ICE arrests spark protest at Tacoma immigration detention center

TACOMA, Wash. — Hundreds of union members and other protesters gathered outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Tacoma on Thursday evening to rally against the detainment of two Washington residents being held there.

The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, called on union members and community supporters to gather outside the Northwest ICE Processing Center to demand the release of "union siblings" Alfredo "Lelo" Juarez and Lewelyn Dixon, both of whom have lived in the U.S. since they were young teenagers.

Juarez, a 25-year-old union farmworker and activist, was arrested Tuesday morning in Sedro-Woolley while driving his partner to work. A member of the Indigenous Mexican Mixteco community, Juarez has organized for farmworker rights in Washington since he was 14 years old. Other union organizers said they feared Juarez was targeted by ICE because of his activism.

Dixon, a green card holder, is an SEIU Local 925 member who works as a lab technician at UW Medicine. She has lived in the U.S. for more than five decades, having left the Philippines when she was 14. Friday will be Dixon's one-month mark of being held at the facility.

Protesters framed the arrests not only as attacks on immigrants but also attacks on union workers and free speech rights. Several people held signs calling Juarez a "political prisoner."

"This is about immigrant workers detained by ICE, ... but it is also about a system that punishes us for raising our voices," said Cherika Carter, Washington State Labor Council secretary-treasurer.

As the Trump administration ramps up its deportation efforts, immigrants with valid visas and green cards have been detained, with no justification given for their arrests. Some protesters Thursday pointed to arrests in higher education, including that of Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, as egregious examples of First Amendment violations.

An ICE spokesperson said Juarez is a citizen of Mexico and was ordered by an immigration judge to return there in 2018. Juarez "refused to comply with lawful commands to exit the vehicle he was occupying at the time of the arrest," according to the spokesperson, and will remain in detention during deportation proceedings.

Edgar Franks, political director for Indigenous farmworkers union Familias Unidas por la Justicia, said officials broke Juarez's window and forced him out of the vehicle when he tried to exercise his rights.

A sibling of Juarez's, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, thanked gatherers at the rally for supporting Juarez and said that even though Lelo has been detained, "I'm still here."

Dixon, 64, who lives in Edgewood, was detained Feb. 28 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after returning from a trip to the Philippines, according to family members.

Dixon's family believes she is being held because of a conviction for embezzlement in 2001, said her niece, Melania Madriaga. But that nonviolent conviction hasn't prevented Dixon in the past from renewing her green card or traveling internationally, she said, including trips in 2024 to the Philippines and Turkey. Dixon finished paying her restitution years ago and served her full 30-day confinement period at a reentry house.

Madriaga said she can't help but feel the only difference is the new presidential administration.

"It's maximum enforcement," Dixon's attorney, Benjamin Osorio, said. "We're seeing stuff we never saw before."

The rest of the family that moved 50 years ago from the Philippines to the U.S. had become citizens through naturalization. But Dixon made a promise to her grandfather to keep her citizenship in the Philippines to protect family property, Madriaga said.

Dixon's co-worker at the University of Washington, Dale Siewert, said at the rally that Dixon is someone he constantly relies on at work.

"She is one of the strongest workers at my job, and that is not someone who should be locked up in here, targeted and taken away," Siewert said. "She is a key component, and she is why I'm here today, why I'm showing my support and using my voice to fight against this unfairness."

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said in a statement that she was "closely tracking" Juarez's and Dixon's arrests.

"Arresting law-abiding people, including lawful permanent residents, who pose no threat and play important roles in their communities just diverts resources from detaining actual public safety threats," Murray said.

Gov. Bob Ferguson said in an emailed statement Tuesday night he was "concerned about the reports I'm hearing" and was working to get more information.

Lynne Welton, a 69-year-old Olympia resident, stood yards away from the barbed-wire fence of the detention center holding a sign reading "free them all."

"I'm hoping that people wake up, you know, because this is really frightening, and the federal overreach is really scary," Welton said. "People (are) getting ... whisked away without any kind of rule of law, no criminal prosecution."

The Tacoma detention center, which is the state's only immigration detention center, has about 1,575 beds and is now nearly full. It held just 800 to 900 people in January. The population is a mixture of people ICE has arrested locally and those flown in from elsewhere in the country. Hunger strikes by detainees are frequent.

Last week, a class-action lawsuit was filed claiming people are held for months or even years without the chance of release on bond because of a highly unusual legal interpretation by Tacoma judges.

Fear has gripped America's noncitizen workers, even those here legally, as a result of Donald Trump's crackdown. An estimated 20% of the U.S. labor force is foreign-born.

"Our labor movement includes every worker, no matter where they were born," said Dulce Gutiérrez, a Washington State Labor Council organizer, at the protest. "We know this isn't just about immigration. It's about power, it's about dignity and it's about justice. We're fighting not just for individuals but for the soul of our democracy."