Federal immigration agents arrested 37 workers on Wednesday during a raid at a roofing business in northern Washington. Officers from US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE), homeland security investigations, and customs and border protection arrived at Mt Baker Roofing‘s warehouse in Bellingham, near the Canadian border, at around 7.30 am.
Eyewitnesses described a dramatic scene as armed officers stormed the workplace. “They arrived wielding their guns like they were going to shoot us, like we were criminals,” said Tomas Fuerte, speaking to Cascadia Daily News.
“They corralled us into a room in the back of the building. They had a list and pictures of everyone who was undocumented and took them away,” news agency AP quoted.
Fuerte, who has worked at Mt Baker Roofing for 12 years, said he had never seen anything like it before. He claimed the arrested workers were taken away in two buses.
ICE spokesperson David Yost said in a statement that the raid was carried out under a federal search warrant as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the unlawful employment of undocumented workers. He said that those detained had “fraudulently represented their immigration status and submitted fraudulent documents and/or information to seek employment.”
Mt Baker Roofing responded that it was “fully cooperating with the authorities while also ensuring that our employees are treated fairly and respectfully under the law.”
Immigration enforcement has been a politically charged issue in the United States. ICE arrested 32,809 people in the first 50 days of Donald Trump’s presidency, an average of 656 per day, more than double the rate seen in the year before. However, while these figures exceed those of the Biden administration, they are still a far cry from the large-scale deportations Trump once promised. Unlike his first term, where factory and office raids were more common, recent enforcement actions have been smaller in scale.
Although businesses hiring undocumented workers often face fines, criminal charges against employers remain rare.
