By Orion Donovan Smith
The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
WASHINGTON — The sheriff of Adams County took his legal battle with Washington state’s attorney general to the halls of Congress on Wednesday, headlining a House subcommittee hearing on so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions that limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
In a lawsuit filed in March, Attorney General Nick Brown accused Sheriff Dale Wagner’s office of violating a 2019 Washington law that prohibits local law enforcement agencies, with some exceptions, from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to detain immigrants who aren’t authorized to be in the country. Brown alleges — and Wagner denies — that the sheriff’s office has illegally held people in custody based solely on their immigration status, helped federal agents question them and shared information with immigration officials.
“This lawsuit is not about justice or protecting communities,” Wagner said in his testimony. “It’s about enforcing a political agenda that restricts law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with federal authorities.”
The Keep Washington Working Act, as the state law is officially known, was passed with bipartisan support by the state legislature in 2019, in the wake of high-profile arrests of immigrants in Washington state — some of whom had legal protections — by ICE under the first Trump administration. It prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from helping federal authorities detain immigrants who are in their custody.
Supporters of the law and similar “sanctuary” policies argue that letting the federal government force state and local police to participate in immigration enforcement hurts their ability to focus their resources on their top priorities, while also undermining trust in immigrant communities that police rely on to conduct investigations and keep people safe. But policies like Washington’s have also resulted in the release of unauthorized immigrants who have gone on to commit high-profile crimes, leading opponents of such laws to argue that they tie the hands of agencies like Wagner’s.
The sole witness invited by Democrats, retired Maj. Neil Franklin of the Baltimore City and Maryland State Police argued that local law enforcement agencies should have the latitude to do what they think is best to maximize the safety of the communities they serve. Franklin and Wagner seemed to agree on that point, but one criticized mandates from a Democrat-led state government while the other opposed policies of the Republican president.
In a brief interview after the hearing, Wagner said he hopes the country can find a middle ground on the highly divisive topic, but he acknowledged that the current political climate makes that difficult.
“On the ground, we need to be able to remove those people that are problems for our communities, with whatever system works,” he said. “The sheriffs are caught in between this. We’re voted by the people and we’re trying to do what’s best. Well, federal law says you can’t do this, state law says you can’t do that, and we’re kind of stuck in the middle.”
The division between Democrats and Republicans was on full display in the hearing, in which members of each party accused the other of staging “a coup d’état” and not caring about public safety.
Rep. Michael Baumgartner, a Spokane Republican who sits on the full House Judiciary Committee but not on the subcommittee that held Wednesday’s hearing, was invited to attend to introduce Wagner. But when the congressman began using his introductory remarks to criticize Brown’s lawsuit, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Seattle, the panel’s top Democrat, objected, and the Republican chair, Rep. Tom McClintock of California, agreed that Baumgartner had to avoid the politics in his introduction.
That comity didn’t last long. Members of both parties used most of their time reserved for questions to monologue, ending their remarks with a handful of rhetorical questions to the witnesses. In addition to Wagner and Franklin, the panel of witnesses included RJ Hauman, an advocate of restrictive immigration policy, and Danielle Carter-Walters , a Chicago resident who has criticized the approach of the city’s Democratic leaders to immigrants.
Democrats largely avoided addressing sanctuary policies directly and sought to change the subject to President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and his administration sending immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador without trial or evidence that they had committed crimes. Republicans gloated about their victory in the 2024 elections, accused Democrats of defending violent gangs and promoted the idea that Democrats are intentionally bringing immigrants into the country to vote for them.
Noncitizens cannot vote in state or federal elections. While naturalized citizens have historically favored Democrats in elections, surveys conducted by the Democratic consulting firm Blue Rose Research found that Trump narrowly won that group in 2024.
Congress has failed to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws for decades, and Wagner and Franklin lamented during the hearing that the political divide has stood in the way of solutions. When a Republican asked Franklin whether he thought illegal immigration was a problem, the former cop didn’t hesitate to reply, “Yeah, I do.”
“There’s no doubt that we have a border problem and we need policies, because you’ve heard what we’re dealing with at the local level once they get to our cities and towns,” he said. “This really pains me to not be able to see both sides come together and work within the brackets of the Constitution, to come up with sound border policies and processes so people can become legal.”
Throughout the hearing, Wagner said he’s “not a politician,” but he hasn’t entirely escaped the vortex of politics swirling around immigration issues. He is represented in his legal fight with the state of Washington by America First Legal, a law firm founded by Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
“It’s very political,” Wagner said in response to one Republican’s question. “The whole fear-mongering is coming from both sides, quite frankly.”
A delegation of Washington state sheriffs and undersheriffs made the trip to D.C. and sat behind Wagner throughout the hearing. They included Undersheriff Adolfo Coronado of Adams County , Sheriff Keith Swank of Pierce County , Sheriff Brad Manke of Stevens County , Sheriff Ray Maycumber of Ferry County , Sheriff Glenn Blakeslee of Pend Oreille County , Sheriff Daniel Garcia of Pacific County and Sheriff Tom Croskrey and Undersheriff Jon Law of Benton County .
After the hearing, Baumgartner returned to the room to lead the law enforcement officials on a tour of the Capitol. In a brief interview, he said congressional Republicans could use their ability to appropriate or withhold federal funding to pressure states and cities to end their sanctuary policies.
After asserting that Washington’s attorney general had sued Wagner to pick a fight with the Trump administration in an effort to raise his national political profile, Baumgartner said he hopes immigration policy can become less political in the United States.
“If this thing could get depoliticized and we could just look at what is the common-sense solution,” he said.
Asked how they could happen, he took a long pause.
“When we had bipartisan issues in the state legislature, you just started with the policy rather than the politics of the issue,” he said. “But it’s something we’re going to have to do. Have you got any suggestions?”
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