From traffic stops to ‘soft raids’: How DHS immigration tactics are evolving
After at least two Lynden residents were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on July 22, activists in Bellingham and Friday Harbor hosted a vigil and a rally to show support for their community. As the Department of Homeland Security continues to carry out immigration enforcement across Whatcom, Skagit and San Juan counties, community members are working to provide those affected with mutual aid. Meanwhile, ICE tactics have evolved to include new “soft raids.”
Here’s a roundup of recent news on immigration enforcement from around Northwest Washington:
Friday Harbor
On July 7, three women were returning from a cleaning job near Roche Harbor when they were stopped by the Coast Guard and subsequently arrested by ICE.
Rebecca Smith, who works with a grassroots community advocacy group called The People’s Coalition of San Juan Island, attended an anti-ICE protest held in Friday Harbor by the San Juan Island branch of Indivisible on July 25, where she saw a large amount of community interest in figuring out how to support the women and their families.
Through the support of these groups and the broader community, one of the women has been connected with an immigration lawyer covered by Orcas Island’s Local Immigrant Family Treasury, while she is being held in a Tacoma detention facility.
The People’s Coalition also raised over $6,700 through GoFundMe so far, which goes toward assisting the three women, two of whom have been deported to Mexico. According to Smith, a meal train that was set up to support the women’s families has already had roughly 12 volunteers.
“It showed that we’re one community on this island, and we care about what happens to our neighbors,” Smith said.
Bellingham
In Whatcom County, community members are similarly working to support affected families and connect them with organizations that can provide assistance.
On July 25, Bellingham community members joined roughly 330 communities across the United States in hosting a vigil honoring those who have been killed by DHS agents, including Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Guerrero, who were killed on July 7 and July 13 in Texas and Maine respectively.
Erin Burns, a community activist in Whatcom County, works alongside fellow activists to keep families informed in the event of an arrest, and to connect them to community organizations or partnerships that can help them, such as Immigrant Resources & Immediate Support — a nonprofit that raises funding for items and services like medical treatment, housing and grocery stipends and household essentials while acting as a liaison in connecting immigrants with resources outside of the organization’s purview.
Lynden
On July 22 in Lynden, at least two employees of Premier Packing were arrested by ICE after crossing the street to receive free beverages that were being handed out by an unaffiliated local Mexican food business.
These recent arrests follow the arrests of at least 50 Premier Packing employees who have been detained by ICE in the last four months — part of the estimated 100 arrests conducted by DHS in Whatcom County through June and July.
DHS and Premier Packing lessor Americold did not respond to requests for comment.
In a July 31 press release, Rep. Rick Larsen said, “(Homeland Security Investigations) has been responsible for the operations that detained nearly 50 people in Lynden in recent months. I intend to follow up with the Department of Homeland Security, HSI and ICE about HSI’s role in immigration enforcement and removal operations locally.”
Tactics
“Soft raids” are the latest to be reported by groups like Lynden nonprofit Racial Unity Now. Coined by activists, the term refers to arrests that target workers outside of their place of work, and often over extended periods of time, as opposed to a single operation.
Officers are “pulling people over as they’re driving on the side of roads and highways, particularly on paydays and as they’re leaving work,” said Jeremy Dorrough, the executive director of Racial Unity Now. “Sometimes (workers) would be followed, and sometimes (DHS agents would be) waiting along strategic areas along the roads in Whatcom County.”
According to a report prepared by Rapid Response Whatcom with data from the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network Deportation Defense Hotline and the University of Washington Center for Human Rights, 20 individuals were arrested by DHS in Whatcom County during June.
Of these arrests, 55% were conducted during traffic stops or involved arrests from vehicles, and seven cars were left abandoned in the process. Rapid Response Whatcom data represents an undercount due to limited reporting access, awareness gaps, and capacity restraints as listed in the report.
On May 7, Dorrough said he witnessed DHS vehicles depart the scene of an arrest, where a vehicle containing the paystubs and personal belongings of several individuals later confirmed to be employees of Premier Packing sat abandoned after the passengers were arrested. A similar event occurred on May 19, where according to Dorrough, friends of a detainee who worked at Premier Packing had to collect their abandoned vehicle following the driver’s arrest.
These arrests differ significantly from previous tactics that DHS has employed in Whatcom County. On April 2, 2025, 37 workers at Mt. Baker Roofing in Bellingham were detained on a search warrant following a coordinated raid where a mixture of federal agents reportedly arrived with a list of 56 individuals identified as having falsified green cards through an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations.
According to a search warrant obtained by Cascadia Daily News, the business had been surveilled by ground and air for three days in March 2025 to determine when employees were most likely to arrive at work. Once federal agents arrived, employees were taken into a back room where the named individuals were separated and taken away in buses.
Discreetly targeting individuals leads to gaps in media coverage, according to Burns.
“(Premier Packing) has lost 52-plus employees in less than four months,” said Burns. “However, because (ICE isn’t) going through the typical channels, and because they’re doing it so sneakily, people are unaware that it’s happening, and it isn’t bringing about the same public outcry that the Mt. Baker Roofing incident did.”
Burns said that she had been made aware of the “soft raid” pattern at Premier Packing after reaching out to the company to find the emergency contact of a worker who was detained — a few days later, she was told that four men were detained by DHS at a local Mexican market while trying to cash their paychecks.
In more than one case, Burns said that federal agents stated that they were looking for the owner of a vehicle, only to arrest the current driver, who was not the person they stated they were looking for.
Burns said that no warrants were presented at any of the arrests reported to her and her colleagues. DHS operations are often conducted through an administrative warrant, which allow for the arrest of a particular individual while in a public space. While these warrants do not allow for entry into private property without stated consent, DHS agents are legally allowed to conduct warrantless arrests in public spaces if they have “reasonable suspicion” that someone is in the country illegally.
By conducting warrantless arrests in public spaces, DHS is able to bypass obtaining judicial search or arrest warrants, which are signed by a court judge and are required to lawfully enter businesses like Premier Packaging.
“I have a connection with people there,” Burns said. “They will call us if they see ICE, or if they are concerned about an employee who didn’t come to work, or if they hear through the grapevine that employees were picked up on the way to or from work.”
—By Jae Ranney
Internship sponsored by Puget Sound Energy