Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson addresses those gathered for “Messages of Hope” Jan. 30 where he detailed his office’s efforts in challenging Trump Administration policies.
With the looming deadline of March 5 for the rescind of the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA), Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson had to pause when answering a question from a Fort Vancouver High School student — does he really think that Congress could pass legislation to protect DACA recipients in time?
“I want to be hopeful, I do,” Ferguson said, adding he was frustrated at how an issue with strong public support would not be able to happen in the current President Donald Trump Administration.
He was referencing the Dream Act, legislation that would make the DACA protections permanent, unlike current law which has to be renewed periodically.
Ferguson was the keynote speaker for Messages of Hope, event Jan. 30 at Fort Vancouver High School featuring him as well as local voices both in government and activism talking about groups under threat by the administration, specifically immigrants and so-called Dreamers — those benefiting from DACA. Statements from local Dreamers were read while local officials talked about their own efforts in supporting communities vulnerable to changing federal policy.
Ferguson’s talk and the questions asked of him focused on the legal side of challenging Trump Administration policies, starting just a week after Trump’s inauguration. His office has been busy challenging many executive orders and other policies — a total of 19 have the state of Washington as one of the petitioners.
Of that number, Ferguson touted his office’s track record — six out of six decided cases were in Washington state’s favor, not Washington, D.C. When filing the first lawsuit against Trump’s travel ban from certain muslim-majority countries, Ferguson said he didn’t anticipate the volume of filings the coming year would bring.
“The conventional wisdom that first weekend was that a lawsuit would not work; the President had too much authority,” Ferguson said, “But we felt we had a good argument and we won.”
Following that first “win” attorneys general in other states began bringing their own suits against the administration, Ferguson said. He cited the nature of a court case as being a powerful counter to the current administration’s tactics.
“In a courtroom it is not the loudest voice that prevails, it’s not. You can’t tweet your way out of a problem in a courtroom,” Ferguson said. “All that matters, all the judge is focused on is the law and the facts of your case. That’s it.”
Ferguson said being “focused like a laser” on the case facts and the law is why his office has been successful. He said his office was currently arguing in the case against the rescind of DACA, and coincidentally on Jan. 30, the day of the event, he said the head of the civil rights unit, Assistant Attorney General Colleen Melody, had earlier that day been arguing the case in New York.
Regarding DACA, Ferguson framed the policy as a deal between eligible so-called Dreamers and the federal government. The government requires that Dreamers “come out of the shadows” and provide some information for documentation, he explained, and the government promised never to use that information to deport those individuals “to a country you do not really know, because you came here as a child,” Ferguson said.
With the DACA rescind Ferguson likened it to reneging on a deal, framing it with the analogy of his son Jack’s trading card deals. He posited what he would do if his son showed remorse over a perceived bad trade, asking whether he would try to rescind the trade.
“Hell no; I’m telling my son a deal’s a deal … maybe you don’t like it now, but that’s how it works,” Ferguson said.
Rescinding DACA would be a similar bad-faith move, he said, though on a much more impactful scale.
“We’re not talking about Pokemon cards, are we? We’re talking about people’s lives,” Ferguson continued.
He recalled some of Melody’s testimony where she argued that if most DACA recipients were from different countries, Norway specifically, their status would not be an issue, alleging discrimination based on country of origin.
Outside of DACA litigation Ferguson also spoke about his office’s suit of Motel 6 based on an investigation into unlawful sharing of personal information with ICE agents. He said his suspicions rose when Motel 6 said it was only isolated incidents following an investigation into Arizona locations.
According to Ferguson’s lawsuit such activity was happening in Washington state as well, where hotel operators were turning over names, specifically latino-sounding names, to ICE without a warrant.
“Whether it’s the President (or) whether it’s a company like Motel 6 … if you are not playing by the rules, it’s my job to hold you accountable,” Ferguson said.
Other lawsuits, including ones regarding the rollback of Obama-era environmental protections and the transgender military ban were also addressed by Ferguson. Although his office would maintain judicial challenges, he lamented how in situations like the looming DACA drop date it was up to powers out of his control.
“Nobody can offer a guarantee,” Ferguson said regarding DACA, commenting that a few months prior he would have been more optimistic on a “clean” Dream Act passing. Regarding the name of the event, Ferguson said there “wasn’t any way to sugarcoat” that under the current administration there were “dark times” for disenfranchised populations.
“Even despite that, there are messages of hope,” he said. “In some ways having that dark time inspires people to get involved who might not have been involved.”
“I don’t know whether this year there will be 19 lawsuits against the Trump Administration,” Ferguson said. “If the administration continues to flaunt the law, we will see more of them; that’s just going to happen.”
Following Ferguson’s speech local leaders spoke in a panel discussion regarding efforts to support their communities, including Clark County Council Chair Marc Boldt and Washougal Mayor Molly Coston. They talked about potential responses to politically-charged events in their communities and the potential fallout resulting from protest clashes.
Vancouver Mayor Pro Tem Bart Hansen mentioned an April 2 rally in Esther Short Park that the Vancouver Police Department did a “fabulous” job at maintaining civility, and although he said there were some individuals there he believed were there to incite or antagonize, overall the event let citizens’ voices be heard.
Comments from Hansen regarding the rally, put on by local activist group Patriot Prayer, drew the only interruption during the event from Joey Gibson, Patriot Prayer founder. He found it inappropriate that Hansen would bring up the rally and the more inciteful elements while not mentioning Antifa, the anti-fascist movement employing Black Bloc-style demonstrations that also had presence at the rally.
Gibson asserted that Patriot Prayer was not a hate group, something that Hansen didn’t object.
“I never said ‘hate group’ once,” Hansen retorted.
When questioned as to why Hansen was at the rally, implying he was there to protest, Hansen explained he was monitoring police response.
Regarding the police department in terms of enforcement of federal orders, Hansen recalled a previous conversation with the department on how the Vancouver Police Department would be doing their work with regard to federal immigration operations.
Hansen said the department would be focused on helping its community, not doing the bidding of the federal government.
“We’re not here to do ICE’s work. Period,” Hansen said.
