Seattle Mayor Ed Murray says he wants to know what the federal government is up to — and whether he should be expecting retaliation for fighting it. | Getty Seattle mayor wants to sue Trump

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is daring the Trump administration to let him take it to court.

Tuesday morning, the liberal leader of the liberal West Coast city will use his state of the city speech — delivered at a mosque in North Seattle — to announce a plan to officially demand answers on the creation and intention of President Donald Trump’s executive orders, as well as his plans for DACA and sanctuary cities.


If the administration doesn’t respond within the allotted 20 business days, Murray says, he’ll sue.

“We believe the rule of law is on our side, and we will take legal action if the federal government does not answer our requests in a timely manner,” Murray will say, according to prepared text of the speech provided to POLITICO.

The city is at the center of the alarm over the White House’s actions, between the ruling of a Seattle judge two weeks ago which halted the ban nationwide and the arrest last week of a 23-year-old brought illegally to the United States as a child, but who has no criminal record, and would be covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) provisions that Trump is looking to scrap.

Murray says he wants to know what the federal government is up to — and whether he should be expecting retaliation for fighting it. His aides and City Attorney Pete Holmes will be submitting Freedom of Information Requests to Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“The city must be able to provide accurate information to immigrants and refugees and their families living in Seattle,” Murray will say. “We will seek to determine the administration’s definition of ‘sanctuary cities’ and the enforcement actions the federal government may take against us. We will also seek detailed information about this administration’s changes to travel policy, as well as changes to immigration status, including the DACA program.”

After the arrest of 23-year-old Daniel Medina last week, Murray’s aides were told by ICE that it was unable to set up a meeting to provide more information, according to one of the aides, prompting some of the mayor’s plans. But other suits related to information about the ban are likely to be filed well ahead of anything that might come out of city government. The American Civil Liberties Union, for example, announced its own information requests about the ban at the beginning of February, almost a full three weeks ahead of Murray.

Murray is not currently working in conjunction with Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson on these FOIA requests, who led the successful legal fight against the ban, but is using the legal strategy as part of a wider response to Trump’s actions that are about highlighting inclusiveness toward immigrants in Seattle and resistance to the president’s policies.

