Minutes after immigration rights advocates arrived outside a nondescript warehouse lined with chain link and barbed wire fences, a silver bus with tinted windows approached, kicking up dust. It was transporting another detainee.
“You are not alone,” the crowd chanted as the bus passed by.
Roughly 250 people gathered in an industrial neighborhood on the banks of the Puyallup River May 31. They were at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, or NWIPC, in Tacoma, Washington to demand release of the nearly 1,500 people held there. Organizations that support immigrant rights, including Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project, International Migrants Alliance, Migrante Portland and La Resistencia caravanned from Portland and Seattle in a show of solidarity.
Beneath heavy rainfall and brief sunbreaks, speakers shared stories of friends, family and community members long impacted by U.S. immigration policy and deportations, which the Trump administration has attempted to ratchet up since taking office in January.
“ICE, escucha, estamos en la lucha,” the crowd chanted throughout the day. (“ICE, listen, we are in the fight.”)
One person detained there is Jorge Luis Reinaldo, a 22-year-old Venezuelan migrant who found work as a day laborer in Portland through Voz, as Street Roots reported June 28. Reinaldo has been held at the NWIPC since Feb. 20, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents in Portland told him he needed to come to its headquarters to sign paperwork, then detained him and transferred him to Tacoma. Voz organized a caravan from its Portland headquarters to Tacoma to advocate for his release.
Rufina Reyes, La Resistencia executive director, said La Resistencia is the only organization in the area that currently tracks deportation flights to and from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, or Sea-Tac, as it has done since 2018. Recently, flights have increased from weekly to multiple times a day, according to Reyes.
“This is not just a place where local people are being detained, they are also detaining people from outside of this state, from multiple states, because this is a hub detainment center,” Reyes said.
She spoke in Spanish, and an interpreter followed in English. The entire event was bilingual, with every speech interpreted into both English and Spanish.
ICE spokesperson David Yost said deportation flights are both conducted commercially and by charter, and Sea-Tac flights are typically commercial flights. Yost declined to comment on Reyes’ assertion that flights have increased.
“(The information) wasn’t provided by a federal official or ICE, so I will not further address,” Yost said.
The GEO Group Inc. — a publicly traded company based in Boca Raton, Florida — is a for-profit business that runs the NWIPC on behalf of ICE.
George C. Zoley, The GEO Group executive chairman, said in a May 7 press release that the company is committed to expanding its operations in the immediate future.
“We believe we have an unprecedented opportunity to assist the federal government in meeting its expanded immigration enforcement priorities,” Zoley said. “We have taken several important steps to be prepared to meet that opportunity, including making a significant investment commitment of $70 million to strengthen our capabilities to deliver expanded detention capacity, secure transportation, and electronic monitoring services to ICE and the federal government.”
The company reported $2.42 billion in annual revenues, with adjusted earnings — before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (debt payment), or EBITDA — of over $435 million in 2024.
In the first quarter of 2025, the company reported over $604 million in revenues, and an adjusted EBITDA of nearly $100 million, according to its first quarter 2025 financial report. The GEO Group reported lower revenues than the first quarter last year, due to reorganization efforts in anticipation of future growth projects and higher payroll taxes.
During the demonstration, Annica Maxfield, Voz community impact and operations director, called from a computer to a tablet Reinaldo shares with others in his cubicle to make video calls. Reyes held the computer to the crowd, so Reinaldo could see the supporters. He turned, motioning to the others inside to look at the screen and share in the encouragement.
But before he could turn back toward the camera, ICE agents inside abruptly shut off the video. Each of five calls ended the same way — a common practice, according to the organizers.
Maxfield privately connected with Reinaldo and others by telephone when she stepped away from the crowd. She told demonstrators that detainees were excited to share their experiences in the prison, and wanted her to raise specific issues to those outside. They told her the food inside is very low quality, and regularly does not show up until after 10 p.m. — sometimes as late as midnight.
Detainees also said medical care is scarce, the wait to see a doctor is long, and they often are required to wake up at 5 a.m. to go to the infirmary. Many have reported that they are rarely able to go outdoors, and when they are taken outdoors, it is for very short periods.
“It’s very important that we’re out here,” Maxfield said. “We were just able to get a little bit of our message out to a small group of people in the B3 unit of this detention center, but I think that filled them with hope. They know we’re here, they know we’re listening and they know we’re fighting for them.”
In a statement provided to Street Roots, The GEO Group spokesperson Christopher Ferreira said the support services the company provides include around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, dietician-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities, and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs.
“In all instances, our support services are monitored by ICE and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure strict compliance with ICE detention standards,” Ferreira said.
For more than three hours, demonstrators heard stories, held signs and listened to songs including “Primer Tonto” and “Dame la Oportunidad.” A group of five musicians led a chorus of “Bella Ciao,” the Italian protest song and anti-fascist anthem.
This article appears in June 4, 2025.