State leaders prepare for possibility of immigration crackdown

Washington’s governor on Monday painted a dire outlook of how clashes between federal immigration authorities and the state could unfold if a crackdown similar to the one in Minnesota hit here.

Gov. Bob Ferguson said he could envision members of the National Guard acting as a buffer between immigration officers and protesters. Attorney General Nick Brown didn’t rule out the possibility of state or local authorities stepping in to enforce state law against federal agents.

And both Ferguson and Brown urged residents to monitor and record questionable immigration enforcement conduct.

After immigration agents in Minnesota shot and killed a man over the weekend, Ferguson issued a statement saying that the nation’s “descent into authoritarian rule continues” and calling on people to “defend your democracy while you still can.”

On Monday, he hosted a press conference alongside Brown at the Capitol to lay out the state’s preparations for the possibility of a ramped-up deployment of immigration agents in the state.

It came two days after federal agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday, escalating already high tensions over intensifying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations across the country under the Trump administration.

“Our job, my job, attorney general’s job, all of our jobs here, is to make sure that we are doing everything we can to prepare for a worst-case scenario,” said Ferguson.

The first-term Democrat said ICE was “completely and totally out of control.”

The governor said he met Sunday with Adjutant General Gent Welsh, who leads the state’s National Guard, to discuss related issues, but didn’t offer details. As of Monday, Ferguson said he had “no specific information” that an immigration crackdown in Washington is forthcoming.

Brown called the Trump administration a “little cabal of cruelty.”

“America is weaker because of the operations in Minnesota, and real people all across this country are now traumatized, injured and dead because of this president’s fascist tendencies,” said Brown, also a Democrat and former federal prosecutor.

He acknowledged the state was on the cusp of messy territory when it comes to issues like state or local officers intervening in federal immigration operations.

“It’s obviously incredibly complicated when you’re talking about the division of authority between state law enforcement, local and the federal government,” Brown said. “As a general matter, state and local law enforcement do not have to simply watch or look away if the law is being violated.”

‘Everybody has a role’

Democrats around the country are slamming ICE over its conduct. And, following Pretti’s death, there’s a possibility that Senate Democrats will withhold needed votes on federal funding legislation, a move that could trigger a partial government shutdown.

In the Washington Legislature, Democratic lawmakers are considering a slew of measures in response to the heightened immigration enforcement campaign.

These include a ban on police face coverings, as many ICE agents have covered their faces during operations, protections for immigrant workers from federal raids and guardrails for the use of automated license plate readers that authorities have used to track down immigrants.

Even some Republicans, who are generally wary of criticizing the president, are raising concerns.

A group of governors on Sunday, including the Republican chief executive of Oklahoma who chairs the National Governors Association, called for a “reset” from the federal government on its immigration enforcement campaign.

Ferguson and Brown also emphasized the role the public has in “defending our democracy.”

“We have certain powers as attorney general or governors to do our part, but everybody has a role in our state right now,” Ferguson said. “And we’re going to need that to get through this.”

They said if Washington were faced with a broad ICE incursion, they would pursue legal avenues to stop it, as officials in Minnesota have.

But state leaders here can’t keep ICE out of the state, Ferguson noted. And he and Brown encouraged residents to record interactions with federal agents. Videos of the shootings of Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota have captured the circumstances leading up to their deaths.

King County and the cities of Seattle and Shoreline, along with local elected officials in Bellingham and Tacoma, signed onto a legal brief last week arguing the Minneapolis crackdown is unconstitutional.

A federal judge is considering halting the 3,000-agent deployment.

Letter to Noem

Ferguson and Brown on Monday sent a letter to U.S. Homeland Security Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees ICE, urging her to withdraw federal agents from Minnesota: “Now is the time to deescalate.”

They also took issue with an internal memo arguing ICE agents can enter people’s homes without a judicial warrant, despite vast legal precedent to the contrary.

“If ICE agents attempt any such unconstitutional measures in the state of Washington, we will do everything in our power to oppose it,” Ferguson and Brown wrote in their letter. “Our state will consider all legal options to hold the U.S. Government and individual ICE agents accountable for violating Washingtonians’ constitutional rights.”

As of mid-October, federal immigration authorities had arrested nearly 2,000 people in Washington since Trump retook office, compared to about 800 over the same period under the Biden administration in 2024, according to figures from the Deportation Data Project. The data, which is the most recent available, showed the crackdown had intensified in late summer and early fall.

Ferguson said he was set to meet Monday with Washington’s other statewide elected officials “to ensure we are all coordinated and using our respective tools to protect Washingtonians

The governor also noted he recently hired a new senior adviser, David Kim, focused on immigrant and refugee issues. And Sarah Peterson, the head of the state’s Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance, will now join the governor’s cabinet meetings.

This story first appeared in the Washington State Standard