Recent activity by the Minutemen and aggressive raids by ICE have spurred immigrants and their supporters to organize and protest.

Washington currently has two Minutemen chapters, in Yakima and in Bellingham. Over the weekend of January 27/28, the Bellingham Chapter coordinated border patrols along the US-Canadian border.

Earlier this year, the Academy for Lifelong Learning offered an extension course on the history of the Minutemen called Citizens on the Border at Western Washington University in Bellingham. Tom Williams, founder and First Commander of the Washington State Minuteman Detachment, was scheduled to present the course. The class was cancelled after the community raised questions about its educational integrity.

Whatcom County residents organized County to County to oppose the Minutemen’s border patrols and organize a legal observer program to deter human right abuses. They began demonstrating outside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma in response to a very violent ICE raid at an industrial laundry in Bellingham.

Most of those who are taken to the Detention Center are deported, sometimes within twenty four hours. Rosalinda Guillen of County to County notes that “They are run by private contractors that are hired by homeland security, immigration, customs, and enforcement agencies. It's quite a lucrative profession for them... running these detention
centers... We're becoming very concerned about the detention center itself. First they come after the immigrants from Mexico and South America. Who's going to be next?”

On February 10, community and student groups from Bellingham, Tacoma, Olympia, and Seattle held a vigil at the Tacoma Detention Center to protest ICE’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.

Just days later, on Valentine’s Day, the ICE detained 51 undocumented workers in two UPS warehouses in Auburn. They were employed by Spherion Corp., a subcontractor for the growing non-union wing of UPS's logistics operations. The detained workers included 44 Mexicans, four Guatemalans, and three El Salvadorans.

At a press conference held the next day, immigrant rights advocates and religious leaders denounced the raids and announced they would launch a program to offer sanctuary to undocumented workers. They also called for a moratorium on raids. Jorge Quiroga, president of El Comité Pro-Amnistia, which led massive pro-immigrant marches in Seattle last year, said raids like the ones at the UPS warehouses are ripping
families apart. Ten of those detained were released because of personal or family hardships, including one mother of a 3-year old son, although some report that other parents were not release to care for their children. Sergio Salinas, president of Service Employees International Union Local 6, said Thursday at the press conference that his own family had
received sanctuary in a church in Seattle in the 1980s when he fled his native El Salvador.

Immigration officials have brought no criminal charges against UPS or Spherion, a temporary-employment agency that helped staff the warehouses, and are continuing their investigation, said ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers.

An emergency protest was called by Lucha Obrera and the International Socialist Organization for February 16, at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. Nine people attended the protest and, although heavily outnumbered by intimidating guards in riot gear, stood their ground. They marched back and forth in front of the gates chanting in both English and Spanish, including “No ICE, No KKK, No racist USA!”. There was a short speak-out. Family members visiting loved ones
in the detention center were grateful that protesters were present.

Still, it will take more to win justice for workers who are unfairly detained and deported. With the increasing activity of the Minutemen and the ICE in this region, a network of activists that can mobilize at the last minute to oppose racist persecution of immigrant workers must be built.

The planned sanctuary program, the continued protests against ICE raids, and the excited talk of the next May Day are encouraging signs that the sleeping giant has not gone back to sleep.

For more information about the emergency response network or other immigrant rights organizing in Washington, email

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