Masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a man inside Seattle’s immigration courthouse on Tuesday, according to his attorney, and the detention was captured on video. The man did not have a standing deportation order and had gone to the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building for an asylum hearing that was ultimately continued. His lawyer says roughly nine plainclothes agents wearing masks and agency badges surrounded him, handcuffed him, and walked him into a service elevator. She plans to challenge the detention in court.
Video shows tense courthouse arrest
The arrest was recorded on a cellphone and shared by the man’s immigration attorney, Elish Villa Malone. The footage shows agents pressing the respondent against a wall and placing handcuffs on him, according to KUOW. In the clip, Malone can be heard asking why officers are detaining him and insisting he has a court date, while his wife cries nearby.
KUOW reports the man previously told a judge he had been kidnapped as a teenager and forced to work for criminal organizations. He is now being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, the outlet says.
Advocates tie courthouse arrests to a wider trend
Immigrant-rights advocates say arrests in and around courthouses have become a recurring enforcement tactic across the country. Recent court filings have also pushed the Justice Department to publicly address the legal basis for those operations.
National coverage carried by outlets including OPB noted that Justice Department lawyers told a judge they had relied on a 2025 ICE memo when defending courthouse arrests, even though the government later acknowledged that guidance did not apply to immigration courts.
Lawyers cite new Washington statute and vow court fight
Malone says she plans to file a habeas petition arguing that her client’s arrest and detention are unlawful, according to KUOW. The station also reported that a Washington law passed in March bars officers from concealing their identities.
Mike Faulk with the Washington attorney general’s office told KUOW the statute "does not empower our office as the enforcer, but it does provide for a private cause of action." Local legal organizations are already leaning on federal courts: Matt Adams of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project told the outlet his group has filed more than 300 habeas petitions since September 2025, and that judges have ordered immediate release for about 100 people while setting bond hearings for roughly 150 others.
What comes next for the case
Malone’s planned habeas filing could move the dispute into federal court and require ICE to explain the grounds for the arrest in a public proceeding. Advocates say they will be watching whether judges order release or bond and whether the case affects how, or where, ICE carries out enforcement around immigration dockets in the region.
