Shelton Immigration Raid

>
> Residents report that at about 5:00 yesterday's morning (Thursday May
> 31st) ICE agents raided an apartment complex and a mobile home park
> nearby in Shelton) and took (at least) 17 people. The detained people
> included both men and women, but it appears that the agents may have
> avoided residents who had children or if the woman was pregnant. One
> resident of an apartment that was not raided reports that it was done
> quietly, and that unaffected residents didn't know about the raid
> until two hours afterwards. There is an advocate onsite at the
> apartment complex today and will be gathering more information. There
> is an interesting connection between a visit that the Washington State
> Commission of Human Rights did last week to Shelton and the raid. At
> the meeting last week a Hispanic man came forward to denounce repeated
> abuses by the management of an apartment complex towards Hispanic and
> immigrant tenants. The raid last morning happened, coincidentally, at
> that apartment complex. There is another interesting connection: large
> numbers of the immigrant population in Shelton live of harvesting
> salal (sometimes better know as brush). The harvesting season came to
> an end couple of weeks ago and this is the time when you can easily
> find people at their homes at times when, during the harvesting
> season, they would be working. There was and still is a lot of
> confusion and fear in the community. Some families have been separated
> and there were people in the street on tears. There is a deep feeling
> of fear and silence. Many have left the community, included relatives
> of those detained. There are rumors that ICE continued operations
> during the whole day and more people may have been detained. The local
> bilingual elementary school is organizing van rides to pick up the
> kids of the families who are afraid to leave their homes.
>
> The Washington State Human Rights Commission has already been notified
> and contact has been made with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
> to find the detainees at the detention center in Tacoma. The community
> is working on providing support to those families who will suffer
> financially because of the loss of the head of household. We need
> people to spread the word around and ideally, contact the media to get
> the story out. -- Patricia Vázquez CIELO ESL Program Coordinator
> 3102 8th Ave NE
> Olympia WA 98506
> (360) 790 7825

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