On June 12th, NBC reported that Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was poised to deploy special tactical units to five blue cities, including Seattle. This comes on the heels of deployment by the Trump Administration of the National Guard and US marines in Los Angeles to support ICE raids, where federal agents tackled children, slammed labor leaders to the ground, and tore families apart.
In addition to this unprecedented use of national troops, ICE has begun using Federal Immigration Court proceedings in Seattle to find and detain immigrants whose cases have been dismissed – often at the request of Federal prosecutors. While immigrant communities have weathered ICE aggression for two decades, these new tactics signal an alarming escalation.
We will not stand by as the Trump Administration attacks ordinary people and the democracy that binds us together.
From King 5 News: DHS allows ICE agents to arrest outside immigration court. A handful of people were detained after their immigration cases were dismissed in the Seattle Immigration Courthouse last week.
Our hearts go out to our immigrant communities who are experiencing fear and loss of freedom across the country, in Los Angeles and here in Seattle. We denounce the actions of the Trump Administration and ICE to militarize immigration policy and violate the human rights of immigrant workers, families, elders and children. We see these acts of persecuting and demonizing immigrants as continued steps in the rise of despotism.
We won’t stand by when local law enforcement gives aid and support to ICE actions. In LA, community and civilian officials are criticizing police and sheriff’s deputies who escalated violence towards ICE protesters, despite LA self-declaring to be a sanctuary city. This past weekend, Tukwila police fired tear gas at protesters who were trying to prevent the detention of community members. Although Tukwila has not declared itself as an official sanctuary city, most of its residents are immigrants.
We do not accept Trump’s pretense for ICE raids in our communities. By coming for immigrants who are “criminals,” Trump wants to create a class of people he is justified in deporting. We all know this is primarily a ruse to rope in as many undocumented people as possible. But we also know that immigrants are more likely to be treated unfairly in our criminal justice system. So-called “criminals” are often members of our community who have done their time and paid their dues, like any U.S. citizen. But unlike U.S. citizens, they are punished again with deportation and a lifetime of family separation. As the Black-led abolitionist and transformative justice movements of the last decade have taught us, no one is disposable. We should not accept that some immigrants are more deserving of deportation than others for political reasons. We believe in healing, not lifetimes of retribution.
From Seattle Times: Tukwila police fire pepper balls on protesters at unusual ICE check-in. ICE and Border Patrol agents grab a protester outside of the Department of Homeland Security Field Office on Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Tukwila.
We are fortunate to live and work in a sanctuary county, or in Seattle, a sanctuary city. But pledges of sanctuary will be tested in the coming days, weeks and months. We call on the city mayors, public prosecutors, county executives and the Governor to fulfill their promises to not aid and abet ICE or military troops enforcing ICE actions. Protecting our immigrant communities involves more than non-support of ICE – it requires proactive strategies.
Actions our elected officials can do proactively, include:
- Uphold the purpose and commitments of Keep Washington Working and sanctuary governments that have already been made and campaigned on to win their election
- Not collect and share data with Federal immigration agencies
- Not attack or criminalize people resisting detention by ICE, nor protesters and supporters aiming to protect noncitizens
- Not allow publicly owned facilities, such as our ports, jails, and schools to be used for arrest, detention and deportation
- Use all our local and state due processes to protect immigrants from Federal overreach
- Take extra precautions in neighborhoods and places where a majority of immigrants work, live, go to school and pray.
We will likely see even more aggression by Trump and ICE against immigrant communities in the coming months. Who, how, and why we push back matters for our human rights and local democracy.
In Solidarity,
The Sage Team