At least four people arrested in Spokane County, including one for the sole charge of unlawful border crossing, were transported and held for several days in Hayden, Idaho. The Kootenai County Sheriff expects detentions at the jail to increase.
News Story by Aaron Hedge and Luke Baumgarten
This story was written in partnership between FāVS News and RANGE Media, a worker-owned newsroom in Spokane. Learn more about RANGE’s work here.
At least four people arrested by federal agents in Spokane County were held in the Kootenai County Jail in Hayden, Idaho, on behalf of federal immigration enforcement in the last two weeks, starting days after President Donald Trump took office.
One of the people was detained on charges of unlawful border crossing, according to jail records. The man had no criminal record other than the unlawful crossing charge, according to Jennyfer Mesa, executive director of the Spokane-based advocacy organization Latinos en Spokane (LeS). LeS secured a lawyer to represent the man and is working to get resources for the others.
The Kootenai County Sheriff operates under a “signed agreement” with the U.S. Marshal Service (USMS). The U.S. Border Patrol, which enforces immigration law within 100 miles of federal borders, can use that agreement to house undocumented migrants in the jail, the sheriff’s office told RANGE. The agreement has been in effect for about a year, said Kootenai County spokesperson Jeffrey Howard in an email.
He said he expects migrant detentions in the jail to increase as President Donald Trump ramps up his deportation efforts.
The arrangement with USMS helps federal agencies to skirt Washington state’s 2019 sanctuary law, the Keep Washington Working Act (KWW), which “restricts the extent to which local law enforcement agencies may participate in the enforcement of federal immigration laws,” according to the Washington Attorney General’s website.
Mesa told RANGE an attorney with the organization interviewed the man. He told the lawyer that federal agents had “surveilled” him and detained him at his workplace, a Latine business in Spokane, as soon as he got to work on Jan. 23, Mesa said.
The agents “said, ‘Who are you? Where are you from? Are you this person?’” Mesa told RANGE. “And he was completely compliant and put his hands up.”
The man has been in Spokane for several years working in the service industry. The agents had previously “watched” the man working, Mesa said.
“He’s somebody who probably got us through the pandemic,” Mesa said.
She said LeS believes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol are cooperating on rounding up migrants in Spokane. It’s hard to know a complete number of migrants who were detained here and housed in the Kootenai County Jail as the situation develops, Mesa said. That’s because sometimes a detention is not reflected in jail rosters for days. She also said some migrants who live in Spokane can be detained in Idaho, pointing to one case of a migrant roofer who was arrested in Post Falls. RANGE could not immediately verify that case.
On Jan. 31, the Coeur d’Alene/Post Falls Press reported the jail, located in Hayden, has seen a “surge” of detainees being held on behalf of the Border Patrol. Sheriff Bob Norris told the Press the detentions are focused on arrests for criminal activity by undocumented migrants.
“ICE is focused on the criminal element,” Norris told the Press.
But jail records obtained by RANGE show the man LeS is representing was arrested for crossing the border. Mesa said he does not have a criminal record. He was booked into the jail the day of his arrest and held there until Jan. 27, when he was released back into Border Patrol custody, jail records show. Mesa said the man is in Tacoma and has signed a deportation order, though she didn’t think he wanted to be deported. RANGE is withholding his name because he was worried “it might impact him” as he is deported, Mesa told RANGE.
Norris told the Press his office would support the Trump administration deportation efforts.
“I am in full support of this administration’s posture on illegal immigration to our country,” he told the Press.
Sheriff spokesperson Howard said ICE, which is a separate agency from Border Patrol, can also house detainees under the jail’s agreement with USMS. He did not immediately know the number of migrants housed at the jail under the agreement during the year the agreement has been in place.
Local governments have become a flashpoint in a national debate over how the federal government should deal with undocumented migrants. Conservative states and cities vow to help Donald Trump’s nascent second administration deport migrants, while blue jurisdictions, including Washington, have committed to protecting migrant families from separation through deportation by establishing themselves as “sanctuaries.”
Spokane County does not have a relationship with the Border Patrol. Spokesperson Pat Bell told RANGE in an email that the county, following KWW, does not have any arrangement with or hold detainees for ICE or Border Patrol. The jail’s inmate roster does list inmates on hold for the USMS, but Bell said the county does have a contract with USMS under which it holds inmates on federal criminal charges.
Fears felt across the nation come home
The detentions come at a time when migrant communities fear sustained threats from a Trump administration that promises “mass deportations.” Federal law enforcement, in the few days the former real estate mogul and now convicted felon has been back in office, federal agents reportedly arrested nearly 5,000 migrants. Trump said he wants to send up to 30,000 detainees to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, the American naval base in Cuba where the George W. Bush administration allegedly tortured people falsely accused of terrorism during the “War on Terror.”
On Jan. 25, ICE reported on 286 migrant arrests nationwide. The following day, Trump directed the agency to ramp up arrests, resulting in a dramatic uptick. On Jan. 26, there were 956. On Jan. 27: 1,179. There have been about 1,000 daily arrests since, according to ICE’s X account.
Mesa, of LeS, told RANGE she is in talks with the new Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown to protect undocumented people in the state. She sent Brown a letter asking him to take action to protect migrant families from federal agencies looking to detain them.
“While I understand that federal law enforcement operates under its own jurisdiction, we strongly believe that Washington residents should be allowed to fight their cases within the jurisdiction of the immigration court where they reside,” Mesa wrote in her letter to Brown. “We urge that, if Washington State residents are detained within the state, they remain in Washington and be subject to the jurisdiction of its immigration courts.”
She noted that federal agencies have conducted a dramatic campaign of immigration raids in large cities across the country, including New York City; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Phoenix; San Diego; Denver; Miami; Atlanta; Seattle; San Juan, Puerto Rico; cities across Texas; and other places, according to NBC News.
“We are deeply concerned by the federal government’s operations under the guise of ‘Targeted Operations,’ which appear to be little more than immigration sweeps,” Mesa wrote to Brown. “Such practices, as witnessed in Newark, New Jersey, in recent days, have caused widespread alarm and prompted pushback from local officials.”
She criticized the Trump administration, saying these raids are antithetical to Washingtonian values.
“These actions do not reflect the values of fairness and justice that Washington State seeks to uphold,” she wrote. “We respectfully request that your office take immediate and bold action to address these issues. Washingtonians deserve to know that their state government is standing firm against unjust practices and working to safeguard all residents from the politics and policies of other states.”
She told RANGE that migrants, including the man LeS is representing, come to the United States to work hard and seek better economic opportunities.
Governor Bob Ferguson, on Jan. 27, created a “rapid response team … aimed at reducing harms caused by President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies which, if implemented, will destabilize families and harm children who are separated from their deported or detained parents or primary caregivers.”
Sandra Rivera contributed research to this story. And we wanted to thank an unnamed person who helped us with open-source research. The person said, “The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a tech bro is a good guy with a tech bro.”
Thank you for this reporting. It makes me ashamed to be an Idahoan to see how our state is participating in immigrant arrests and detentions. I wish Washington had a way or protecting its immigrant citizens.