TACOMA — Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank wants to sign a deal with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would allow his deputies to help the Trump administration deport undocumented immigrants.
Washington’s “sanctuary” law prohibits that. So does the county charter.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mary Robnett — Swank's official lawyer — advised him he can’t make such agreements with the feds and that his role as sheriff is constrained by the state and county laws.
“We do live in a sanctuary state, whether we like it or not,” Robnett wrote to Swank in an April email. In a follow-up exchange, Swank said he wanted to get another lawyer's advice, but Robnett warned that wasn't allowed and that he'd do so “at your own peril.”
Swank fired back: “you are my peril.” He wrote that he’d consulted ChatGPT and the AI search bot results said he had more independence as sheriff than Robnett was admitting.
“I have no faith in your counsel,” Swank added, telling Robnett she was “either incompetent” or trying to sabotage my office."
The dispute landed the two Pierce County officials in court, where a judge recently sided with Robnett and barred a local attorney from acting as Swank’s independent legal adviser.
The feud in Washington’s second biggest county could have big implications for its more than 900,000 residents — and for a state whose sanctuary policy has been on a collision course with the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to arrest and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
Swank’s desire to work with ICE has drawn condemnation from other Pierce County leaders and immigration-rights advocates, who argued he's creating distrust with local law enforcement.
Attorney General Nick Brown is also scrutinizing Swank's office, recently filing a records request seeking information about any contacts with ICE.
Swank told a conservative radio show he’s "ready for a fight." He met with Justice Department officials in Washington, D.C., earlier this year, trying to enlist their help with challenging Washington’s sanctuary law in court.
The only thing stopping him from already signing a deal with ICE, Swank said in an interview with The Seattle Times, is concern for the 600 sworn patrol deputies and jail officers who work for him. In the absence of legal backup, he said the attorney general’s office could go after individual officers who flout Washington’s sanctuary law.
“If I could enter into the agreement myself, and I'd be solely responsible for it, I would do that,” Swank said in the interview in his Tacoma office.
In a court declaration as part of his dispute with Robnett, Swank said, "I do believe it fundamental to my role as sheriff to be able to speak to ICE and cooperate with them."
Cooperating with ICE?
Nationally, ICE promotes partnerships with local law enforcement agencies through its so-called 287(g) agreements — a type of deal Swank says he'd like to sign — which enable sheriffs and police departments to help enforce federal immigration law by sharing information or serving warrants.
One version of that program — abandoned in 2012 by the Obama administration after lawsuits over racial profiling, but revived by Trump — creates a "task force model" that deputizes local police as deportation agents, encouraging them to question people about their immigration status during traffic stops and other routine interactions.
Such partnerships with ICE are allowed across most of the U.S., and have been aggressively expanded in conservative-led states, including Texas and Florida. But they’re banned in Washington and several other states with laws prohibiting local police from enforcing federal immigration law.
Swank says, initially at least, he'd focus on "violent criminals" to ensure they get turned over to ICE after serving their jail time — cooperation as simple as a phone call or email that is now barred under the state's sanctuary law.
"That's pretty simple. I don't see the Pierce County sheriff's office going after just willy-nilly people who are here illegally," he said.
On social media, Swank has expressed support for broader community immigration sweeps involving local law enforcement in Florida and elsewhere.
In June, a KING-5 story profiled immigrants in Yakima who've lived and worked there for years but are now terrified they could be abruptly snatched up and sent back to countries they barely remember.
“Fear is the daily reality of being undocumented in America” the headline read.
“As it should be,” Swank wrote approvingly on X.
Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello, a Democrat, said Swank's public comments about his plans to work with ICE have been "contradictory" and "dangerous," arguing they make immigrants less likely to trust the sheriff's office when they're victims of crime or potential witnesses.
"To hear the sheriff say that he is wanting to violate state law, bring ICE here, rip families apart … it really causes fear and division in our community," Mello said.
Already, rampant rumors about expanded local ICE deployments have set people in the Tacoma area on edge, the News Tribune reported in June. Mi Centro, a local organization that offers services to Latinos, has removed information about its staff from its website and says its programs are now available for preregistered clients only, citing "current community concerns."
