At least two people were taken into custody by federal agents during an immigration enforcement operation in the Maple Leaf neighborhood of North Seattle on Tuesday morning, according to FOX 13 Seattle. The operation unfolded around eight thirty in the morning in what residents describe as a typically quiet residential area, where people said they had never really dealt with immigration enforcement in their community before.
Neighbors said the two people detained were landscape workers who had come to do a job in the community, riding in an unmarked pickup truck as a driver and a passenger. The residents who had hired the landscapers reportedly came outside in alarm when their workers never showed up. According to the station, the workers' lunches were still visible in the back of the pickup, which was left in the middle of the road in a no parking zone until neighbors moved it to a proper spot.
Much of what is known about the incident comes from video recorded by neighbors and now circulating online. A bystander began recording on a cell phone, and a person in a green hooded sweatshirt sounded a whistle for as long as twenty to forty seconds. Such whistles, handed out along with know-your-rights red cards, are meant to be blown in short bursts to alert others when enforcement agents are seen in an area, and the sound drew several neighbors outside to film what was happening.
In the footage, several vehicles described as either undercover or federal are visible, including a dark colored SUV with an obscured license plate and a beige minivan. Residents said the agents wore camouflage gear, vests, caps, gaiter style face coverings and sunglasses, with each dressed a little differently, and that they were unable to identify the officers in any way. Some residents shared license plates from the footage with websites that track immigration operations and detentions.
The scene has renewed attention on a Washington state law signed this year by Governor Bob Ferguson that bars law enforcement from concealing their identity with masks. Supporters have argued that masking makes encounters less secure, and the FBI has warned of criminals posing as immigration officers to carry out robberies and kidnappings. The law is also cited as giving a person detained by an unlawfully masked officer the right to take legal action.
Immigrant advocacy groups expressed frustration that, despite such measures, agents in the video still appeared to have their faces covered. They noted that the protections are meant to shield people in mixed status families, as well as permanent residents and even U.S. citizens, some of whom, advocates say, have been swept up in enforcement actions and taken into custody.
The reporter said requests for information to the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement went unanswered, leaving open questions about who was detained and why. Citing figures from the Associated Press, the station noted that roughly ten thousand people were taken into custody nationwide in a span of five days at the end of June, or about two thousand a day, fueling questions about the scale and criteria of the operations.