"Do not run."
According to the Washington Immigration Solidarity Network (WAISN), that is the first step to follow if United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents show up at your workplace. A group of volunteers is working to ensure every business in Seattle knows its rights in the event of an ICE raid or audit, when ICE agents request documents verifying workers' employment eligibility.
For the past two months, Washington Neighborhood Defense (WAND) has been canvassing day cares, salons, restaurants, and auto shops around Seattle — talking with managers and owners on how to protect their employees in the event of an ICE raid. Canvassers are calling for more people to get involved in their work as ICE raids escalate around the country and President Donald Trump threatens to deploy federal troops to Seattle.
"This information is valuable across the entire state," organizer Carrie Hawthorne said. "We're just getting [WAND] off the ground, and getting the framework created to hopefully really expand this."
WAND canvassers have reached out to over 700 businesses in the state of Washington so far.
During her maternity leave, canvasser Emma Schott began looking for ways to get involved in organizing for immigrant rights — but much of what she found involved attending protests.
"Which is important, but hard to do with a little baby. So there wasn't a ton that I could get involved in," Schott said. She instead found an online group of volunteers who were reaching out to child care centers to provide "Know Your Rights" training.
"I started helping with that, and then we quickly realized it's not just schools and day cares that need this — it's all businesses that really need this," said Schott.
If everybody knows their rights, then "neighbors can help neighbors," Schott said.
Volunteers can print out the group's custom resources to hand out to business owners, mostly using information from WAISN: a script for canvassers, a four-page packet on how to navigate an ICE raid or audit, window signs to show solidarity and "employees only" or "private area" signs for businesses to mark which areas ICE must ask for permission to enter inside their workplace.
The packet includes information such as how to identify a legitimate warrant signed by a judge or magistrate and how to train people at the workplace for an ICE encounter and report ICE activity.
"Some people are very receptive to it," Hawthorne said. The canvasser said she has come across business owners who thought they understood their rights but became "very interested" once canvassers dived into the details.
If ICE shows up at your place of work, the WAND cheat sheet guides people at a worksite in simple steps: Employees can move to a designated " employees only" or "private" space. Co-workers can designate one person to talk to agents, appoint a person to video or document the encounter, refuse entry if agents do not have a judicial warrant for the business, and report the incident to WAISN.
Canvassers are able to log which businesses they've visited on a shared online map. The map makes it easier for different organizers and groups doing the same work to coordinate together, Schott said.
In August, canvassers hit a string of businesses along Rainier Avenue. Establishments like Tutta Bella in Columbia City were already prepared for potential ICE threats by the time volunteers showed up at the pizzeria's door, according to manager Bailey Bruce. The Seattle chain, with five locations in total, held a company-wide meeting in August to establish a response protocol in the event of an ICE raid.
Down the block, storefronts like Gather Consignment are not particularly vulnerable to raids, but co-owner Dan Walter said he wants to show allyship to the immigrant community.
"We're not immigrants and we don't look like immigrants," Walter said. "But we're happy to put signs in the windows."
Potential volunteers for WAND can contact organizers on the group's Signal Chat or email at waneighborhooddefense@gmail.com.
Help keep BIPOC-led, community-powered journalism free — become a Rainmaker today.