I'm Paris Jackson.

Welcome to The Newsfeed.

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This week we're examining how the Trump administration's heightened immigration enforcement is impacting Washington State.

The high profile deaths of Renee Goode and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis both happened when they were monitoring ICE activities.

Rapid response teams who do this kind of work now exist across Washington.

We wanted to get a closer look at those efforts here in the state.

Multimedia journalist Jaelynn Grisso has the story.

After the last election, Jamie Ortiz said she felt compelled to act.

I was talking with my husband and I said, “You know, we need to do something about this.” We need to show, like ICE sightings where they're at, so people know not to go to that area.

Ortiz started a Facebook page to report ICE sightings in Yakima.

That work led to her getting involved in Yakimas rapid response efforts in early 2025.

She and others go out multiple times a week to verify and document ICE activities.

Then in September, her husband was detained by ICE and later deported.

He is now the love of my life.

My soul mate.

He has a 20 year ban, so I honestly don't think there's anything we can do to get him back before 20 years is up.

One tactic immigration enforcement uses is detaining folks outside of public places like big box stores.

A recent report from the University of Washington Center for Human Rights pieced together how ICE may be using license plates for identification.

What ICE and Border Patrol agents are doing is going to areas of communities that they call, quote, target rich.

And that could be a, you know, a Latino supermarket.

It could be an apartment complex, could be a big box store.

And what we believe they're doing is running license plates of as many cars as they can see.

Ortiz monitored an incident on Christmas Eve at a Walmart similar to what Neff describes.

A man came out of the store and was quickly surrounded by ICE agents and detained.

Ortiz recorded the incident, and because of the video, was able to get in contact with his family.

By piecing together records of enforcement actions and searches within state databases, the report details several cases where license data was likely used by ICE during an arrest.

Neff says this use of data is against state law.

Washington's Keep Washington Working law specifically says state agencies should not use their resources or systems for civil immigration enforcement.

But that's exactly what's happening.

DOL and Washington State Patrol issued a joint statement on the report saying, quote, Governor Ferguson is committed to complying with applicable laws and finding the right balance in protecting individuals data without compromising legitimate law enforcement investigations of criminal acts that are necessary to preserve public safety.

An ICE spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Neff says this sort of tactic makes it difficult for rapid response efforts because they help ICE make arrests in a matter of minutes.

That's what happened with Ortiz's husband in September.

My husband was on his way to work.

He called me within, like, three minutes.

Hey, you know, ICE has flipped their lights on.

They're pulling me over, and I said, okay, pull over at the gas station.

I'll be right there, which is normally about a four minute drive.

I was there within three minutes, and the only thing left in that parking lot was my husband's car.

He was held in the Northwest ICE Processing center for 45 days before ultimately being deported to Mexico.

But despite the risks, Ortiz says she'll keep working with the rapid response team.

And we had signs that say, “I am Renee Good.” It just puts in perspective that that could have been me.

Jaelynn Grisso, Cascade PBS I'm Paris Jackson.

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