Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Thursday he will file a multi-state lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging the policy that led to a surge of immigrant family separations at the border.
“This is a rogue, cruel, and unconstitutional policy,” Ferguson said in a statement. “We’re going to put a stop to it.”
The suit, expected to be filed in the next few days, is currently being amended based on President Donald Trump’s recent executive order that seeks to halt the separation of families at the border.
However, the Attorney General argues the executive order doesn't provide enough clarity and doesn't grandfather in children who have already been separated from their parents.
"The executive order is riddled with so many caveats, it essentially makes it meaningless," Ferguson said at a news conference Thursday, flanked by Governor Jay Inlsee, state lawmakers and immigration advocates.
Ferguson and state officials began looking into legal options after learning some of the separated parents seeking asylum had been brought to a federal detention center in Washington state
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"We'll allege that the administration is violating the constitutional due process rights of the parents and children by separating them as a matter of course and without findings that the parents pose a threat to the child," said Ferguson of his central legal argument.
The suit will also argue the policy is discriminatory and violates equal protection because it targets individuals at the Southern border and not the Northern border. The challenge also alleges the administration has been violating U.S. asylum laws, citing reports of individuals being turned away at ports of entry.
Ten states have joined the lawsuit, including California, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project continues to provide legal counsel to around 200 asylum seekers brought to a federal detention facility in SeaTac.
Executive Director Jorge Barón says 45 of the individuals are parents, mostly mothers and some fathers. He says most of them have now been told where their children are located, but they haven't been informed of when or how they'll be reunited.
"That's the question that our clients keep asking us, and the honest answer is I don't know at this point," said Barón. The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project is preparing to file its own suit asking that the parents in Washington be released and reunited with their children.
"Family separation has not ended, and that is why we’re ready to continue the legal fight until those parents are together with their children," said Barón.
Additionally, nine children have been brought to Washington state for foster care in the aftermath of the separations, according to Governor Jay Inslee's office. Those children are not in state-run foster care, but in facilities or with individual families licensed by the Department of Social and Health Services.
Washington Senator Patty Murray, ranking Democratic on the Senate Health Committee, sent Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar a list of questions today, regarding the children's whereabouts, conditions and how they'll be reunited.
Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, also sent Secretary Azar a similar letter along with members of the Finance Committee.
Washington Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, D-1st District, plans to travel to McAllen, Texas this weekend to visit one of the detention facilities with a group of House Democrats.
