Statement From WAGOP Chairman Jim Walsh on WA Attorney General Nick Brown Suing Adams County for Helping to Enforce Federal Immigration Law

Statement from WAGOP Chairman Jim Walsh on WA Attorney General Nick Brown Suing Adams County for helping to enforce federal immigration law:

“Washington’s new State AG continues to follow in the steps of his predecessor and waste working people’s tax dollars on quixotic lawsuits against Trump, Trump, Trump. It’s becoming habit for the State AG and an embarrassment for the state. This time, he’s wasting taxpayer dollars by bullying tiny Adams County. That county is cooperating with federal immigration authorities to enforce federal immigration law. The State AG is grabbing cheap headlines by claiming that helping enforce federal law is against state law. It’s a craven argument that ignores long-standing traditions of constitutional law—and fails to protect the people of Washington.

“Article 1, Section 2, of the Washington state constitution acknowledges that: “The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land.” The federal constitution says the same. For most of Washington’s history, the state honored this constitutional principle and recognized that the federal constitution-and federal law-pre-empts state law. Lately, though, political partisans lost in Trump Derangement Syndrome have started to whine that our state should NOT honor federal supremacy. With his attack on Adams County, the State AG joins that angry chorus. Such whining may benefit him politically, in the short run. But in the long run it’s bad for law enforcement, bad for the rule of law, and bad for the people of Washington state.

“It’s easy to dismiss lawsuits like this one as hyper-partisan “lawfare” and cheap theatrical stunts. But the State AG’s attack on Adams County is even worse than that. Adams County is not the only local jurisdiction in Washington choosing to work with federal agencies to enforce immigration law. A growing number of Washingtonians want our nation’s immigration law to be upheld. They support legal immigration—but know that illegal immigration is bad. Illegal immigration leads to lawlessness and crimes like the recent death of young Washington State Patrol Trooper Christopher Gadd, caused by a criminal illegal immigrant.

“The State AG should keep in mind the illegal immigrant who killed WA State Trooper Christopher Gadd when he attacks Adams County for helping enforce immigration law. Enforcing that law might have prevented that criminal from killing that young Trooper.”