Aimee Khuu, executive director of Tacoma Community House, a nonprofit organization that offers services to immigrants, including help with applying for citizenship, said, "Any time the lines are blurred between law enforcement and immigration, that creates a lot of anxiety."
"Trust breaks down. Families become less safe," Khuu said.
Swank said he's the target of a political establishment in Pierce County that never wanted to see him elected sheriff. Most top elected leaders there — Democrats and Republicans — endorsed his opponent, Patti Jackson, a longtime veteran of the sheriff's office.
But voters backed Swank, electing him in November by about 8,000 votes.
Swank retired after 33 years in the Seattle Police Department in 2023 as a captain, while under investigation for inflammatory social media posts disparaging Black and transgender people.
In January, an SPD disciplinary report concluded he would have been fired for the posts if he hadn't already quit — a finding Swank dismisses as politically motivated.
Swank had previously run unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican and was on the verge of moving to Florida two years ago. But his plans changed one summer evening when he was sitting in his hot tub. He said God told him he should run for sheriff.
In his recent court declaration, Swank said Mello and other local Democrats "enjoy belittling me because I am a Christian who decided to run for office because that was the direction that God gave me."
Swank's conflicts with other Pierce County leaders go beyond just his effort to ally with ICE. He has also asserted that, as a separately elected official, he does not have to abide by executive orders issued by Mello, and has chafed at having to get permission to spend money on training programs and travel expenses for his deputies.
Dissatisfied with Robnett's advice on ICE and those other issues, Swank recruited Joan Mell, a local attorney, to independently represent him.
Mell, who has also represented The Geo Group, a company that operates a privately owned immigration detention center in Tacoma, said in an interview she took up Swank's cause free of charge because she believes it's "inappropriate" for Robnett and Mello "to align themselves against the sheriff and try to invade his core functions."
After Mell sent a notice that she was representing Swank, Robnett responded by swiftly going to court and winning an injunction prohibiting that arrangement.
Since Swank said he no longer trusts her, Robnett appointed Randy Gaylord, a retired San Juan County Prosecutor, to temporarily advise the sheriff.
In an interview, Robnett said she has concerns of her own about the state's sanctuary law, which prohibits her office and local police from reporting "really bad people" to federal immigration authorities.
"We have had people accused of very serious felony offenses that we know are not here legally from the U.S.," she said.
However, Robnett said her personal views are irrelevant and that she and Swank are "bound by the law."
In her view, the state is within its rights to limit cooperation with ICE as there is "no requirement a state or local agency to enforce federal law. That is sort of the baseline."
Brown's office has made it clear he will enforce Washington's restrictions on sheriffs cooperating with ICE.
In March, his office sued Adams County in Eastern Washington, accusing Sheriff Dale Wagner of illegally aiding federal immigration enforcement, including by illegally holding people based solely on their immigration status.
To help defend it, Adams County has retained lawyers from America First Legal, a group founded by Trump aide Stephen Miller.
In April, Swank traveled to Washington, D.C., with several other sheriffs to support Adams when he testified before the House Judiciary Committee, criticizing Washington's sanctuary policy.
During that trip, which Swank said he paid for personally, the sheriffs also met U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top Justice Department officials. Swank said he received no promises of action, but was told they'd "look into it."
A few weeks later, an assistant attorney general in the civil rights division of Brown's office filed a records request with the Pierce County sheriff's office, seeking all communications or other evidence of involvement with ICE, the Border Patrol or the U.S. Marshals Service.
A spokesperson for Brown declined to comment on whether the attorney general has opened an investigation into Swank's office, citing a general policy against confirming or denying such probes.
Swank said the attorney general won't find evidence he's collaborating with ICE, because he has made no such agreement.
Even if he can't directly take on Washington's sanctuary law in court right now, Swank said he is watching the Trump administration's efforts to take down sanctuary policies elsewhere.
Last week, the Trump administration sued Los Angeles, claiming the city's sanctuary policies have obstructed immigration enforcement and created a lawless environment. The administration has filed similar lawsuits in recent months against New York, New Jersey and Colorado.
"I am waiting for all that to play out, Swank said.
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