The number of detainees at Tacoma’s Northwest ICE Processing Center has risen since the Trump administration took over.
We’re taking a closer look at what’s going on inside the facility, as detainees and advocates say it’s reaching the point of overcrowding.
For the past 12 years, private Seattle immigration attorney Larkin VanDerhoef has worked with clients at the detention center under numerous administrations (Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump 1.0, Joe Biden, and now Trump 2.0).
Since January, VanDerhoef says, the population has gone up while the facility at times has been understaffed.
“In the time that I have been working with people down there, we’ve seen the population ebb and flow depending on administrations and priorities. And probably the lowest was during COVID in 2020, 2021. This year, under this [Trump] administration, we’ve seen it grow pretty quickly, grow to what we believe to be at or near capacity, he said.
We reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the reports of overcrowding at the Tacoma detention center.
In a statement, an ICE spokesperson told Cascade PBS, “There is no overcrowding at NWIPC ... ICE has worked diligently to obtain greater necessary detention space while avoiding overcrowding.”
However, according to data analysis by the University of Washington Center for Human Rights, the facility has been nearly at capacity for most of this year, and even went above capacity, briefly, over the summer. The facility has a maximum capacity of 1,575.
VanDerhoef says the increased volume of detainees has impacted access to quality legal counsel and created other issues for detainees.
“We understand the contract that the GEO Group, who runs the facility, has with the Department of Homeland Security, as they are to provide by the contract 10 spaces or rooms for legal visits. They’ve never provided that, in the time that I have been working with people down there,” he said. “In fact, it was seven rooms, [and] more recently, two of them have been taken away. They’re using ... two entirely, now, for court hearings being done by video by judges across the country. So we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the population, and in fact a decrease in actual physical access to be able to visit our clients.”
ICE did not respond to our follow-up questions about allegations that attorneys have been having a hard time adequately preparing their cases with clients; the reduction in contact visit rooms; and the high volume of daily hearings. GEO Group did respond, but its spokesperson, Christopher V. Ferreira, referred us to an initial email statement:
“The support services GEO provides include around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation.”
VanDerhoef also says under the Trump administration, a vital legal lifeline was cut — the Legal Orientation Program, run by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
“With the ending of the Legal Orientation Program, it at least provided individuals with the legal assessment to know what their options are; and with issues of limiting access, it’s pretty clear that the goal is to have more cases conclude in the immigration court without lawyers because it certainly is easier and quicker to deport somebody who doesn’t know their legal rights,” Larkin explained.
In late September, a federal judge ruled that a Tacoma immigration court’s practice of denying bond to detained noncitizens was unlawful. Nationally, the Trump administration touted the bond policy against immigrants who entered the country illegally.
The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project filed the class action lawsuit last spring against the Tacoma immigration courts.
VanDerhoef says that despite the ruling, the courts have not complied in automatically granting bond, or at least presenting the opportunity to request it.
“What we’re seeing, this is pretty unprecedented. But in recent weeks, we’re seeing the immigration judges not following that order, and we’re still waiting to see. They may be waiting for further guidance, but it’s pretty clear they are bound by that order. And they’re still not granting bonds for people that this federal judge has decided should be eligible for them,” Larkin said.
