Adams County violated Washington's sanctuary laws by cooperating with Border Patrol, lawsuit alleges

The Adams County Sheriff's and Prosecuting Attorney’s offices in Eastern Washington are being sued for allegedly breaking the state’s sanctuary laws and subjecting a man to discrimination and false arrest.

According to the lawsuit filed this week, Serafin Rangel-Sembrano was arrested and detained on felony charges in connection with a stolen car and a warrant for his arrest in a different Adams County case. Those charges didn’t hold up in court and a judge ordered his release.

The lawsuit claims that while Rangel-Sembrano was in jail, Adams County officials contacted Homeland Security and Spokane Border Patrol and had him talk to immigration officials over the phone, without written consent. That call led to immigration officials suspecting Rangel-Sembrano was in the U.S. illegally.

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Records show Adams County corrections staff then took Rangel-Sembrano 70 miles away to Ritzville, Washingtonand handed him over to the U.S. Border Patrol.

“At that time, Adams County had no detainer, administrative warrant, or any other document in its possession that purported to request or otherwise authorize Mr. Rangel’s detention or transport to U.S. Border Patrol custody,” the lawsuit states.

Even if there was a detainer or administrative warrant, Washington's sanctuary laws, called Keep Washington Working, prohibit local law enforcement from working with federal immigration officials in this circumstance, the lawsuit continues.

“The unlawful arrest, the interview without rights or written consent, and the sharing of information are all things that the law prohibits and all things that happened here,” Aaron Korthuis, a lawyer with the Northwest Immigrant Rights project told KUOW.

He added that Rangel-Sembrano’s case is part of a larger pattern of alleged missteps by Adams County when it comes to immigration policy.

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“We’ve told [county officials] a couple times that they continue to violate the law, that they need to bring their policies and practices into compliance with it. And those requests – those demands — have gone unanswered,” he said.

The Washington State Attorney General's Office in 2022 sent a letter to Adam’s County Sheriff Dale Wagner and Prosecuting Attorney Randy Flyckt also raising concerns about cooperation with federal immigration agencies. According to the letter, county officials aided ICE more than 200 times between May 2019, when the Keep Washington Working took effect, and December 2021.

“None of this information appears to have been provided in connection with an ongoing criminal matter,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Emily Nelson, adding that the practice was “in plain violation of [Keep Washington Working].

Adams County officials did not respond to KUOW’s requests for comment on the lawsuit.

Rangel-Sembrano has been released from the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.