A Washington nonprofit that tracks immigration enforcement activity in the state said its Deportation Defense Hotline received over 10,000 calls last year — more than double those in 2024. That increase comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has expanded its footprint across the country amid a massive boost in federal funding, according to reporting from NPR.
Brenda Rodríguez López, the executive director of the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, or WAISN, said volunteers have witnessed ICE agents break car windows to pull people out. But she is most surprised that the findings show enforcement is now happening across the state.
"There are specific counties where there's — we call them hot spots, because that's where we're seeing most enforcement,” Rodríguez López said. “But let me be clear that detentions are happening everywhere.”
Along with running the hotline, WAISN trains volunteers to verify reports of immigration activity in the state.
In prior years, Rodríguez López said, immigration enforcement typically happened where immigration offices are located, such as in King, Yakima and Whatcom counties, or near the ICE detention center in Tacoma. While the nonprofit still considers those areas hot spots, a map it compiled shows reports of ICE activity from Clallam County on the Olympic Peninsula to Adams County in Eastern Washington.
So far this year, calls to the hotline in January and February exceeded calls during those months in 2025. WAISN anticipates immigration enforcement activity will increase this year, and Rodríguez López said that historical trends show that typically ramps up during the spring and summer months.
"That's for sure one of the trends that over the years has remained consistent, of more enforcement happening in the spring and summer,” she said. “Based on how immigration enforcement is working, you know, we should anticipate more of that enforcement to increase."
The nonprofit said it’s also received an increase in calls from people of color who are U.S. citizens, reporting being asked by federal officials to see their documentation.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment.
Data from the University of Washington Center for Human Rights shows more than 2,300 immigration-related arrests took place last year. That’s more than double those carried out in 2024, but similar to 2023. According to the center, that data is based on records received from ICE and is likely an undercount.
The research center’s report said the increase in 2025 is likely due to “non-custodial arrests,” which include ICE agents running license plates to see if a vehicle owner is in their database as a person they can arrest to later deport.
