Video appears to show ICE agents targeting Latinos in Washington state, but are mass deportations coming?

When Erik Molina and Elena Verduzco rolled down the windows of their truck after being pulled over at a gas station outside of Sunnyside in Yakima County, they were confused.

One truck had pulled up in front of them blocking their path forward, and another stopped behind them. Men dressed in bulletproof vests hopped out of the two trucks with blacked-out windows. As they came closer, across their chests, in bold lettering it said "POLICE" and "ERO" — short for Enforcement and Removal Operations, the enforcement arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE.

Molina and Verduzco’s 3-year-old son, Erik Molina Jr., was in a car seat behind them. Erik Molina’s ID, which the ICE agents would ask for, was in the same bag as his concealed carry firearm.

“Just put your hands somewhere where they can see [them],” Molina told Verduzco as officers approached on either side of the family’s vehicle.

Verduzco had started recording video on her phone before the ICE agents got to their truck. She was spooked. They had been followed for at least 15 minutes from Granger to Sunnyside. She didn’t know who they were or if she should call the police.

The stop happened the weekend after president Trump’s inauguration. For months, Trump promised to deport millions of undocumented people, starting with those who had committed crimes in the U.S.

Molina and Verduzco were both U.S. citizens, but they knew enough to be cautious and wary.

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Rumors had been rampant on social media about increased immigration action and arrests in Washington state. Much of those fears have been stoked by the Trump administration.

The Department of Homeland Security posted a video that said, as of Feb. 3, more than 8,700 people had been arrested nationwide related to immigration laws in the first two weeks of Trump’s presidency. According to the post, more than 5,600 of those had been deported or removed.

On Tuesday, ICE Seattle posted a video reportedly showing undocumented people being shackled and boarded onto an airplane. The post says, “A group of undocumented aliens are flown from Seattle as part of a process to finalize return to their home countries.”

Seattle’s ICE office did not respond to multiple requests asking about its immigration enforcement since Trump took office. But it has put out statements about a handful of arrests, and in about half, the only charge was being in the country illegally.

It’s unclear how much arrests and deportations have possibly increased in Washington — or how many of those arrests are of violent criminals — or whether ICE is detaining people they just happen to come across.

What is clear is there’s a lot of rumors.

Part of what the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network or WAISN, does is track and monitor ICE activity. That means fielding a lot of half-reports and rumors, via a hotline, and social media channels.

In early February, members of WAISN rallied with other union and immigration groups at the Capitol steps in Olympia advocating for legislation that would expand access to unemployment, and health-care benefits to undocumented workers.

The rally itself wasn’t immune from the rumor mill, said Brenda Rodríguez López, one of the executive directors for WAISN.

“Our organization received threats that ICE was going to be here today, trying to silence us and tear our families apart,” she told the crowd. “I feel enraged, enraged that immigrants are being hunted down and dehumanized…. enraged that my loved ones are terrified with fear.”

People are afraid enough that kids aren’t going to school, people are considering leaving work, and skipping health appointments, she said.

“Let me be very clear, our presence today is an act of resistance,” Rodríguez López concluded.

WAISN focuses on addressing the fear in their communities and reminding people about their rights.

“We are protecting ourselves more from one to another, reporting whatever thing, and that has increased the number of calls we receive to the helpline,” said Rodríguez López in Spanish.

She said the network and hotline was a chance to warn others and document what the community is going through.

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Verduzco’s video was shared on social media and verified through WAISN’s network.

“Before, there was a lot of people just saying, like, ICE was over here, be careful,” Verduzco said. “But now there's like video proof and like pictures that they really are out there.”

The officer in Verduzco's video said they were looking for someone and Molina matched the description, but he wasn’t the right guy and let them go. Molina never gave his ID.

Molina said the stop felt like this was racial profiling and discrimination. But despite that, he knew it was important to keep his cool.

“It's very terrifying dealing with agents that are following you around and targeting you for no apparent reason,” he said. “You would think that they would do research or really find the person that they're looking for, but are they really doing that?”

Matt Adams is an attorney for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project or NWIRP. ICE does make targeted arrests, but what he saw in that video looked more like fishing, he said.

“It's kind of throwing out the drag net and seeing what you can bring in,” Adams said.

The video signals to him a shift in how ICE is working.

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Adams said it’s something he’s seen before, where ICE will pull over a car and try to question everybody in it — claiming the driver looked like someone they were trying to arrest.

Until recently, immigration enforcement mostly prioritized arresting people with serious criminal records, as well as people who have been court-ordered to be deported, but haven’t left the country.

ICE already knows about all these people and where they live, those people are also often checking in with immigration officials on a periodic basis. Attorneys at NWIRP say they have seen an increase in deportations at those check-ins.

In Trump's first week, he signed executive orders speeding up the deportation process. Those orders limit access for immigrants to put up a legal fight to stay in the U.S.

Part of what’s also changed is other federal agencies have been deputized to help ICE increase arrests targeting people in their daily lives.

“By implementing quotas and trying to throw out numbers for the press, this administration is rejecting an idea of prioritizing folks, and instead it's just kind of the shock and awe treatment,” Adams said.

Thanks in part to Verduzco’s video of her encounter with ICE agents in Eastern Washington, the WAISN network was able to track ICE officials, who later arrested a couple at a grocery store parking lot.

ICE has not responded to requests asking if that couple had any previous criminal charges or standing deportation orders.

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