Hundreds of people were removed from the Northwest ICE Processing Center last month over 17 flights, according to organizers for La Resistencia, an immigrant-rights group that has been monitoring the flights from King County International Airport.
Guadalupe Gonzalez, an organizer with the group, said Wednesday that the frequency of the flights was at an all-time high. He said as of Sept. 3, La Resistencia had observed 109 flights this year, and he expected the number to soon surpass the 122 flights they saw throughout last year.
“We saw the most flights in a month ever this past August at 17,” Gonzalez said. “We also saw 757 people be removed. That’s the highest so far this year. We had a few months last year that exceeded that, but that’s still very high. Even though we saw 757 people be removed, we only saw 89 people be brought in. So it’s clear that we’re seeing an escalation.”
The NWIPC is operated by a contractor for the federal government, the GEO Group. It is the only federal immigration detention center in the Pacific Northwest, and it has a capacity for 1,600 detainees.
Angelina Godoy is a University of Washington professor and the director of the university’s Center for Human Rights. During the news conference, she said the Center for Human Rights has been researching conditions in the NWIPC for 10 years and published more than 12 reports documenting different forms of “systematic cruelty.”
What’s new, Godoy said, is that immigration enforcement in the Seattle area and throughout Washington has reached “unprecedented heights.” She said the latest data released by the federal government showed more people were being arrested now compared to the peak of immigration enforcement under former President Barack Obama’s administration.
“More people are being brought into the system, and they are also experiencing new forms of cruelty, including the mass transfers that sever their ties to community, families and attorneys,” Godoy said.
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