Governor's reasoned defiance to Bondi's ICE demands

By The Herald Editorial Board

Threats by the Trump administration regarding compliance with a range of its executive orders and demands — most of them constitutionally questionable if not laughable — to universities, law firms, corporations, nonprofits and state and local governments have been met from some corners by quiet acquiescence or a settlement’s malleability.

Only sometimes are they met with reasoned defiance.

Washington state and Gov. Bob Ferguson are taking that third option in response to the U.S. Attorney General Office’s demand — made to about three-dozen other state and local jurisdictions regarding their employment of so-called sanctuary policies — that those jurisdictions fully cooperate with the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, including allowing access to state corrections facilities and even deputizing local police agencies in actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement agencies.

Heeding Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Aug. 19 deadline for a response to a letter she sent a week before accusing the state of using “so-called sanctuary jurisdiction policies” to undermine cooperation and obstruct federal immigration enforcement, Ferguson wrote: “You are hereby notified that Washington State will not be bullied or intimidated by threats and legally baseless accusations.”

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/editorial-governors-reasoned-defiance-to-bondis-ice-demands/