Indivisible Washington's 8th logo

Update on Neighbors Taken by ICE

Published · Updated

As you know from our prior Newsletters, we’ve been tracking the detentions by ICE of a number of residents.  Their stories are disturbing, to say the least:

  • Greylyn and Lexander:  This young Venezuelan couple living in Sammamish were abducted outside a courtroom on June 4 by masked men while following the law in every way, and since then have been held in the NW Detention Center.  Neither has any criminal or arrest record.  They were in the U.S. legally, seeking asylum; they have rights; their rights have been violated.  It now appears highly likely Greylyn and Lexander will abandon their right to seek asylum in the U.S. and will, instead, agree to leave the country.  Conditions in the Detention Center and fear of what might be done to them were they to resist deportation are a driving force.
  • Juan:  A local resident, this 23-year-old man seeking asylum was abducted this spring by unidentified men in an unmarked vehicle outside the Issaquah Library.  He was locked up in the NW Detention Center.  There, he was awakened one morning at 2:00 a.m.  Without explanation, his hands, wrists and feet were chained.  Then he and other immigrants were taken to the airport.  Over time, they were flown to facilities in three different states, and then flown to Guantanamo, where they were kept in a dark basement, without light.  He doesn’t know how many nights he spent there; but he eventually was flown to Nicaragua, the country he had fled out of fear of persecution.  Like Greylyn and Lexander, he had no criminal or arrest record; he had legal rights; his rights were violated.

As we’ve indicated in prior emails, Indivisible WA8 representatives shared video footage that captured the courthouse corridor arrest of Greylyn and Lexander with Rep. Schrier’s staff and, in correspondence and meetings with her staff, we have urged Rep. Schrier to publicly condemn actions by ICE, and to conduct her own visit to the Detention Center.  But to date she has not.

Here are three things you can do to make a difference:

  • Call Rep. Schrier’s office (202-225-7761 or 425-667-1001) to let her know that, as a constituent, you are looking to her for leadership in the effort to assure that all CD8 residents – both citizens and non-citizens – are treated by federal enforcement officials with common decency and afforded their due process rights.  Today it is Greylen and Lexander, and Juan – tomorrow it could be any of us!
  • Contact Attorney General Nick Brown’s office and urge him to take action to fight against ICE overreach – here’s more details.
  • To keep up to date on local immigration related issues, please join the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project for its next monthly update via Zoom on Tuesday, July 22 (in Spanish from noon to 12:45 p.m. and in English from 12:45-1:30 p.m.).  Register here.