Diana Romero was driving her son to Learning Nest Preschool in Issaquah, a bilingual school for Spanish-speaking children, when her typical October morning took a turn: ICE agents pulled her over.
The agents followed Romero to the preschool, where they allowed her to drop off her son. Shortly after, agents ushered Romero into an unmarked SUV and drove off.
Romero’s relative, going by the alias of “Kevin” to protect his identity, clarified that she was undocumented and had been deported in 2023. He added that Romero decided to return because of her son, who is a U.S. citizen.
“They shouldn’t have done it in front of her kid. He shouldn’t have witnessed that,” Kevin said.
Romero was Kevin’s first of two relatives arrested by ICE in October. The following week, his cousin was arrested at the McDonald’s in North Issaquah as she arrived for work.
Following these two arrests made by ICE in Issaquah during late October, Issaquah School District officials worked to alleviate the fear they caused.
After an increase in absences related to fears of recent immigration enforcement, ISD administrators released a statement assuring that ICE was not on campuses. They added that ICE would need to present the district with warrants before making arrests on school grounds.
“I think [ICE] is an agency that was developed for the right reason,” an immigrant student at Skyline said. They noted that ICE, founded in 2003, was initially “used to protect the people of the United States, but now it divides the country.”
The student hopes that in the future, “local governments across the country can limit ICE raids to ones with actual warrants and reasons” to protect legal immigrants.
Kelly Jiang, an Issaquah City Council member, weighed in on ICE activity, stating that “as a city, [Issaquah] is a little bit limited in what it can do” and is why she is “calling on state legislators to step up and pass laws that protect our community.”
For more information:
More ICE arrests in Issaquah following last week’s arrest of mom at preschool drop-off
