WA residents using new apps to track ICE agent activity. Are the sightings credible?
Last Sunday, two people were detained in the parking lot of a Sunnyside Fiesta Foods grocery store by officers appearing to be federal immigration agents.
Word of the arrests spread quickly on social media and online throughout Washington and far beyond, fueling fear in local immigrant communities and within immigrant advocacy groups.
People over Papers, a website that just launched on Jan. 22, included a post and video of the Sunnyside arrests.
On Sunday, it was pinned on a map of the United States with dozens of other posts from many other states.
Other similar reporting sites are popping up online as well.
A site called Juntos Seguros, meaning “safe together” in Spanish, was founded by grassroots organizations and immigrant rights activists to safeguard immigrants and minimize exposure to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement.
But how credible are these crowdsourcing sites?
The Sunnyside incidents on People over Papers were later confirmed by credible sources as arrests made by federal officers.
But People over Papers is an anonymous daily reporting website that allows anyone who spots suspected federal immigration activity in their area to submit and share their sightings with the public.
Many worry that spreading unconfirmed information about potential ICE activity can create unnecessary fear and anxiety.
The ICE website explains that federal agents make arrests every day across the U.S. and the agency discourages the spread of misinformation.
People over Papers’ nationwide map of ICE sightings includes confirmed arrests, but other sightings have been called into question.
The website says the information is reviewed by moderators but it’s unclear who created or operates the site.
“Please take this information with caution and account for human error. Use this information to cross-reference with your state or local rapid response networks. We do not condone any violence,” says the site.
Since its launch, the site hosted on Padlet and available on the Padlet app, has 4.5 million visitors and counting.
Washington nonprofit’s own tracking
Accurate reporting tools can help people share and receive information.
The immigrant-led coalition Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) releases confirmed ICE activity and information in English and Spanish on its Bluesky, Instagram and Facebook accounts.
WAISN sends teams of trained volunteers to locations where ICE activity has been reported, and has a Deportation Defense Hotline where people can report information at 1-844-724-3737 by calling or texting.
The organization has information available for immigrants fearful of deportation, available through Know Your Rights with Immigration Enforcement handouts and workshops.
So far this week, WAISN confirmed the arrests in Sunnyside, a sighting of ICE agents and vehicles in a Toppenish neighborhood and the arrests of multiple people in downtown Seattle.
On Sunday, Wenatchee for Immigrant Justice, which partners with WAISN, reported that ICE officials arrived at a person’s home in Wenatchee, but they were not allowed inside. Immigration officials can only enter a home, vehicle or workplace with a search warrant signed by a judge.
Nationwide, ICE officials reported on social media that it made 969 arrests on Tuesday and 1,179 arrests on Monday.
In the past, agents averaged 310 daily arrests in the 2024 fiscal year that ended in September.
Who is ICE targeting now?
There are roughly 11 million people in the U.S. who lack legal status, according to Pew Research Center estimates based on 2022 census data.
Being undocumented in the U.S. is not a crime under local, state or federal law.
Those who enter or reenter the U.S. illegally, however, may face criminal charges, says Chapter 8 of the U.S. code.
Under federal law, people who enter or reenter the U.S. without authorization are subject not only to civil immigration detention and deportation proceedings but also to criminal sanctions.
Less than 1% of immigrants deported in the last fiscal year were arrested for crimes other than immigration violations, according to a 2024 annual report from ICE.
In 40 years, federal officials have documented about 425,000 undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions on ICE’s “non-detained docket.” The docket is a list of every person believed to be removable, physically present in the U.S. and not currently held in ICE detention.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a Tuesday press briefing that the Trump administration sees all undocumented immigrants as “criminals” and all undocumented immigrants are targets for deportation, not just those who have committed crimes.
Weekend arrests in Sunnyside
It’s unclear the identity of the two people arrested in Sunnyside or why they were arrested. One was an older woman.
WAISN shared a post on Facebook explaining that three pickup trucks cornered a car before making the arrests. Agents were wearing vests that said “Police ERO,” short for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Sunnyside City Manager Mike Gonzalez said at a news conference Monday that he believes Sunday’s arrests were targeted operations by ICE and that he expects more directives for federal immigration enforcement.
“It’s heart-wrenching and heartbreaking. In a community our size, (the federal directives) have real consequences. People don’t go to school, people don’t come to work (and) people don’t come to the stores,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said city police were not involved in Sunday’s ICE efforts.
A Washington state law passed during the first Trump administration in 2019 largely — but not entirely — bars local law enforcement agencies from assisting federal immigration enforcement.
The Keep Washington Working Act prevents local authorities from questioning people about their immigration status or place of birth, unless directly connected to a criminal proceeding, and local and federal jails are prevented from complying with federal “immigration holds” when an immigrant is to be released from custody.
Sunnyside plans to provide online resources in English and Spanish as well as printed information for residents. City officials said they will continue working with WAISN, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and ACLU of Washington.
This story was originally published January 31, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "WA residents using new apps to track ICE agent activity. Are the sightings credible?."
