Across the country, secrecy is high around what happens in ICE detention centers. Immigration advocacy groups now face an increased urgency amid federal efforts to expand deportations.
For months, the Cascade PBS investigation team has been following the sporadic release of detainees at a local detention center.
Volunteer organizations have long worked to bridge service gaps and monitor detainee treatment throughout the immigration enforcement system outside the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.
One of those groups, Advocates for Immigration in Detention Northwest, or AIDNW, has volunteers posted outside the detention center three days a week.
They wait for those who are either on bond, granted asylum or given a stay of removal.
“You know, there are no signs on the roads around here to bus stops or bus stations. So there is really a severe need for these people to get help as soon as they’re released, so that they don’t fall through the cracks and end up just stuck,” said Aidan Perkinson, AIDNW operations manager.
Cascade PBS asked The GEO Group, the company that runs the Northwest ICE Processing Center, about their protocols for informing and releasing detainees.
The GEO Group in a statement said: “GEO’s services are carefully monitored for quality by ICE personnel, who are onsite 24/7, and other entities within the Department of Homeland Security.”
Meanwhile, AIDNW also collects information about detainee releases. Perkison says he’s seen patterns over time: “In the first week after the inauguration, we did not see a lot of change. However, after that first week, the number of people being released dropped sharply.”
For comparison, between February and March of last year, 94 detainees were released, but only 27 were released this year during the same period, according to AIDNW data.
For a closer look at the mobilization efforts of AIDNW outside the entrance to the processing center, Cascade PBS investigative reporter Farah Eltohamy talked to the organization’s leadership. Read more here.
