(The Center Square) – With tens of millions of dollars at stake, former Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl plans to use his new position to broker a deal between Washington state and President Donald Trump.
The Border Security Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advocating for policies that prevent illegal crossings and safeguard Americans, announced its new advisory council on Tuesday. That group will engage with lawmakers to discuss the challenges border communities face while offering solutions.
Meidl is one of four members on the council so far, with others from Arizona, Maine and Texas. He told The Center Square about plans to meet with those on the front lines of the fentanyl crisis while joining others in advocating for policy change at various levels; however, one big thing is standing in his way.
“One of the struggles we have here in Washington state is the ‘Keep Washington Working Act,’ he said. “Even if someone has committed a crime and they’re here illegally in Washington state … by law, we’re not allowed to notify our federal law enforcement partners that this person committed this crime.”
The KWWA, which many refer to as Washington’s “sanctuary” law, almost entirely prohibits state and local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration authorities. The state is suing Adams County for alleged violations over sharing jail inmates’ immigration statuses with federal agents.
Meidl hopes to carve out an exemption for just that by negotiating a compromise between Trump and state lawmakers. The administration has threatened to withhold federal funding from sanctuary states, and Washington just landed on the U.S. Department of Justice’s new list that it published last week.
According to the Washington State Office of the Attorney General, state and local law enforcement are prohibited from asking about someone’s immigration status. The only exception is for cases that have a connection between that information and an investigation into specific violations of state or local law.
The AGO website argues that “Unauthorized presence in the United States is governed by federal law and is not, by itself, a crime.”
Meidl noted that Washington sits at the bottom of the barrel in terms of police officers per capita, so they don’t have much capacity to actively enforce immigration laws, but the state could still help out.
“This is the time to sit down and have a discussion,” Meidl said. “Is there an ability to negotiate to at least allow law enforcement in this state to contact federal law enforcement if they have contacted someone who is in this country unlawfully … if they’re caught in the act of committing another crime.”
If the courts ultimately allow Trump to withhold grants from sanctuary jurisdictions, Washington state could lose tens of millions of dollars in federal funding. Much of that funding supports state and local law enforcement, so Meidl said staffing could face another devastating hit due to noncompliance.
He said Spokane taxpayers are particularly impacted, given how close they live to the border and the hundreds of people killed by fentanyl there each year. The state and nation are both experiencing dips in overdose deaths, but that fatal statistic continued to rise to a record high in Spokane last year.
Spokane Police Chief Kevin Hall testified to the U.S. Senate a few months ago that fentanyl precursors are making their way from China to Mexico and up to Spokane. Meidl said the same is true up north.
Far less fentanyl is seized at the northern border, but what authorities have caught is enough to kill millions of Americans. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has also recorded more “terrorism-related encounters” up north than at the southern border for the last five years, except through May of 2025.
“Talking with some of my border patrol associates, I said to them, ‘What is the message you would like to [get] out related to border security?’” Meidl foreshadowed. “One of the top things that they feel is, ‘Please stop demonizing border patrol. We are only out enforcing laws passed by Congress.’”
