WashingtonIn response to the Trump administration’s predictions of mass deportations, Governor Bob Ferguson signed an executive order on Monday establishing a state committee tasked with addressing the separation of migrant families.
The state Department of Children, Youth, and Families will serve as the home of the Family Separation Rapid Response Team. Members will include representatives from the Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance, the Washington State Patrol, the governor’s office, and the attorney general’s office.
When deportations occur on the scale Trump has outlined, families are torn apart. Children will lose their parents as a result. Businesses will lose their employees as a result. According to Ferguson, it signifies that communities are being drastically changed.
According to the Democratic governor, “my administration will do everything we can to address those significant harms that are caused by those policies.” That’s ensuring that children who are taken from their parents have someone to look after them and that their education continues unhindered.
Ferguson’s move was thwarted by the White House.
According to an email from Trump’s deputy press secretary Harrison Fields, radical leftists have two options: they may join President Trump and support his enormously popular program, or they can go against the grain and reject the overwhelming desire of the people.
Ferguson anticipates that the new state team will meet for the first time by February 14 at the latest. The group is slated to provide a report by April 30 and will make recommendations to the governor.
Ferguson, accompanied by a number of supporters and elected officials, signed the order at the Centilia Cultural Center in Seattle.
Former state politician Tana Senn, who oversaw the Department of Children, Youth, and Families during the Ferguson administration, reaffirmed that the state will provide assistance to children whose parents are deported. While their parents lack legal status, these children are frequently citizens of the United States.
Senn stated, “I just want families to know and feel safe knowing that your child will be safe, cared for, and loved here in Washington state if that happens.”
A key component of Trump’s campaign was his pledge to carry out mass deportations. His administration has already launched a crackdown on immigration after just one week.
In an effort to reform the nation’s immigration system, Trump signed numerous executive orders. These included terminating birthright citizenship, establishing a national emergency at the southern border, and doing away with laws that forbid immigration officers from making arrests of migrants in hospitals, schools, and places of worship.
According to Roxana Norouzi, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group OneAmerica, it’s about doing a terrible calculation every day. Is working worth the chance of being arrested? Is it worth being away from their kids for a visit to the church, hospital, or school? A system that makes hardworking families choose between safety and survival is the true threat to our nation.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that 956 persons were taken into custody by authorities during raids nationwide on Sunday. 311 per day was the average prior to Trump’s election.
According to the Yakima Herald-Republic, an immigrant rights organization in Yakima County said that two individuals were arrested by federal authorities on Sunday in a grocery store parking lot.
Local police are prohibited from assisting federal officials with immigration enforcement by the Keep Washington Working Act. With limited exceptions, the law, which was approved in 2019 primarily along party lines and with Democratic backing, also forbade cops from inquiring about an individual’s immigration status.
The Department of Justice threatened to bring charges against non-cooperative local authorities last week. Additionally, Trump has hinted at the prospect of denying federal funding to states and localities that refuse to assist with deportations, just like he did during his first term.
When sanctuary communities refused to cooperate with immigration authorities, Seattle sued the first Trump administration in 2017. The case was won by the city.
The state Republican Party’s chair, state representative Jim Walsh, referred to Ferguson’s directive as a meaningless act of virtue.
Walsh, of Aberdeen, stated, “I believe the people of Washington want the law to be enforced, including the immigration law.” Family dissolution is not a top priority, and nobody wants to do it.
Trump’s attempt to revoke birthright citizenship, which is protected by the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, has already resulted in a lawsuit from Washington state. A federal court in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order last week, declaring Trump’s executive order to be flagrantly unconstitutional and preventing its implementation.
Ferguson expressed his pride. During the president’s new term, Washington became the first state to overturn the Trump administration in court.
— Street, Washington State Standard, Jake Goldstein
The largest state-focused nonprofit news agency in the country, States Newsroom, includes Washington State Standard.
