At a press conference in Seattle, representatives of more than six organizations said immigration arrests in Washington state have increased significantly. Those detained include a 19-year-old honor student who planned to attend the University of Washington, caregivers for people with high support needs, a father of three and a refugee from Laos. “This wave is already here,” said Roxana Norouzi, executive director of OneAmerica.
According to the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detained about 700 people in the state in July—the highest monthly total since Donald Trump returned to the presidency. After a temporary decline early in the year, arrests began rising again in the spring. Advocates say arrests are still taking place, often out of public view.
The gathering included an altar for Mexico’s Day of the Dead, with photos of people who had been detained or deported. Attendees also unfurled a scroll bearing the names of people who had died in detention centers or during ICE operations nationwide, and laid orange flowers on it. A relative of one detainee said her father, who lives in Federal Way, was stopped on his way to work as a plumber and has been held at a detention center in Tacoma since October 17. His family visits him every day, but it is hard to explain to the children why their grandfather does not come home.
A representative of a care workers’ union spoke about two employees who had been detained. One was arrested during a shift after stepping out to a store, leaving the person in his care without assistance. The other was detained at a mandatory meeting with immigration authorities. A person who needed round-the-clock care went without support for several days and ultimately ended up in the hospital. Another speaker spoke about an acquaintance who was a refugee from Laos and had a criminal record: after moving to Washington, he tried to start over and helped his neighbors in Port Angeles.
Activists say agents are increasingly using aggressive tactics, including displaying firearms and pepper spray. The federal Department of Homeland Security says ICE trains its officers in de-escalation and the use of only the minimum force necessary.
Advocates urged residents to join rapid-response groups and support the families of detainees. These local networks of volunteers and community organizations help relatives find out where someone is being held, connect them with lawyers and provide practical support. They are not government agencies, cannot overturn a detention and do not replace legal assistance.
Activists also called on officials to provide more assistance to detainees’ families and restrict immigration authorities’ access to driver’s license data. Gov. Bob Ferguson said the state had blocked ICE accounts from searching the Nlets system, a nonprofit network through which law enforcement agencies share certain data, including information from driver registries. State laws restrict the sharing of such data for immigration enforcement without a legal basis or court order. However, this does not necessarily prevent information from being obtained from other sources, and other federal agencies may retain access to Nlets. By October, the University of Washington Center for Human Rights had recorded 356 arrests associated with the use of driver data.
Based on: ICE surge is here, say WA immigrant advocates sharing stories of arrests