The public accounts leave important details of a North Everett immigration arrest unresolved, including where the detained worker was taken. Jennifer Gordon, a homeowner who identifies herself as a healthcare worker and Navy veteran, recorded a confrontation with masked men on her property. She said she demanded identification and a warrant before they took one worker away; a man can be heard calling for help in the video.
Gordon told KIRO 7 News that a construction company had been installing a fence on her property for a couple of weeks. She said the crew had returned from buying supplies when they encountered several masked men. KIRO 7 reported that Gordon’s video shows one man being thrown to the ground, another running from the scene, and a worker being taken away to an unknown location.
The accounts differ on the number of workers involved and what they were doing. A separate report from Yahoo News described federal agents detaining one man while he was doing yard work at a North Everett home. It said the workers were employed by Tommy Builders and had been working at the property for about a week. The report also described the detained man repeatedly calling for help.
Gordon Pressed for a Warrant, Got Refused
Gordon said the masked men identified themselves as ICE agents and wore vests labeled “police.” She asked them to show identification and a judicial warrant, but according to Yahoo News, when she asked whether they had a warrant signed by a judge, one of the agents in the video replied, “I don't have to show it to you.”
A witness identified only as Joe told Yahoo News he saw six to eight ICE agents detaining the man. Joe said an agent told him the man was being arrested in connection with a murder allegation in his native country; that claim could not be independently verified. ICE declined to provide additional details about the detention, citing privacy concerns, and shared no further information with KIRO 7.
The seed report also said the masked men claimed the people they were arresting were wanted for crimes in another country. The Everett Police Department said its officers were not involved.
State Law Limits Masked Officers
Washington law, which became effective in March 2026, prohibits law enforcement officers from hiding their identities while wearing masks.
Gordon said the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project had provided her information that helped her know what to do during ICE arrests. She said it is her duty as an American to speak up and show solidarity with neighbors and communities regardless of immigration status, and that she remains committed to being, in her words, a public servant on the right side of history.
A Statewide Surge in Arrests
The Everett incident comes amid a sharp rise in ICE enforcement across Washington. According to the Deportation Data Project, which compiled arrest data in an online tracker after filing hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests, ICE arrests surged across the United States and Washington during the summer of 2026. Phill Neff, cited in the seed reporting, said the vast majority of people being picked up have no criminal convictions or criminal history.
Roughly 700 people were arrested by ICE in Washington each month in June and July 2026, according to OPB, a total that exceeded all recorded arrests during the first seven months of 2025 combined. The outlet also reported that Washington had not recorded a single day without an ICE arrest since late March 2026.
What the arrest data can show
The Washington figures come from an arrest dataset, but they are not a specific count of arrests that resulted in people being locked up. KUOW says the dataset offers a generalized snapshot of ICE activity and that the Deportation Data Project recommends its arrest-with-detentions dataset for a more specific view of arrests that result in detention. The criminal-history characterization attributed above to Phill Neff is a separate claim; the arrest totals alone do not establish it.
The trend mirrors a nationwide pattern. ICE arrested 49,571 people in July, the highest single-month total of the current administration, according to PBS NewsHour. That figure marked a 15% jump from the 43,021 arrests recorded the month before and a 70% increase from the 29,241 arrests logged in February. PBS NewsHour also reported that ICE has hired 12,000 new deportation officers and investigative agents after receiving billions of dollars from Congress.
PBS NewsHour reported 49,571 ICE arrests nationwide in July 2026.
