‘Well-founded fear.’ Rumors of ICE arrests put parts of Tacoma on edge
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Unconfirmed ICE sightings in Tacoma sparked social media anxiety and school concern.
- City officials and schools reported no confirmed ICE activity or detentions.
- Community leaders urge better communication plans amid growing deportation fears.
Rumors that federal immigration authorities staged in a Tacoma neighborhood near apartments and schools spread on social media last week, striking a nerve among residents at a time of increasing uncertainty for immigrant communities across the nation.
Days after the unconfirmed sightings of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were posted on Facebook and Reddit, it’s still unclear whether there was any enforcement action June 11. David Yost, a spokesperson for ICE, did not confirm whether agents were in Tacoma that day.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and agents are on the streets every day, prioritizing public safety by locating, arresting, and removing criminal alien offenders and immigration violators from our neighborhoods,” Yost said in a statement.
The unconfirmed reports unsettled some residents of Tacoma City Council District 5, home to the largest share of foreign-born residents in the city with 18 percent compared to the city-wide average of 13.6 percent, according to Tacoma’s equity index. Local leaders said immigrants who reside in the area are particularly on edge in light of President Donald Trump’s recent crackdown on immigration enforcement.
When word started to get around on Wednesday afternoon of the potential sightings, concerns swirled around Baker Middle School and Stafford Elementary, where students were being dismissed for the day. People commenting on social media speculated that agents could be taking students from the schools.
“Wait, ICE went to a middle school to get children???” one Reddit commenter said in a now-deleted post.
Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson Kathryn McCarthy told The News Tribune the district had no confirmed reports of ICE agents at any schools in the district that day or of families in the district being detained by ICE. Officials from Baker Middle communicated the same message to families via email and social media.
“We can’t confirm or deny reports or rumors about them waiting at bus stops because we have no evidence, but what I can say is, we made SURE every student got home safe,” a message from the school on Facebook reads. “No students or staff were taken. Out of an abundance of caution we took steps to ensure the safety of our school.”
According to the district’s policy manual, law enforcement officers may remove a student from a school “only with a valid judicial warrant or court order, unless there is an immediate threat to student, school, or public safety.”
“If a law enforcement officer removes a student from school, the student’s parent or guardian should be contacted as soon as possible, except when the student is removed due to allegations of abuse or neglect by the parent or guardian, or as otherwise prohibited by law,” the manual reads.
Rumors of ICE activity spread quickly
Andrea Haug, chair of the South End Neighborhood Council, became aware of the rumors of ICE agents staged at Tacoma schools Wednesday afternoon by word of mouth. Haug said the claims made her sick to her stomach, and she quickly began contacting people she thought should be alerted.
Haug heard unconfirmed sightings of ICE agents at the two Tacoma schools, an apartment complex on South Hosmer Street and the B&I Public Marketplace in Lakewood. By Friday afternoon, she wasn’t aware of anyone who had been detained.
The conflicting information was confusing, Haug said. She said the situation made her and others realize they needed to have a better plan in case ICE does detain children at Tacoma schools. Things like phone trees to quickly get out information or being available to help neighbors out with childcare or food.
“Tacoma is so resilient,” Haug said. “There’s work happening now. The work is being done to be better prepared.”
Haug said not having information from ICE further eroded her trust in any government agency that might work with immigration authorities to, as she put it, “steal our neighbors.” Based on what Haug has heard about immigration raids in California, she said she expected authorities would work their way up to Oregon and Washington.
“We know what’s going on in our country,” Haug said. “We know what’s going on in California. We know that, you know, Black and brown people are getting snatched up in places.”
Trump on Sunday directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities, according to CNN, following large protests in Los Angeles and other cities in response to Trump’s immigration policies.
The Trump administration last week reversed course on its decision to pause a crackdown on immigration enforcement at farms, hotels and restaurants amid concerns about a shortage of workers in those industries.
Anxiety in South Tacoma
Aimee Khuu, executive director of Tacoma Community House, which supports immigrants in Pierce County, said the nonprofit’s clients have been on high alert recently amid Trump’s immigration crackdown. The rumors of the presence of ICE agents in South Tacoma last week likely tapped into that anxiety, Khuu said.
“I think there’s a lot of anxiety. There’s fear of being separated from their family, anxiety about being detained without knowing why and where they’re going to be sent,” she told The News Tribune. “There’s a lot of stress about daily life, whether that might be appointments that they have, grocery shopping, dropping kids off at school, going to work.”
Khuu said immigrants in Tacoma with documentation of legal permanent residency who have not previously had to worry about their immigration status now have a valid cause for concern amid rumored sightings of ICE agents in town.
Such cases have dominated headlines in recent months. NPR reported that plainclothes ICE agents arrested Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish national, as she walked to dinner with friends in March. A judge said that her arrest was likely in retaliation for an op-ed she wrote for Tuft’s student newspaper about the war in Gaza.
Lewelyn Dixon, a 64-year-old Pierce County resident who has lived in the United States as a permanent resident for 50 years, was another one of such immigrants detained by ICE earlier this year due to a nonviolent criminal conviction from 2001.
“Not only because of rumors, but because of actual stories and of people in our own community who have been detained, I think that there’s a well-founded fear that many are experiencing,” Khuu said.
People commenting on Baker Middle School’s post dispelling the rumors posted a picture of uniformed officers on the school’s campus, implying that the officers could have been ICE agents. The school’s account responded to the post, saying the individuals in the picture are the district’s patrol officer and other district employees and not ICE agents.
Tacoma city council member Joe Bushnell, who represents parts of South Tacoma and the South End, said the area is particularly diverse, home to immigrants and refugees from around the world.
“It is more important than ever, with this fear coursing through our immigrant community, that we not amplify that fear through unverified facts and speculation,” Bushnell said in a statement. “Our community deserves to have accurate and timely information to make the best decisions for themselves and their families.”
This story was originally published June 19, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
