Gov. Bob Ferguson, AG Nick Brown preparing WA for ‘worst-case’ ICE scenario
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown both delivered a sharp rebuke Monday morning of recent federal immigration enforcement actions — namely, the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota this month.
Ferguson called such events “un-American” during a news conference in the Governor’s Conference Room inside the domed Capitol building in Olympia.
“It’s outrageous in the extreme, and it has to stop,” he told reporters. “As angry as we both are, we are focused on preparing to the fullest extent possible for a similar escalation by ICE against our will here in Washington state.”
A media advisory sent during the early morning hours of Jan. 26 said the Democratic state officials would be discussing what happened in Minnesota over the weekend.
The New York Times reported that on Saturday, immigration agents fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, on a Minneapolis street. The deaths of Pretti and 37-year-old Renee Good, who was fatally shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis this month, have fueled widespread national outrage and protests.
The media advisory from Ferguson’s office also noted an internal memo from the Department of Homeland Security saying that agents with ICE can enter homes without a judicial warrant.
Ferguson said that it’s his and Brown’s job to prepare the state for a “worst-case scenario,” particularly “where we have ICE agents conducting themselves in the way that we’re seeing that is so deeply, deeply disturbing.”
On Jan. 24, Ferguson shared the link to a CNN article about Pretti’s killing.
“Our descent into authoritarian rule continues,” he wrote on X. “This is a dark chapter in our history, America. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Defend your democracy while you still can.”
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have accused Pretti of engaging in domestic terrorism, according to Axios. Trump officials applied the same “domestic terrorist” label to Good and said the agent accused of killing her had acted in self-defense. Federal narratives have been called into question as video evidence has emerged, Forbes reports.
Federal officials said Pretti “violently resisted” after officers tried to remove his 9 mm semiautomatic handgun when he approached them with it, per the Los Angeles Times. Eyewitness video shows that Pretti was not holding a gun, instead gripping a phone, when he stepped before a federal officer “targeting a woman with pepper spray,” according to the Times, and Pretti was pulled to the ground by agents and fatally shot. The New York Times reported that Pretti had a permit to carry a gun, and that an agent had already taken Pretti’s firearm when two others shot him in the back while he was on the ground.
An ICE agent fatally shot Good, a mother of three and poet, who’d just dropped off one of her children at their Minneapolis elementary school, according to The Associated Press. Eyewitness video shows an officer coming up to Good’s vehicle, ordering her to open the door and taking hold of the handle, and after Good starts to drive forward, another ICE agent in front of the car draws his gun and fires two or more shots into the car, the AP reported.
Ferguson noted Monday that the Washington state Legislature is considering certain bills aimed at ICE.
One proposal would prohibit federal agents and law enforcement officers from wearing masks, for example. Another would bar those who aren’t police from possessing, making or providing law enforcement insignia, such as a badge.
Ferguson said that although he can’t stop ICE from coming to the state, officials are ready to combat harms coming from federal immigration enforcement.
He called the memo directing ICE to enter homes without a judicial warrant “disturbing” and “outrageous,” adding that he and Brown signed a letter to Noem casting doubt on the directive’s constitutionality. The letter stated that they will seek every legal option available to hold the Trump administration to account for unconstitutional measures, as well as individual ICE agents, Ferguson said.
The governor also said he met Sunday with Maj. Gen. Gent Welsh, the adjutant general of the Washington National Guard, but declined to go into specifics.
“But I want the people of our state to know that I’ll take whatever steps are necessary to keep our residents safe,” he said, later adding: “One of those tools is: bring up our National Guard to help protect Washingtonians.”
In a text message after Monday’s news conference, state Rep. Jim Walsh, who chairs the Washington Republican Party, said the governor and AG are “irrational and encouraging lawlessness.”
“It’s surreal,” he said. “They’re free to drive themselves off the cliff. We can’t let them take all Washingtonians with them.”
Brown said what’s coming from Washington, D.C. is motivated by bias and hate, and warned of President Donald Trump’s “authoritarian” designs and “fascist tendencies.” He said the ICE memo trashes the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment and called for more checks and balances.
Washington moves quickly when residents’ civil rights are jeopardized, he said.
“The people of the state can be assured that if we see this happening on our streets and in our neighborhoods, we will do everything within our authority to stop it,” he said.
Brown also pointed to the Immigrant Worker Protection Act, legislation which his office requested that seeks to provide immigrant workers with advance notice ahead of a federal workplace raid.
The attorney general’s office has been involved in some 50 lawsuits against Trump so far during the president’s second term to “prevent and do everything we can to mitigate the harms like we’re seeing in Minnesota,” Brown said.
This story was originally published January 26, 2026 at 9:59 AM with the headline "Gov. Bob Ferguson, AG Nick Brown preparing WA for ‘worst-case’ ICE scenario."
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