ICE detained two people Sunday in Central WA’s Sunnyside, city says

Two people were detained by agents from a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement team in Sunnyside, Yakima County, on Sunday, the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network reported.

The immigrant rights advocacy group said three pickup trucks cornered a car in the parking lot of Fiesta Foods grocery store, where immigration agents detained two people around 12:50 p.m. Sunday. Agents were wearing vests that said “Police ERO,” which stands for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations.

A call to ICE for comment on the two reported arrests in Sunnyside was not immediately returned Sunday.

Fiesta Foods staff in Sunnyside said no immigration raids other than those arrests were conducted outside or inside the store’s facilities.

Sunnyside City Manager Mike Gonzalez said in a news release late Sunday the city police were not involved in Sunday’s ICE efforts.

“We have gained a lot of trust over the years with residents and assisting with those efforts would ruin that hard work,” he said. “We also want the public to know that our police officers continue to protect the public as usual.

“This is certainly affected our businesses and schools, who are seeing people hiding in the shadows now. We are doing everything we can to educate and reassure our residents that the city is here to help and keep them safe.”

The city of Sunnyside plans a news conference at noon on Monday. Nearly 90% of the city’s population is Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census data.

Rumors about federal immigration enforcement activity have spread in Yakima County in the past week.

WAISN sends teams of trained volunteers to locations where ICE activity has been reported, and has a hotline where people can report information, Executive Director Brenda Rodríguez López said Friday. The group said it will release confirmed information on its social media accounts.

“The volunteers will speak with businesses and people in the area, and drive around the area to look for the activity that was described to us,” she said in an email statement.

WAISN’s hotline operates from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. Rodríguez López said people can text the hotline if operators are unavailable. She encouraged community members to reach out.

“We ask our community that if they have seen or heard a rumor, please ask the person who saw the activity in person to call our Deportation Defense hotline. We need first-hand reports,” she said in the statement.

Yakima County’s sheriff and police chiefs in Yakima and Sunnyside said last week they are focused on enforcing local laws, and leave immigration enforcement to federal officials.

Nationwide, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it made 956 arrests on Sunday and 286 on Saturday. While some of the operations may not have been unusual, ICE averaged 311 daily arrests in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, The Associated Press reported. 

Top Trump administration officials, including “border czar” Tom Homan, were in Chicago on Sunday to witness the start of ramped-up immigration enforcement.

Gloria Ibañez and Jasper Kenzo Sundeen contributed reporting. Seattle Times staff also contributed to this report.