Washington sues federal agencies who tied funding to immigration enforcement cooperation
Washington has filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration after federal agencies tied federal funding appropriations to the state’s willingness to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
The lawsuits, which were filed against the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Transportation, follow months of warnings by Gov. Bob Ferguson about what effect the potential loss of federal funds could have on the state.
According to the lawsuit, both federal agencies have recently issued new requirements for funds that stipulate a state must comply with immigration cooperation. In 2024, Washington state collected more than $500 million in Department of Homeland Security funding and more than $1.1 billion in federal transportation funding.
“The President is once again acting illegally, threatening federal funding cuts without authority,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. “But the Trump administration cannot retaliate against our state for protecting the rights and dignity of all residents. Our state joined these two lawsuits because the federal funding threats present real and direct harms to our state.”
According to the lawsuit, Secretary Kristi Noem directed the Department of Homeland Security and subagencies in February to withhold federal funds from jurisdictions that do not assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law.
The complaint states that the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent Washington state an agreement for 2025 on April 18, which included the agency’s “Civil Immigration Conditions.”
The immigration conditions, the complaint states, have put the state in an “untenable position: accept unlawful conditions that allow the federal government to conscript state law enforcement officers into enforcing federal immigration laws or risk out-of-control wildfires that could damage thousands of acres of state land, destroy state-owned and private property, and take lives.”
According to the complaint, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a similar directive for his agency soon after.
Washington joined 19 other states in filing both lawsuits in the District of Rhode Island.
The lawsuit follows months of warnings from the governor about the potential effects of federal funding cuts.
According to Ferguson, Washington receives approximately $3.4 billion for Medicaid, $2.5 billion for education, $1 billion for child welfare, $600 million for disaster response, $304 million for unemployment insurance and $864 million for temporary assistance during a two-year budget cycle.
In total, federal funding accounts for about 28% of the state’s revenue.
“We cannot predict with certainty what is going to happen with our federal funding, but we can be sure there will be chaos, with more cuts to come, with little or no warning,” Ferguson said during an April 1 news conference.
On Tuesday, the attorney general’s office said Washington law does not “interfere with the ability of federal officials to enforce federal immigration law but recognizes that doing so is not the job of state agencies” and cited the Keep Washington Working Act.
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. The law has come under frequent federal scrutiny during the Trump administration.
In March, Brown filed a lawsuit against Adams County alleging its sheriff’s office expressly violated the Keep Washington Working Act. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office has retained attorneys from America First Legal, which was founded by Stephen Miller, a senior aide to President Donald Trump.
Rep. Michael Baumgartner and other members of a House oversight committee sent a letter to Brown in March claiming the state’s “sanctuary law” prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials. The letter requested information on the Keep Washington Working Act as part of a congressional investigation into the policy.
In response, Brown rejected allegations that the state “actively thwarts federal immigration enforcement” and “targets local law enforcement officials for complying with federal law.”
He called such statements “plainly wrong.”
Still, it appears likely that the federal government will ramp up efforts in the coming months to force states to comply with federal immigration enforcement.
Late last month, Trump directed the federal attorney general and secretary of homeland security to publish a list of states and jurisdictions it says are “obstructing federal immigration law enforcement.” According to the executive order, jurisdictions that do not comply risk the loss of federal funding.
The executive order sets a May 28 deadline for the list to be published.
“No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims,” Trump said in a provided statement. “They are disgracing our Country, and are being mocked all over the World. Working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!”