The leaders of the Democratic sanctuary challenge Trump’s administrator: “no intention to change”
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The sanctuary jurisdictions remain provocative after the American prosecutor General Pam Bondi issued a deadline to start cooperating with the federal authorities this week. States like Washington say that they have “no intention to change our values in the face of the threats of the Trump administration”.
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson, a democrat, sent Bondi a letter of response in which he wrote: “You are in the opinion that the state of Washington will not be intimidated or intimidated by threats and legally baseless accusations.”
In his response to Bondi, which was shared with Fox News Digital, Ferguson wrote that “our state legislature adopted a bipartite law which appropriately and legally limited the diversion of our state and local resources to the federal application of immigration”. He also torn personally, writing that his “threatening to prosecute state officials embarrass and dishonor the office”.
“The state of Washington is proud to be a welcoming community which values the contributions of immigrants and refugees to our economy and our cultural fabric. We do it while taking into account and respect for the applicable federal law,” he said.
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The American prosecutor General Pam Bondi talks to a press conference at the DEA headquarters on July 15, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. (Images Alex Wong / Getty)
“You seem to believe that the threatening cavalier criminal proceedings will make me compromise the values of my state. Never,” he added. “I am ready to defend Washington against any dispute that you want to continue. If you choose to challenge me, me and my condition, be informed that we will fight you and that we will look for all the appropriate costs and costs.”
In another post X, Ferguson wrote: “The state of Washington does not intend to change our values in the face of the threats of the Trump administration”.
Bondi announced on Thursday that it had sent letters by giving jurisdictions of the sanctuary to a national scale a week to comply with the federal immigration laws or to the action of the Ministry of Justice. Speaking on Fox Business, Bondi said that she had sent letters to 32 mayors and seven governors, “telling them that you would better comply or that you are next.”
Bondi underlined a letter which she sent to the governor of California Gavin Newsom in which she warned that “individuals operating under the color of the law, using their official position to hinder federal efforts to apply immigration and facilitate or induce illegal immigration can be subject to criminal accusations”.
The letter, shared on social networks, said that cooperation between application agencies for federal, state and local law, including the application of immigration, “is vital to enforce federal law and protect national security”.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom gives a discourse on redistribution. (Reuters / Mike Blake)
“Under the leadership of President Trump, full cooperation by governments of states and premises in the efforts to apply immigration is an absolute priority,” said Bondi, affirming that Trump had ordered him to “identify the jurisdictions of the sanctuary and inform them of their illegal sanctuary status and potential violations of the federal law”.
Several other jurisdictions of the sanctuary controlled by the Democrats also took a provocative tone in their response to the letter from Bondi.
The mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, Democrat, held a noisy press conference on Tuesday, bondi bondi to follow her letter.
“Stop attacking our cities to hide the failures of your administration,” said WU. “Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law. … You are mistaken about the law and you are mistaken about security.
“The cities that live in your minds are completely foreign to residents living in our cities,” she said. “And we take the pieces of your failures to keep your promises.” She also accused the Trump administration of having increased the costs of the Americans.
Newsom, according to rumors, the presidential aspirations, called the Bondi’s letter “yet another attempt by the federal government to put pressure on the states to fold the knee and accept their authoritarian tactics”.
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The mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, speaks at a press conference describing the city’s response at the request of the American prosecutor Pam Bondi that Boston cooperates with federal mass deportations. (Getty Images / Lane Turner)
The Newsom office shared a letter with Fox News Digital which was sent by the Governor’s legal secretary, David SAPPI, to Bondi who underlined a 2019 decision by the 9th short circuit which said: “California has the right, in accordance with federal efforts (of the tenth amendment), to abstain from helping federal efforts.”
SAPP said that the threat of pursuing prosecution in California “would be the rule of law, as would probably constitute malicious proceedings.”
In another declaration shared with Fox News Digital, Newsom said: “The courts have reaffirmed the validity of the laws of California repeatedly” and “we will not be intimidated to abandon our sovereignty”.
The chief of the northern neighbor of California, the governor of Oregon, Tina Kotek, was just as provocative, saying that on X: “I will fight for the safety and prosperity of each Oregon, recent immigrants to people who have been here for generations.”
Kotek’s office shared her response letter to Bondi, which was sent on Tuesday, in which she said that she “was respectfully disagreement” with Bondi’s assertions that Oregon law “thwarts federal immigration law”.
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New York Governor Kathy Hochul retaliated against Bondi, accusing him of believing that “states are only vassals of the federal government”. (Images Alex Kent / Getty)
“No civil servant or manager of the application of Oregon laws is engaged in any activity to” obstruct “federal immigration efforts,” she said. “Consequently, no” immediate initiative “is necessary to eliminate laws.”
Despite the decline, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice told Fox News that the agency is now negotiating with several jurisdictions to end the sanctuary policies.
A spokesperson for the Doj underlined Fox News Digital with several proceedings that the agency has already brought against Los Angeles, New York State, Colorado, Illinois and several other cities.
The office of the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, shared a letter which she sent on Tuesday, in which the governor accused the attorney general of believing that “the states are only vassals of the federal government”.
Hochul wrote that “these disputes are rightly so in the courts of resolution” and that “in the meantime, I will continue to maintain my constitutional duty to take care that New York laws are faithfully executed”.
Eric Maruyama, spokesperson for the Governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, a Democrat, responded to the request for comments from Fox News Digital by saying: “Colorado is not a sanctuary state.”
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Illinois Governor JB Pritzker speaks to the Center for American Progress (CAP) Action Fund on March 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
Maruyama said Polis “continues to be frustrated by this erroneous and incorrect label and the lack of transparency on the part of the federal administration on this element and many others”.
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“In Colorado, we improve public security, understand dangerous criminals, cooperating with the federal police for criminal surveys and ensuring our communities in security,” he continued. “The Governor encourages the federal administration – and the congress – to focus on securing the border, the reduction in violent crimes, the increase in transparency and the real immigration reform.”
A pritzker spokesperson underlined a statement published by the governor on X in which he said that the Illinois had beaten the Trump administration before the Federal Court, claiming: “their case contesting the Bipartite trust law was rejected – unlike the president, we follow the law and listens to the courts.”
The Doj’s trial was rejected by the American district court in the Northern Illinois district, oriental division, for lack of position. The DoJ can always appeal the decision.
Fox News Digital also contacted the offices of the Governor of Rhode Island, Dan McKee and the Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, but did not receive reports in response at the time of publication.
Charles Creitz of Fox News Digital, Danielle Wallace and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
