King County joins lawsuit against Trump administration over sanctuary city orders

King County signed onto a new lawsuit Friday against the Trump administration in an attempt to shield sanctuary jurisdictions from federal threats and to prevent federal funding from being cut off.

The lawsuit is being led by San Francisco and Santa Clara County, and represents municipalities from across the country, including King County.

“Immigrants, refugees, and all who call this region home contribute to the strength, diversity, and vitality of our communities,” said Amy Enbysk, spokesperson for Office of King County Executive Dow Constantine. “King County is standing firm in protecting those communities and upholding the rule of law by taking legal action through a lawsuit challenging one of the latest harmful and dangerous policies from the Trump administration.”

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The lawsuit argues that Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion” violates the Constitution and federal law.

On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the federal Department of Justice to end funding for sanctuary cities, including cities and counties.

The Trump administration filed a lawsuit against Chicago and Cook County Thursday over their sanctuary laws which prohibit law enforcement from working with federal immigration agents.

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Washington state and Seattle have similar laws. The Keep Washington Working Act bars, among other actions, police in the state from asking about immigration status, cooperating with federal immigration agents on noncriminal issues, and bans police from honoring voluntary requests from immigration to hold people for them.

Seattle’s Welcoming City policies have barred city employees from asking about immigration status since 2003.

Trump’s administration made similar threats during his first term.

In response, the city of Seattle sued over an executive order filed in 2017 that threatened to cut federal funds off from cities that would not share immigration and citizenship data.

In 2018, a federal judge sided with Seattle and Portland and decided that Trump’s decision to withhold funds was unconstitutional.

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