Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Washington state has taken action to limit federal immigration officials' access to driver information, but immigrant rights advocates say that is not enough.

The congresswoman's district includes the Northwest ICE Processing Center, which she has visited and where monitors report an uptick in activity and poor living conditions.

Researchers at the University of Washington Center for Human Rights are seeing an increase in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.

Several Washington jurisdictions, including Renton, SeaTac, Tukwila, Seattle and King County, have passed similar detention center moratoriums this year.

The private owners of the immigrant detention center in Tacoma said they'll soon be in talks with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to sell some of their detention facilities across the country to the feds. It remains unclear whether those negotiations include the Northwest ICE Processing Center, which has been run by GEO Group since 2005.

The Northwest ICE Processing Center remains closed to state health inspectors despite a judge’s order opening the region’s largest immigrant detention center to state officials.

The order, issued Thursday, is the latest in a long-running fight between Washington state officials and GEO Group, the private contractor that owns and operates the federal facility.

Washington Head Start providers are among those saying immigration enforcement is leading more students to miss class and show signs of anxiety, stress and trauma.

Gov. Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown are weighing in on an ongoing battle between the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma and the state’s health department.

The Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network said calls to its hotline came from across the state in 2025. In past years, those calls came mainly from specific counties.