Washington Attorney General Nick Brown sued the Adams County Sheriff’s Office for allegedly helping federal immigration officers, setting up a battle over whether the state’s sanctuary law runs afoul of federal law and President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

The lawsuit, filed March 9 in nearby Spokane County, alleges Sheriff Dale Wagner’s office has defied the state sanctuary law since at least 2022 and that the defiance hardened after Trump was inaugurated.

The state and county were trying to settle their differences until late last year when the county and sheriff’s office broke off settlement talks and aligned with America First Legal, founded by Trump homeland security adviser Stephen Miller, according to Brown.

Brown’s lawsuit claims the sanctuary law protects civil rights and the economic vitality of Washington’s agricultural industry. “Farms in Washington routinely turn to non-citizen workers to ensure their crops are harvested in a timely and efficient manner,” according to the suit.

Adams County appointed Seattle-area lawyer Joel Ard to represent it against the attorney general’s allegations. Cooperating with federal immigration officials makes the county safer and more prosperous, Ard stated in a letter last month to Brown, seeking to head-off a lawsuit.

By not impeding federal immigration officials, a convicted sex offender was recently removed from the county, Ard told Brown. “Your office, however, apparently seeks to end such cooperation, allowing sex offenders to freely roam the streets of the state with more impunity than lawful citizens,” Ard charged.

Nearly all Democrats supported the sanctuary law, passed in 2019 and titled the “Keep Washington Working Act.” The law received few votes from Republicans, including those who represented Eastern Washington districts whose economies rely on agriculture.

Federal law forbids states from preventing local law enforcement agencies from sending information to federal immigration officials, Ard said in the letter to Brown. “Adams County has obligations under federal law that directly conflict with the sanctuary state statute,” he wrote.

According to the lawsuit, federal law doesn’t obligate the sheriff’s office to collect information about immigration status, or tell federal authorities when suspects will be released or how to contact them.

The Trump administration has sued Illinois and New York over their sanctuary laws. Ard suggested Brown wait to see how those cases came out before suing Adams County. Efforts to reach Ard and Wagner for further comment were unsuccessful.

Adams County was sued in January in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington by the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project on behalf of Serafin Rangel-Sembrano.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Rangel in 2023 on suspicion of possessing a stolen car. He was released the next day by a judge, but was allegedly delivered by a sheriff’s deputy to U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Rangel, who was not prosecuted for possessing a stolen car, alleges the sheriff’s office violated his constitutional rights as well as the state’s sanctuary law.

The sheriff’s office denies the lawsuit’s allegations.

America First Legal issued a statement supporting Adams County. “America First Legal is proud to stand with Adams County and will fight vigorously to protect it from this bullying,” legal counsel James Rogers said.