How Washington communities are responding to ICE deportation orders
At least 4% of state residents are undocumented, according to Pew Research. Here is how officials and advocates are responding and planning ahead.
by Mai Hoang
February 13, 2025
Just hours after being sworn into office for a second term, President Donald Trump signed numerous executive orders on immigration. While some were policies he had executed in his first term, others were unprecedented, such as ending birthright citizenship and designating international drug cartels as terrorists.
Shortly thereafter, the Trump administration sent a memo to the Justice Department directing it to boost efforts on immigration enforcement, a swift follow-through on a promise Trump made during his presidential campaign. In the past several weeks, thousands of people, in documented instances, have been arrested or questioned by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Cascade PBS reached out to advocates and a city manager in Central Washington to learn more about how mass deportation efforts have affected Washington and its more than 300,000 undocumented residents.
Intent and reality
Trump has maintained that his targets for deportation have been only undocumented immigrants committing crimes, in particular those who have been “arrested many times,” as he said during a recent speech to House Republicans. However, during one day of enforcement actions in which 1,200 people nationwide were detained, nearly half simply did not have legal authorization to be in the U.S. but did not have a criminal record, a senior Trump administration told NBC News. a senior Trump administration told NBC News.
How many?
According to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data, about 325,000 residents in Washington were undocumented as of 2022, about 4.2% of the state’s population and 26% of its immigrants. That percentage is above the national figure of 3.3% of the total U.S. population. At 34%, Mexico is the country with the most undocumented immigrants in the state.
In addition, about 200,000 households in Washington have at least one undocumented immigrant — 6.4% of all households in the state.
More than one out of 10 K-12 students in Washington have at least one parent who is undocumented, according to Pew Research Center figures. Days after Trump’s inauguration, Chris Reykdal, Superintendent of Public Instruction, provided guidance to school districts, pointing district and school officials to a summary of state and federal policies related to data collection, enrollment and more, and reminding districts that public schools do not require their families to disclose or document immigration status. “Our Constitution does not identify citizenship as a qualification to receive an education,” Reykdal wrote in the prepared statement.
Verifying incidents
One of the concerns among advocates and city governments is the spread of misinformation on social media.
Roxana Norouzi, executive director of OneAmerica, an immigrant rights organization, said that she knows most people mean well when sharing reports, but often this results in incorrect information spreading instead.
“It’s spreading a wave of fear, which is not what we want,” Norouzi said. “We want to spread power, not fear.”
For example, a lot of arrests and other incidents involving law enforcement have been mischaracterized as involving ICE, she said.
“Because there’s been so much information in the mainstream media of mass deportations, sometimes it’s assumed every interaction with law enforcement is ICE,” Norouzi said.
Advocates encourage anyone with information and reports of ICE visits or enforcement actions to report them through a hotline run by the statewide Washington State Immigration Solidarity Network (WAISN), a coalition of immigrant and refugee organizations, including OneAmerica, aiming to “protect, serve and strengthen communities.”
Hotline volunteers are trained to monitor and investigate reports of ICE activity, said executive director Catalina Velasquez. The organization is providing updates of confirmed sightings through WAISN’s Bluesky, Instagram and Facebook sites.
The hotline, which can be reached at 844-724-3737 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, is available in more than 300 languages.
On its X account, ICE has reported some of its actions, highlighting arrests of people who have committed crimes and posting occasional “Enforcement updates,” which list the number of arrests and how many were detained. They also display statistics on its website. were detained. They also display statistics on its website.
What immigrants can do
Norouzi said she and staff from OneAmerica have reminded elected officials and jurisdictions at all levels of state laws that could provide additional protection for immigrants.
For example, the state passed the Keep Washington Working Act in 2019 in response to Trump’s actions on immigration during his first term. That law reinforces that state and local law enforcement do not have the primary purpose of enforcing civil federal immigration law. The law also establishes that a person’s immigration status, presence in the country or employment alone is not a matter of police action. The law also acknowledges the contributions of immigrants in sectors such as agriculture, food processing, construction and health care, and that the priority of the state is to maintain the rights and dignity of residents to ensure they can keep working.
WAISN provides multiple services for those impacted by immigration enforcement, said Velasquez, including individuals detained and their families.
Both WAISN and OneAmerica have offered “know your rights” sessions to ensure undocumented immigrants understand their rights under the law and what they should or shouldn’t say during an interaction with ICE. The trainers also remind people that they have the right to an attorney during interactions with law enforcement. WAISN also offers a Fair Fight Bond Fund, a community-sourced immigration bond fund that pays for the release of those detained after immigration enforcement.
“Regardless of what the current administration is saying, these are legal rights everybody in this country, regardless of status, has,” Norouzi said.
One city’s take
In Sunnyside, in the lower Yakima Valley, about 30% — possibly more — of its nearly 17,000 residents are undocumented, said Mike Gonzalez, the city manager. Latinos, in general, make up around 90% of the city’s population, which means a lot of people are likely affected by the immigration crackdown in some way.
He said he heard of one local day care encouraging parents to sign powers-of-attorney in case they are taken away by ICE.
“These are real fears,” Gonzalez said. “For our community, it’s a reality.”
Gonzalez said some residents remember seeing such raids in the late 1980s and 1990s, including in the farmland fields where their parents worked. “There’s an element of PTSD in our community among those [in the] 35-to 50-year-old range.”
Gonzalez said his priority is to ensure safety for all residents, regardless of their immigration status. Part of that work includes providing an information card in English and Spanish outlining their rights if ICE approaches them.
The move has generated ire from residents who feel he and the city are protecting those breaking the law. Gonzalez said the criticism does not deter him.
While Gonzalez said he wants his police department to promptly address any criminal activity — from anyone — he disagrees with the rhetoric that those without legal status should be deemed criminals. He notes that immigrants contribute to the local economy, especially in agriculture, an important industry for Sunnyside and the state.
“People come here for different reasons,” he said. “They come here for opportunities, for economic reasons.”
The city has not received any advance notice of activity from ICE. Officials often find out about arrests or other actions through agencies or advocacy organizations, Gonzalez said. “They truly, truly, work stealthy and by themselves,” he said. “We don’t have any communication.”
Playing the long game
Norouzi of OneAmerica said it’s often easy to respond to an emergency and then end up being reactive rather than proactive in addressing immigrants’ issues.
“Part of the chaos and the filing of these executive orders is meant to move us from a place to act proactively on our agenda [to] being reactive,” she said. “It’s really tough. I don’t necessarily have the answer. It’s something we grapple with every day.”
Still, Norouzi said she and OneAmerica try to focus on their mission, which is to provide immigrants and advocates political homes to fight for justice and to help position Washington as the best place for immigrants in the country. That focus will help them not only get through immediate emergencies but also put them in a position to help immigrants thrive in the long term.
The organization’s work includes working with state legislators on a pro-immigrant agenda that includes, among many things, tax reform that is less regressive to ensure everyone pays their fair share, and providing benefits such as unemployment, to undocumented immigrants.
Norouzi said they must continue working on bringing more people into the movement, which means not just giving information to immigrants but developing their leadership and civic engagement skills so they can participate directly in the political process.
“We have to keep that fight up,” she said. “The only way we’ll win on this thing is if we keep bringing people in and developing our leaders [to have] more power via more people.”