OPINION | Why I Skipped Seattle's 'No Kings' Rally

An estimated 70,000 people in Seattle attended the nationwide "No Kings" protests against the Trump administration on Saturday. At the same time, a few miles south of Seattle, federal officials demanded that dozens of immigrants line up at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field office in Tukwila. Why?

It all started last week, when via an app called ICE SmartLINK, which immigration officials use to track people, some Washington state residents received an unusual message requiring that they check in over the weekend. Missing their appointment, the text read in Spanish, would be considered an infraction.

There was no explanation as to why they were being asked so last minute to show up at the field office. Nor an assurance that the Monday–Friday office would be open on a Saturday or Sunday. Simply that they go there on the weekend between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

I met an Ecuadorian mother standing in line who had been allowed to stay temporarily in this country because her baby daughter — a U.S. citizen — was in need of surgery. A woman from Nicaragua seeking asylum who was confused about getting the text; she had been checking in with ICE every month via the app like she was told, and her next scheduled court date wasn't until 2028, she said. She, like many others, was there without a lawyer because there had been no time to plan. Some attorneys who were there said they were denied entry.

A Mexican man described his check-in as brief. He has an asylum case pending in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, but is also awaiting his U-visa, which is given to victims of certain crimes. He told me he didn't understand why federal officials had made him come to this office in person on a weekend. Surely, he figured, they could have checked his status online. And the list went on — without any kind of clear pattern emerging as to why this particular group of people had been called to check in.

Nobody seemed to have answers. Representatives from the Consulado de México in Seattle were on site trying to help, but when asked about the reason behind the unusual check-in procedures, one simply said: "Right now, everything is strange."

Then, without explanation, officials abruptly closed the building midday on Saturday. But people kept showing up, some from as far away as Centralia, trying to follow the rules. And on Sunday — on Día del Padre no less — families arrived again, only to find the office closed.

So was the federal government just messing with people on a weekend of a mass protest? On Father's Day?

An email to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has so far gone unanswered.

It all comes on the heels of news about ICE arresting people when they attend their immigration hearing, an evolution of a previous pattern. Years ago, during the first Trump administration, U.S. courthouses became a common battleground for immigration enforcement. Immigrants would show up to pay a traffic ticket, serve as a witness, or try to take care of some other issue, only to be arrested.

All to say, with all this rhetoric about deporting criminals, it's important to stress that even those trying to follow procedures are getting into trouble. In fact, under the Trump administration, there has been a surge of arrests of migrants with no criminal history. An 807% increase, in fact, according to one news analysis. So how about questioning those with power about why they're denying people their right to due process? And why a text asking people to show up only for them to find a closed building?

Over the weekend, dozens of people responded to a call for support at the Tukwila building to try to prevent immigrants from being detained. They lined up with City of Seattle No Parking A-frame signs to block the exits. At various points, a federal army of men dressed in camouflage with big guns emerged, a reaction to the 150 or so who were present, that at one point was so over the top, I scoffed.

Frustrated by those blocking exits, Tukwila police and an ICE special task force eventually deployed pepper balls and flash bangs to get through with vehicles, presumably with two people who were thought by protest organizers to have been detained. Groups on the ground, like Super Familia, later said the immigration checks had ended early because of their actions.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, the alt-right media, who say they showed up to cover the protest, made it all about themselves. They labeled the protesters "antifa." One journalist said she had been targeted with some kind of chemical spray. They never questioned what ICE was doing, or talked to the librarian or the music industry professional or the cook or the other everyday people who had answered the call to action. Or zeroed in on those most impacted — immigrants. What about their stories?

It's looking like Trump and his posse can break all the rules in the world without consequences, while many in this country act as if immigrants should be treated like garbage simply for existing.

On Monday, a lawyer tipped me off to the fact that immigrants in San Francisco received a similar text message over the weekend, which leads me to believe this was a coordinated attempt to torment immigrants while the country and the media turned their attention to the "No Kings" demonstrations and Trump's military parade.

I, for one, care more about what people with power are doing to those who jumped an arbitrary border with illusions about life in the United States.

Editors' Note: A previous version of this column incorrectly stated that Tukwila police and an ICE special task force deployed tear gas on protesters. It has been updated to reflect that they used pepper balls.

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Lilly Ana Fowler is a writer in Seattle whose stories have appeared on NPR, The Seattle Times, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications. She was born in Mexico and grew up on the border.