Just over four months into President Donald Trump’s second administration, the rate and frequency with which Democratic attorneys general have challenged federal policy has greatly outpaced that of his first term in office.
In the past 19 weeks, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has filed 20 lawsuits against the federal government and indicated more are likely to follow soon. According to Brown, Washington had filed two lawsuits at a similar point in Trump’s first term.
The lawsuits have frequently been brought by multistate coalitions, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield each joining Washington in more than a dozen of the cases.
Ahead of a town hall event Monday, the three attorneys general said the actions are part of a coordinated effort.
“A very increased type of action being brought by the states,” Brown said during a news conference Monday evening. “That is reflective of one, being extremely prepared for this moment, two, the collaboration amongst the states, and three, a level of lawlessness and recklessness by the Trump administration that was not there the first time. And we as attorneys general need to respond.”
The Community Impact Town Hall on Monday offered a forum for community members to voice their concerns over the loss of funding or other cuts to federal programs and ask about their state’s response to the Trump administration. Audience questions included how states could ensure funds for medical research are properly distributed and what steps the states have taken to restrict local law enforcement from enforcing immigration law.
Like Washington, both Oregon and California have long had state laws that limit the amount of information local authorities can provide immigration officials. California’s law, Bonta said, was challenged during the first Trump administration, with the state successfully arguing “it was an unlawful violation of the tenth amendment for the Trump administration to try and conscript or commandeer our resources for our local law enforcement to be used for immigration enforcement.”
In recent months, the Keep Washington Working Act has frequently drawn ire from Republican lawmakers and prompted a Congressional investigation.
The 2019 law restricts local law enforcement from using local resources to help federal officials enforce immigration law and prevents local law enforcement from sharing nonpublic information with federal officials, except in certain scenarios.
Last month, the three states filed lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation, alleging that both agencies had recently sought to stipulate that a state must cooperate with federal immigration officials to receive federal funding.
“When they try to take the funding away to compel action, we will stand in place to protect our sanctuary state laws that exist up and down the West Coast,” Rayfield said. “I feel very fortunate, again, to be on the West Coast.”
It appears that more lawsuits challenging federal immigration efforts could come in the near future.
Late last week, the Department of Homeland Security published a list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” that it claimed do not fully cooperate with federal immigration law. Trump, who ordered the publication of the list, has said those on the list risk the loss of federal funds.
According to the list, qualification for the list was “determined by factors like compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions, and legal protections for illegal aliens.”
The list, however, received immediate pushback from some of those who appeared on it. On Saturday, Kieran Donahue, president of the National Sheriffs’ Association, said in a statement that the list “was created without any input, criteria of compliance, or a mechanism for how to object to the designation. Sheriffs nationwide have no way to know what they must do or not do to avoid this arbitrary label.”
“This decision by DHS could create a vacuum of trust that may take years to overcome,” Donahue said, adding the list should be taken down “immediately.”
While the list was taken down Sunday, an archived version shows that Washington, along with 35 counties and five cities within the state, were among the more than 500 jurisdictions it mentioned.
Both California and Oregon also appeared on the list.
On Monday, Brown called the list “laughable” and said it “really adds to the fact that this is arbitrary and capricious action by the Trump administration.”
“We as attorneys general have to take those threats seriously and reaffirm state sovereignty,” Brown said. “Each of our states has adopted different policies over how local and state officials can cooperate with federal immigration enforcement officials. We do that to keep the public safe and make sure that people who are the victims of crime can cooperate fairly and freely with law enforcement without fear of immigration enforcement actions against them.”
