ICE Didn't Show Up For Work At Seattle Field Office After Barricade Showdown

After Saturday’s barricade of ICE’s Seattle Field Office went up in green smoke, ICE agents called off what was supposed to be day two of their unusual call for check-ins with Seattle-area immigrants. While the cancellation added confusion to the already suspicious check-ins, some organizers who answered the call to defend their immigrant neighbors this weekend celebrated it as a win on social media. No check-ins meant no more detainments, at least at that facility and at least for that day. 

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Late last week, ICE sent a mass text through official channels to documented immigrants enrolled in the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, instructing them to visit ICE’s Seattle Field Office in Tukwila for a check-in between 8am and 4pm on Saturday and Sunday. This unusual weekend call set off alarm bells for immigrants, their lawyers, and their allies throughout the community. An autonomous group of organizers called for supporters to show up and help defend their immigrant neighbors from detainment, a call that struggled to compete with the advertising machine behind the nationally coordinated No Kings rally also slated for Saturday. 

ICE started the check-ins about an hour and a half later than expected, with a man in plain clothes and a gator over half his face calling in the first person at about 9:30am. One by one and without the company of their lawyers, about 40 people went into the building for brief meetings throughout the day, which ended early at about 12:45pm. For those who arrived before or after the shortened window, lawyers instructed their clients to document their attempts to comply with ICE’s orders by taking photos of themselves in front of the Department of Homeland Security sign and sending it to ICE in response to their text blast summons. 

Throughout the day, organizers wrote down the names of everyone who went into the building and crossed off their names when they exited — usually to the sound of applause. Organizers could not account for two people on the list when ICE closed up shop for the day. That meant at least two people (KUOW reported five and different organizations have posted three separate names posted online) were detained inside the building. 

Organizers sprang into action, building makeshift barricades out of garbage cans and No Parking signs in front of the two known exits to the parking lot. 

Just after 3pm, about a dozen cops in riot gear from the Tukwila Police Department rolled up in pickup trucks. This is not the first time local police have collaborated with ICE in recent days in Western Washington. The Seattle Police Department helped the Federal Protective Services break up a barricade at the Federal Building, which aimed to keep ICE from escaping with potential detainees.

An officer demanded the advocates disperse immediately, warning that the cops were prepared to deploy chemical munitions and arrest them. Mere minutes after their arrival, the cops advanced on the barricade, peeling away some No Parking signs before deploying a green gas that the Seattle Times identified as tear gas. Remember: It is against the rules of war to use tear gas. 

Then, an ICE Special Response Team launched an attack from behind, shooting pepper balls and spraying more chemical munitions. The team ripped one of the protesters away from the barricade, dragging them down the lawn, and into the facility. The protester remerged later. 

Between Tukwila PD and the ICE Special Response Team, the state succeeded in breaking up the barricade and at least eight vehicles drove out of the parking lot. Though the occupants of the vehicles remain unknown, ICE has transferred at least one of the suspected detainees to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. 

Advocates prepared for another tense day of attempting to block deportations on Sunday, but ICE called it quits for the unusual check-ins. At about 9am on Sunday, a Federal Protective Services officer told organizers that they would not be conducting check-ins that day. Advocates stuck around to spread the news to people who came at the instruction of the text blast. Advocates advised that those who got the message still show up to document their attempts to comply with ICE’s orders. 

At least some advocates saw the cancellation as a victory. In a graphic posted to Instagram by Super Familia, advocates took credit for shutting down the facility “thanks to the collective efforts of community members.” As the group wrote in the caption, there were no kidnappings in that office Sunday.

Collective anti-ICE action has scared away agents in the past. For example, after the Lime Bike barricade at the Federal Building last Tuesday, sources inside the building say they did not see ICE lurking in the building to snatch people for expedited removal on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday as they had been for the last several weeks. 

But that’s not to say those ICE agents have simply disappeared. Throughout the week, Seattlites claimed to have seen ICE around town. If you see ICE, please report the sighting to the Washington Immigration Solidarity Network at 1-844-724-3737.

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