Washington AG Ferguson considering suit over immigrant family separations

SEATAC, Wash. — Lawyers from the Northwest Immigration Rights Project are slowly getting access to interview the asylum seekers who were sent here from the southern border. They've learned there are 177 women and 32 men, it's not known yet how many have children.

"We have mothers now who are locked up in SeaTac who have been separated from their children for weeks and some for months," said legal director Matt Adams.

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​They were first detained for crossing the border illegally to seek asylum from violence in their home countries, but Adams says those here in Washington have already served their time for that crime -- now they are awaiting asylum proceedings.

"What is new and absolutely unusual is that the government has continued to separate them from their children after the criminal process," Adams said.

A father of twins, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is appalled.

"We're now taking mothers and separating them from young children, you know it's a new low for our country."

He and Gov. Jay Inslee sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement saying the Trump administration is "inflicting intentional gratuitous and permanent trauma on young children and their parents."

"We've asked where are these children, are they here in Washington state, why are they in a prison in the first place?"

Ferguson says he has a team of lawyers looking to see if there is a basis for a lawsuit to stop the separations, but acknowledges they may be wrong, but not illegal.

Cox Media Group