WA AG sues Adams County Sheriff’s Office over ‘illegal federal immigration enforcement’
Washington’s attorney general on Monday filed a lawsuit claiming that the Adams County Sheriff’s Office is illegally aiding federal officials with immigration enforcement.
Attorney General Nick Brown asserts that the sheriff’s office has placed people in custody based solely on their immigration status.
The lawsuit also alleges that the sheriff’s office has helped the administration of President Donald Trump by handing over non-public information about hundreds of Washingtonians. Such information includes home addresses, driver’s license details, birth dates and fingerprints, according to the lawsuit filed in Spokane County Superior Court.
“All of this conduct expressly violates state law,” the lawsuit says.
McClatchy emailed Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner seeking comment but did not immediately hear back.
Adams County, located in central eastern Washington, counts about 20,820 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
At a Latino Legislative Day rally on Monday at the Capitol, Brown told McClatchy that cases brought by his office seek to ensure people’s rights are protected.
“We will not shy away from difficult challenges and we will continue to advocate for Washington,” Brown said, “and when we see a local jurisdiction violating state law, then we have an obligation to defend the law and make sure they come into compliance.”
The bipartisan Keep Washington Working Act, passed by the state Legislature in 2019, bars local law enforcement from giving local aid to federal officials in enforcing immigration law. But since at least 2022, Adams County and its sheriff’s office have repeatedly refused to follow that law, according to the suit.
In late 2024, the county had been participating in settlement negotiations with the AG’s office in good faith, Brown said in a news release.
“But after the inauguration of Donald Trump, the county and its Sheriff’s Office suddenly hardened their stance, broke off settlement talks, and aligned themselves with an organization founded by a top Trump aide who is among the most virulent anti-immigrant voices in the administration,” he continued.
Brown was referring to the nonprofit “America First Legal,” founded by Trump’s homeland security advisor and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller. The news release states that Miller has “consistently denigrated immigrant families” and parroted “white nationalist talking points.” It also notes his involvement in shaping Trump’s first-term family separation policy.
McClatchy has reached out to the White House seeking comment.
“Washington has the right and the responsibility to decide for itself how to use its own resources to keep residents safe and the economy strong,” the attorney general’s lawsuit says. “The State cannot stand by when elected officials publicly boast that they are breaking state law and putting their own communities at risk.”
In passing the Keep Washington Work Act, lawmakers weighed concerns that victims might be less willing to report crimes or call for help if local law enforcement were involved in helping federal immigration efforts.
The attorney general’s office says that the Keep Washington Working Act helps ensure the state’s limited law enforcement resources are directed toward state matters, like solving crime and enforcing state law — instead of doing the federal government’s job and taking on associated costs.
America First Legal recently launched a campaign on social media lambasting Washington’s law, per the AG. It also posted a scrolling banner on its website saying it would combat the state’s “illegal sanctuary scheme.”
“The State has an obligation to protect the rights of its residents and defend Washington law, even when that unfortunately requires taking enforcement against its own political subdivisions,” according to the lawsuit. “The State cannot stand by when elected officials publicly boast that they are breaking state law and putting their own communities at risk.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2025 at 2:50 PM.
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