South End Life: Some of the Locals Who Keep an Eye on the Detainees Flown Out of South Seattle

On a recent morning, Stan Shikuma stood outside the King County International Airport - Boeing Field (KCIA). Dozens of feet away, on the other side of a chain-link fence, an Eastern Air Express Boeing 737-700 sat on the tarmac. Beacon Hill homes sat on a neighboring hillside, while the roar of I-5 traffic to the east and the buzz of vehicles on East Marginal Way to the west filled the air.

The plane was at the airfield to transport immigration detainees to El Paso, Texas. They were brought to KCIA on large buses from the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) in Tacoma, formerly known as the Northwest Detention Center.

While plane guards sorted through white plastic bags that held detainees' belongings and loaded the bags into the cargo hold, Shikuma communicated with the observation team and reported what he could see from the fence.

Shikuma is part of a flight observation team of La Resistencia, an undocumented-immigrant-led organization that supports NWIPC detainees and calls for the end of detention and deportation flights. The observation team closely monitors the number of flights and passengers, as well as any conditions that may be potential human rights violations. 

The number of detainees being transported from this Southeast Seattle airport has skyrocketed. In January 2026, 620 detainees were flown out of the airport. In January of last year, 87 were flown out. Most of the flights were bound for airports in the southern U.S. KCIA is one of more than a hundred airports used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

Shikuma is also the national chair for Tsuru for Solidarity, a Japanese American group that supports immigrant communities targeted by immigration policies and advocates for the closure of detention centers. Tsuru for Solidarity was founded by Japanese American survivors of World War II U.S. government incarceration camps and their descendants. Tsuru for Solidarity is one of several organizations that helps La Resistencia recruit volunteers for flight observation.

Shikuma says everyone in his family who was alive in 1942 was forcibly removed from Watsonville, California. His mother's side was incarcerated along with more than 18,000 Japanese Americans at the Tule Lake concentration camp during WWII. His father's side was sent to the Poston incarceration camp with about 17,000 others. Shikuma was born after the war, and his family was haunted by the trauma from the upset. Shikuma says his family and other Japanese Americans were taken away with no due process, "no charges, no explanation or even accusations of anything specific they had done wrong." 

Later, as a 16-year-old foreman on his family's berry farm in the 1970s, Shikuma witnessed about 15 people on his team who were migrant farmworkers chased down by border patrol and whisked away. "These coincide with what we see happening today," Shikuma said, describing ICE's recent activities in Minneapolis. "They don't have people's names. Oftentimes, they don't know what nationality they are. They just know that they don't look white, they speak Spanish or some other foreign language, and that's enough for them to pick you up and take you away. Getting connected with groups like La Resistencia who are fighting to shut down the Northwest Detention Center and the ICE deportation flights out of King County Airport seemed like a natural fit [for me]."

ICE began using KCIA for flights in 2004. In 2019, former King County Executive Dow Constantine signed an executive order toward stopping ICE from using KCIA for deportation flights. ICE resorted to flights out of Yakima Air Terminal, where community members there regularly observed flights. The U.S. Department of Justice sued King County, arguing that the executive order violated the "intergovernmental immunity doctrine," and won the case. ICE flights resumed at KCIA in 2023. La Resistencia has consistently observed immigrant deportation flights there since then. 

Cameron Satterfield, King County Department of Executive Services communications manager, wrote in an email that KCIA has set aside a viewing room with monitors to observe flights. "We feed two livestreaming cameras to monitors in the viewing room. The feed is the exact same as what is available on our website. The live cameras are positioned such that viewers can see detainees as they exit transport buses and board the aircraft. They can also see ICE officers and contracted support staff as they do their work."

Josefina Mora-Cheung, La Resistencia's director of organizing, whose crew uses the monitors Satterfield referred to, said they watch for how detainees are frisked before entering the plane and how they're restrained. Detainees are restrained at their wrists with cuffs, which are attached to a chain around the waist, and their ankles are chained together. Sometimes, the chains are tightened or shortened by guards when detainees are frisked. Detainees emerge from the buses to board the plane in shackles and chains and are restrained for the entire flight. 

"We're concerned about people who use walking assistive devices, or people in wheelchairs who are still restrained, even when they have these impairments," said Mora-Cheung.

La Resistencia has complained about a number of impediments to flight observations, including buses parking in a way that blocks a clear view of the activity, or cameras sometimes not being aimed toward the plane. They also said the livestream is unreliable.

On Feb. 12, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay issued an executive order allocating $2 million to bolster support and protections for the immigrant and refugee community. The funds would help enhance accountability measures, including security camera upgrades and improved flight observation areas. King County Press Secretary Callie Craighead says the executive would like "to work with the airport leadership to make sure that the buses are using their designated spaces."

Although flight arrivals and departures can be viewed on the King County website, La Resistencia observers will continue to view the flights at the airport.

"We want people on the planes to know that someone is watching — someone cares enough to show up and be present with them," Shikuma said. "When [the guards] have total control over other people's lives, and they know that nobody's watching, it gives them license to do whatever they want. We want them to know we're watching. And they know," he said, adding, "they wave at the camera sometimes."