As reports of ICE emerge in Seattle suburbs, neighborhood watches take shape

Outside Seattle, the suburbs are often hubs for Latino and first-generation immigrant communities. Reports of ICE arrests in some of those smaller cities have been trending over the past weeks, although the official numbers are tough to pinpoint. Some suburban communities are responding to immigration enforcement in different ways.

The Burien neighborhood where Juan spent time growing up is quiet.

It’s close to 6 p.m., a time when people are typically getting home from work. The block is a mix of apartment buildings and suburban homes — lots of minivans and work trucks.

The only things moving in the neighborhood are Juan and his daughter, as they make their way to his uncle’s place.

ICE arrested Juan's uncle in late October, on a freeway on-ramp while he was on his way to work early in the morning, around 5 a.m. Juan said his uncle’s arrest — and that of several others — sent a chill through the neighborhood.

Juan agreed to speak with KUOW on the condition that we don’t use his last name.

“There used to be more people around walking — especially Hispanic people," he said. "Now, as you can see, it’s empty. It’s really empty and I don’t blame them. They get scared [that they'll] come out, there’s someone waiting outside.”

A day after his uncle's arrest, Juan said he was stopped by law enforcement on the freeway in the middle of the road. He describes four cars surrounding him, and slowing down to a stop on the freeway. He believes it was ICE. He suspects they followed him from his uncle's neighborhood and were waiting for him the next day.

“ICE agents blend in," he said. "It’s hard to notice them all of a sudden until they start coming out of their vehicles."

They let him go. Juan has DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

He's an adult with a family of his own now. But years ago, before he got DACA, he was a kid living in the U.S. without legal status, brought here by his family. DACA provided people like him with work visas and protection from being immediately deported.

As for his uncle, the government had ordered him to leave the country decades ago. ICE has said one of their priorities is to follow up on cases where someone remains in the U.S. after they've been ordered to leave. But his uncle also has a daughter who has U.S. citizenship, which could help him stay in the U.S.

Juan said his uncle was taken from a life he spent decades building with his wife. Since then, Juan’s aunt has been keeping closer tabs on the street activity outside. KUOW agreed to not name her because of her immigration status.

Juan’s aunt said in the months and days leading up to her husband's arrest, she saw unmarked vehicles with tinted windows driving around the neighborhood.

Even if they don’t know everyone personally, over the decades, Juan's aunt said they’ve been able to familiarize themselves with their neighbors' cars, and they know when someone isn’t from the neighborhood.

“All of a sudden, we see trucks with different license plates," she said in Spanish. "Not all of them are from here, the majority are from other places.”

In the weeks after her husband's arrest, reports increased of immigration enforcement happening in the cities surrounding Seattle, slowly making their way into the city.

Photos, videos, and news reports show unidentified federal agents making arrests on roads and parking lots in cities as far north as Everett, edging into Seattle on Aurora Avenue, and seen on the Eastside, in Redmond. Local police have verified that some of these were ICE arrests.

It’s unclear if there’s been an actual uptick. ICE did not respond to questions about arrest numbers.

But some wonder if these latest arrests are because federal agents are using license plate readers to identify undocumented immigrants. A recent Associated Press report revealed that Border Patrol is using license plate readers, and often referring some cars to other law enforcement agencies to make stops.

RELATED: Immigration agencies accessed WA law enforcement license plate data, report finds

Conversations about license plate data and immigration are happening in Issaquah, Redmond, Bellevue, Bothell, and Burien, among others. Some neighborhoods in those cities have prominent immigrant communities, with between a quarter to nearly half of the population made up of people who were born outside of the United States.

During city council meetings, some public comments have pushed for a ban or restriction on license plate readers, and for the passage of measures to protect immigrants.

Hugo Garcia, who’s starting his second term on the Burien City Council, said he's disappointed he hasn't been able to get more done to protect the immigrant community in his city.

He'd like to have more flexibility to enact measures like those he's seen in Seattle, like proposals to ban masked law enforcement and to use Seattle Police to verify if federal immigration officers are making a legal arrest.

"They're able to do sanctuary city ordinances or update the ordinances directly a little bit easier," he said, "whereas, for cities like us and other cities that contract with the sheriffs, we're worried about the liability and cost."

RELATED: Issaquah on edge after ICE arrest outside preschool

Garcia said there’s reluctance to pass similar measures in a smaller city and potentially risk the loss of federal funding.

“Folks are scared to take action, to poke the bear, and bring even more attention to the city. It's been very hard for me to accept that," he said. "And what can I do? OK well, I can volunteer, I can share the phone number.”

Garcia is a volunteer with an ICE watch group. People call in to report ICE activity, and they send volunteers like him out to document arrests and connect people to legal services. He was one of the people who went to Juan’s family in Burien after his uncle's arrest.

Juan, his cousins, and siblings — all of different immigration statuses — have started their own neighborhood watch. They’ll drive around and text each other updates. It takes a little extra time out of his day, but Juan feels it's worth it.

“I think about the people — older ladies, moms taking their kids, older dads trying to go to work —they've got to pay rent one way or another," Juan said. "If I can put a little of my effort to do that, I will continue doing it.”