What to know about immigration in WA state as Trump issues executive orders

SEATTLE — President Donald Trump’s rapid-fire executive orders on immigration left many Washingtonians wondering what exactly would change here.

Among Trump’s pledges and directives: mass deportations (not yet carried out in Washington), punitive measures against “sanctuary” jurisdictions like Washington (also not yet taken), ending birthright citizenship (blocked by a Seattle federal judge) and, announced Wednesday, opening an immigrant detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to hold up to 30,000 migrants.

With so much going on, it’s hard to sort out rhetoric from actions, and harder still to figure out how Trump’s moves relate to administrations past and the complex workings of the immigration system.

We asked some immigration experts to help make sense of it all.

How many people did ICE arrest locally before Trump took office?

Local arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement fluctuated during former President Joe Biden’s term. It’s hard to pin down exact numbers for Washington, since ICE publicly reports arrests only for a three-state region overseen by ICE’s Seattle field office, and the agency’s statistics are likely an undercount, according to University of Washington Center for Human Rights research coordinator Phil Neff.

That said, ICE’s figures and data received by the UW center under the Freedom of Information Act show the agency arrested between three and eight people a day in Washington, Oregon and Alaska over the last four years.

ICE arrested the fewest people in the 12-month period ending last September, according to its data. The downturn likely stems from the Biden administration’s transfer of immigration resources to the southern border as unauthorized migrant crossings there surged.

What happens to people arrested by ICE in Washington?

People arrested by ICE are generally taken to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, the only immigrant detention center in the state and one of the country’s largest. They find themselves in jail-like conditions. Hunger strikes occur often amid complaints about the food, cleanliness and treatment by guards.

Those held at the privately run detention center may stay for as little as a day if they have already been ordered deported and can be put on a plane right away.

Others with pending removal cases may stay months or even years depending in part on whether they are eligible to be released on bond. Certain criminal convictions — and unproven accusations under the Laken Riley Act Trump signed Wednesday — trigger mandatory detention. In that case, people will be held until they are either deported or gain permission to stay in the U.S.

Immigration judges, subject to executive authority, make initial decisions. Those can be appealed, a process that will prolong detention.

Immigration judges also decide whether those eligible for bond will get it and if so how much those detained must pay to be released while their cases are ongoing. Bonds start at $1,500 but more commonly run between $5,000 and $25,000, said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.

How many people does ICE detain in Washington?

The Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma has 1,575 beds, between 800 and 900 of which were filled as of late January, according to an estimate from the immigrant rights project, which regularly visits clients there.

The detention center used to run close to capacity. But its population shrunk to below 200 during the pandemic, when immigration enforcement slowed, Adams said. A lawsuit by his organization amid COVID-19 outbreaks further reduced the number of people the detention center could take in. Its numbers began to climb back up as the pandemic ended.

The facility’s population in recent years has shifted toward people detained at the southern border and transported to Washington, though it also holds local residents who have been put into deportation proceedings, Adams said.

What is asylum and can those seeking it be deported?

The U.S. grants asylum to those determined to have been persecuted or have a fear of persecution in their home country due to race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion. People must apply for this protection while in the U.S., unlike refugees, who apply for that status abroad. Asylum and refugee status provide a pathway to permanent residency.

People whose asylum cases are pending cannot legally be deported and can apply for a work permit, Adams said.

Still, he added, “if the Trump administration wanted to play hardball, they could round up many people who have pending asylum applications” and say “we’re still going to arrest you and keep you in detention while you’re going through the process.”

Adams pointed out the government would need far greater detention capacity to hold everyone in the backed up immigration court system with a pending asylum application.

What about immigrants with Temporary Protected Status?

The federal government provides work permits and temporary protection from deportation to people from some countries experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters and other conditions that prevent a safe return. Criteria for such Temporary Protected Status is broader than those for asylum and therefore much easier to meet. Many people apply for Temporary Protected Status and asylum at the same time.

TPS, lasting up to 18 months, does not provide a pathway to permanent residency but can be renewed over and over again, at the discretion of the Homeland Security secretary.

This week, the Trump administration revoked the renewal of TPS for roughly 600,000 Venezuelans, whose protected status will now end in April. The federal government could theoretically deport them at that time, but faces challenges in doing so due to its lack of diplomatic relations with Venezuela under authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro.

Immigrants from 17 countries have TPS, including Ukraine, Afghanistan, Haiti, El Salvador and Sudan. Washington is a top designation for immigrants from many of these countries.

How is humanitarian parole different?

“Humanitarian parole is really just a mechanism to enter the country,” Adams said. The federal government grants this parole for humanitarian reasons, such as dangerous conditions in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover or in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.

People paroled into the U.S. have a temporary legal status that allows them to apply for work permits but, unlike TPS, affords no statutory protection from deportation, according to Adams.

A Trump administration internal memo empowers immigration enforcement officers to put people in fast-track “expedited removal” proceedings even if they have humanitarian parole.

“It is not a blanket revocation of parole status but could result in removal on a case-by-case basis,” said Michelle Mittelstadt, a spokesperson for the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, in an email.

“Even if they are apprehended, every parolee has a right to seek asylum, and cannot be removed until their application is adjudicated,” added institute senior fellow Muzaffar Chishti. Immigrants paroled into the country might also have temporary protected status.

Many if not most local immigrants paroled into the U.S. are protected from deportation — at least for the time being — by TPS or their status as an asylum applicant.