In tense Tri-Cities visit, WA AG says Dems need more outrage over ICE tactics
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- WA Attorney General Nick Brown urges public outrage over Trump’s ICE tactics
- ICE impersonators prompt safety concerns; AG warns of harm to police trust
- AG office files 27th lawsuit against Trump, targeting withheld education funds
In a Tri-Cities town hall that largely focused on concerns over President Trump’s mass deportation efforts, Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said Democrats needed a 2017 “kids in cages” moment.
The term was a reference to the family separation policies Trump undertook during his first term as president, and the political backlash in the months after.
Trump’s “zero tolerance” rule led to more than 5,000 migrant children being separated from their parents near the Mexican border, with few processes in place to reunite them with relatives.
Brown says they should be raising their voices in similar fashion as Trump ramps up enforcement efforts.
“For the most part, I cannot, as attorney general, have any impact on whether ICE decides to wear masks or not. It’s just outside my authority,” he said Monday evening.
“I think the way that we change that is we get back to what we did in 2017, when we voiced our collective outrage about kids in cages. We need to be doing the same thing when it comes to unmasking vigilantes purporting to act on behalf of the president,” Brown said.
Police in several states have arrested Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) impersonators who had taken advantage of the agency’s covert methods to conduct criminal acts.
Brown says it hurts both police and the public when law enforcement officials fail to identify themselves.
The Republican president has ramped up the number of deportations since taking office in January, promising to carry out the “largest deportation operation in American history.”
Those actions have had an impact on Tri-Cities families.
A Pasco father and mechanic was deported in June after months at Tacoma’s ICE facility. And a beloved Kennewick food truck owner was also deported to Mexico, leaving his wife to run their business and raise their two children.
One had a DUI conviction five years ago and the other a separate decade-old misdemeanor drug possession conviction.
ICE raids create a ‘climate of fear’
Central Washington is the heart of the state’s multi-billion dollar agriculture industry. ICE raids on farms across the U.S. have caused a chilling effect on crucial yet undocumented farm workers.
At the same time, some Republican-controlled counties in Washington are passing “non-sanctuary jurisdiction” resolutions that voice support for helping federal immigration enforcement.
Critics say those resolutions violate the state’s 2019 Keep Washington Working Act, which limits local police cooperation on civil immigration enforcement.
Immigration was a top issue for voters on both sides of the aisle during the 2018 midterms, when Democrats slashed Republicans prospects of a “red wave,” according to Pew Research.
Democrats might have a similar chance next year to cut down on Republicans’ majorities in Congress during the midterms, and messaging over immigration could prove crucial.
At Monday’s town hall, hosted by the Washington State Democratic Party and moderated by local Tri-City Democrats, panelist comments and questions from the public also focused on the administration’s efforts to close the U.S. Department of Education and defund schools, end birthright citizenship and mobilize local candidates.
About 120 people showed up to hear Brown talk and ask him questions at the HAPO Center convention space.
Brown said a “climate of fear” among the immigrant community will have rippling effects on jobs and the economy, and that there will be a “brain drain.”
“Multiple administrations over the last however-many decades have done immigration enforcement. President Biden, President Obama deported people — that’s part of their job,” Brown told the Herald in an interview.
“But what we’re seeing from this administration is not simply immigration enforcement, it’s a real disregard for people’s humanity. It’s oftentimes what appears to be kidnapping people off the street, it’s targeting students across the country for exercising their First Amendment rights and increasingly it’s the tactics they use,” he continued.
AG Brown tallies 27th Trump lawsuit
At the same time, Brown says, suing the president makes up just a small part of the work his office does. Out of a team of 830 attorneys, just 30 at any given time are usually working on legal actions against the administration.
The remaining staff work on other issues, such as consumer protections and enforcing laws against anti-competitive business practices.
“There’s so much good work that’s happening on a daily basis that’s never going to get the headlines that happen when we sue the president,” he said.
Still, his office on Monday joined in on its 27th lawsuit against the Trump Administration this year, the latest effort focused on recovering $7 billion in education funds for local school districts that were withheld for “programmatic review.”
His office has successfully protected more than $10 billion in cuts to Washington.
At this point, six months into the first Trump term, then-Attorney General Bob Ferguson had filed just four lawsuits, Brown said.
Susan McTavish, 76, of Kennewick, was one attendee who came to hear Brown talk.
She sat in the second row, holding up a sign that read “No Public Tax Dollars for Anti-Trump Lawsuits” on one side, and on the other side a message stating that children of undocumented immigrants born in the U.S. were not citizens.
While she was jeered by some attendees to put down the sign, Brown told her it was OK. She and the attorney general spoke for a few minutes after his talk and parted with a handshake.
“I came to listen,” she said. “We disagreed on some things. I do believe that Trump is trying to right a lot of overreach by Biden. I mean, when he opened the border that was just unconscionable.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2025 at 12:50 PM.
