local law enforcement do not have to simply watch or look away if the law is being violated. If they see somebody being assaulted unlawfully or attacked unlawfully or otherwise having their legal rights violated, we do not expect state and local officers to simply watch or do nothing.”
He said that each jurisdiction should talk to their lawyers and legal teams to understand what authority they have in such matters, “(b)ut I think the Washington public expects their local sheriff or local police chief or officers that work for either to not simply watch if somebody in their community is having their rights violated.”
“We hope we’re not ever in that circumstance in Washington state,” he continued, “but I think as a general matter, that is the expectation, if not the duty, that we would anticipate our local forces having.”
Both Brown and Ferguson also said that if the federal government does send troops into the state, they will rely on grassroots organizations to report immigration action on the ground, so that they can coordinate protective actions.
“I appreciate what they are doing. … If things continue to escalate, if (what is happening in Minnesota) happens here in Washington state, we’ll need to depend on those folks to partner with us on making sure that conduct of ICE agents is being recorded, which is deeply helpful as we saw this weekend in the face of the lies that came from federal officials,” Ferguson said. “We have certain powers as attorney general or governors to do our part. But everybody has a role in our state right now in defending our democracy.”
King County also announced on Monday that it joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration that argues the deployment of masked, armed federal immigration enforcement agents is unconstitutional.
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