Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.
WA rapid response volunteers working to monitor ICE enforcement
By Jaelynn Grisso
The high-profile deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis both happened when they were monitoring ICE activities, as part of an effort many residents have taken to keep an eye on ICE agents. Rapid response teams who do this kind of work now exist all across Washington state, including in Yakima where Jamie Ortiz volunteers.
Ortiz began collecting reports of immigration enforcement in early 2025 via a Facebook page. She now goes out multiple times a week with the Yakima Immigrant Response Network.
Volunteers doing this work monitor ICE tactics to help them respond. One tactic immigration enforcement uses is detaining folks outside of public places, like big box stores. A recent report from the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights pieced together how ICE may be using license plates to identify people, which researchers say is against state law.
The Department of Licensing and Washington State Patrol issued a joint statement on the report, saying "Governor Ferguson is committed to complying with applicable laws and finding the right balance in protecting individuals’ data without compromising legitimate law-enforcement investigations of criminal acts that are necessary to preserve public safety.”
An ICE spokesperson did not respond to our request for comment.
After months of monitoring ICE activity, Ortiz’s husband was detained last September. He spent 45 days in the Northwest ICE Processing Center before being deported to Mexico. Ortiz said she will split her time, so she can see her husband, but will continue with rapid response team work in Yakima, despite the risks.
“We had signs that say I am Renee Good,” she said about a vigil held in Yakima. “It just puts into perspective: that could have been me.”
Whistles become grassroots ICE alert system
By Lizz Giordano
In preparation for ICE tactics to possibly intensify as they have in Minnesota and Chicago, a grass-roots alert system using whistles grows across the state to warn neighbors of nearby ICE activity.
Groups have formed to pack whistle kits -- turning library tables from Issaquah to Covington into distribution grounds for the simple and cheap alarm system.
Each kit contains a 3D printed whistle, a “know your constitutional rights” card and an instruction booklet on how and when to use a whistle.
“It's easy to feel helpless when you turn on the television at night and you see the news and you see people being abducted from their place of work, from schools, from place of worship, from the street,” said volunteer Doreen Curry. “I've attended protests, I've called my local legislators, and this was physical action that I felt I was doing something, instead of just sitting at home having a panic attack.”
Volunteers say requests for the packets come from school and community groups, businesses and unions. Groups are also holding whistle training sessions.
“It's impossible right now to predict where ice will be at any given day or any given moment. It's, you know, kind of like lightning striking. And their tactics are such that if you're not there within five minutes, they're gone in most cases,” said volunteer Kate Macfarlane. “So. the more we can do to prepare, the better.”
Folks in other states are also adopting the warning system, turning the whistle into a symbol of ICE resistance.
WA lawmakers consider new immigration protections for schools
By Venice Buhain
Parents, students and educators in Washington have been on alert as the Trump administration has stepped up immigration enforcement around schools in the past year. A bill being considered by Washington legislators aims to strengthen protections on campuses.
Since last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have intercepted some parents while they dropped off their children at schools. In October, a mother in Issaquah was stopped after dropping her child off at preschool. And last month, ICE agents stopped a father in Spokane after he dropped off his child at school. The father and daughter turned themselves in to immigration authorities and were sent to a detention center in Texas, according to The Spokesman-Review.
There’s been a ripple effect on families and schools. Nationwide, districts have reported increased absenteeism after the uptick in immigration enforcement. Recently, several south Seattle schools went into shelter-in-place after unconfirmed reports of federal immigration enforcement activity in the area.
In Seattle, interim school Superintendent Fred Podesta told Seattle School Board members that dealing with ICE has been different from dealing with local law enforcement, because local police communicate and coordinate with principals and school officials, which avoids closures sparked by unconfirmed information or rumors.
“I don't think we've given school leaders all the tools they need for dealing with that ambiguity. So we are going to work hard to correct that to make sure that there's a bit more centralized decision making and consensus building before we take action,” Podesta said. Podesta said the building leaders did what they needed to do at the time with the information they had, but “they need some more support from us to have that information.”
Senate Bill 5906 would make it illegal for schools, day care centers, preschools, hospitals, colleges and universities and county auditors offices to allow immigration enforcement officers to enter nonpublic areas without a warrant or court order.
The bill also would prevent childcare and early learning providers from collecting information about the immigration statuses of their students or their family members.
Bill sponsor state Sen. Drew Hansen, D- Bainbridge Island, says he has heard from students and families worried about arriving on their campuses and finding immigration enforcement officers.
“We want people to go to school or go to a daycare or go see a doctor, without worrying that ICE is going to come into those areas without a warrant and take them away,” he said. “People have enough to worry about in their day to day lives without worrying that ICE is going to show up inside a school, or a daycare or a hospital without a warrant and do a sweep.”
Hospitals, schools and universities are already covered under the Keep Washington Working act. The 2019 law tasked the state Attorney General’s Office to publish model immigration policies for public agencies, including schools, hospitals and law enforcement, that would limit immigration enforcement’s access to non-public areas and information. It is up to those public entities to incorporate the AG’s model protections into their policies, or explain why the agency can’t do so.
Hansen said his bill reinforces codifies those protections into law.
“We already have strong protections in Keep Washington Working that we passed with bipartisan support that keep ICE out of schools, colleges and universities and public hospitals. But when we are seeing even more ICE activity in Washington state and nationwide, we need to expand and strengthen those protections,” he said.
The bill is winding its way through the legislative process and last week was passed out of the Senate Committee on Law and Justice.
State Sen. Phil Fortunato, R- Auburn, voted against the bill.
“I just want to point out that many of the things that this bill is trying to address would simply not happen if there was a little more cooperation between the state and the federal government on these issues,” Fortunato said in committee.
Thurston County Sheriff weighs in on immigration enforcement
By Paris Jackson
The immigration enforcement surge in portions of Washington and more prominently in states like Minnesota is creating a climate of fear, but also protests across the country.
Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders has been vocal about the actions of ICE agents. We reached out to him to get his perspective.
Sanders says so far there hasn’t been a lot of ICE activity in Thurston County, but that could change.
“I think there's some conflicting messages out there about exactly who is being targeted and for what reasons. You know, sometimes we're told we're only going after the hardened criminals. Other times, you know… I just watched my friend who's a veteran get hauled off in his wheelchair, because he showed up to his naturalization meeting and, you know, didn't have his correct paperwork in hand,” Sanders said.
Given the volatile and violent situations, resulting in people being killed, we asked Sheriff Sanders if ICE agents’ actions put a negative stain on law enforcement.
“What you're going to find, with me and kind of my perspective on the world, and especially in law enforcement, is that two things can be true at the same time. You know, for instance, you can support police and then also recognize that some police officers need to be held accountable when they commit misconduct... And so I feel the same way about the situation with ICE. I've seen some tactics that are pretty concerning and aren't really in the industry standard. I've also seen some, some pretty tough scenarios that they're in where they're outnumbered, people are swarming them and those types of things,” Sanders said.
Sanders says he’s calling for there to be a balance and says the state and federal government need to work together.
Cascade PBS reached out to an ICE spokesperson to request an interview for our reporting this week, and did not receive a response.
Immigration crackdown delays path to citizenship
By Lizz Giordano
Stricter immigration rules and ramped-up ICE efforts have led to delays in the legal immigration process — generating uncertainty and fear for people trying to become citizens.
In January, the Trump Administration expanded its travel ban to 75 countries, citing ongoing security concerns. That brought visa processing to a halt for those immigrants.
Washington immigration attorneys say this comes after the federal government stopped naturalization interviews for immigrants. These interviews are one of the last steps before gaining citizenship.
Seattle immigration lawyer Michele Carney says all of her clients' naturalization interviews have been canceled since December, holding up applications indefinitely
“They've been vetted. They are waiting for their interviews,” said Carney. “I think just the delay in not knowing if and when they'll become a citizen, I think it's really frustrating for them, because these are people who have been paying their taxes. They've been doing everything right.”
Carney has practiced immigration law for more than 30 years. She says some clients are afraid to attend court hearings — worried they could be detained or deported. And there's a new group seeking her help: people who naturalized years ago.
“In the past, even during the first administration, I didn't have meetings with potential clients who were U.S. citizens who are afraid of immigration issues,” Carney said. "They've been a citizen for the last 20 years, and they're just afraid they'll be profiled, and questioned or detained when they re-enter the country after a trip."
