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The Pacific Northwest saw a dramatic spike in Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests at the end of 2025, with Yakima County hit particularly hard, new data from the University of Washington Center for Human Rights show.听

From a recent low point of fewer than 250 arrests across the Northwest between October and December 2024, ICE arrests climbed under the Trump administration to a high of nearly 2,250 arrests during the last three months of 2025, researchers said. The data, , offers the first look at the breadth of immigration arrests in Oregon, Washington and Alaska for the , and a more exact picture of where people were arrested.听

鈥淭he surge we鈥檙e seeing in other parts of the country is happening in the Pacific Northwest,鈥� said Phil Neff, research coordinator at the center. 鈥淚n Yakima, it's been a major issue, and the surge in Portland is truly unprecedented for the region.鈥澛�

In Washington alone, ICE officials made more than 2,340 arrests last year, up 152% from 2024 figures, when 929 arrests were carried out. Among Washington counties, King County saw the highest number of arrests last year, with 1,030 people taken into custody. Nearly half the King County arrests, about 470, were in Seattle.

ICE arrests disproportionately hit Yakima County, which saw the highest number of ICE arrests relative to its population 鈥� 185 arrests per 100,000 people. By comparison, there were 44 arrests per 100,000 people in King County. Other counties with large agricultural communities also saw a spike in arrests in the later half of 2025, including Clark, Mason and Whatcom counties.听

In total, ICE made 477 arrests in Yakima County last year, a majority of which occurred in the second half of the year.听

鈥淢any people know people who have been arrested鈥� and know families getting split up, said attorney David Morales, a volunteer with the Yakima Immigrant Response Network since 2017 who described recent ICE activity there as extraordinary compared to past years.

Morales said the volume of arrests is not necessarily a surprise. A longtime destination for migrant agricultural workers, Yakima County is home to many undocumented immigrants, an ICE field office and local leaders who are friendly to the Trump administration鈥檚 agenda, he said.

鈥淚CE has chosen this place for special attention and now we鈥檙e seeing the results,鈥� including stores catering to Latino communities with fewer customers and local schools with reduced enrollment, he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very sad.鈥�

'A huge problem'

As part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, UW researchers obtained U.S. Department of Homeland Security I-213 鈥淩ecord of Deportable/Inadmissible Alien鈥� forms filled out between January 2022 and December 2025 by ICE agents in the Seattle Field Office, which oversees Oregon, Washington and Alaska.

The forms, which include information like age, gender and country of origin, are created when an ICE agent initially arrests someone they believe may be "deportable," a category that has expanded under the Trump administration, including those legally present in the country or with valid work permits.

Written arrest narratives in the forms were not released, but interesting details can still be gleaned from the data: People arrested in Washington last year hailed from more than 80 countries. The youngest was a three year old boy from Brazil taken into custody in Seattle. The oldest was a 71 year old farm worker from Mexico arrested in Yakima who had been living in the U.S. since 2000.

ICE arrests people in different ways. Some last year were arrested at courthouses after their , or when they went to a scheduled ICE appointment. Some were picked up by immigration officials when released from federal prison. Immigration attorneys, rapid response groups and researchers note many are in public .

Morales has seen ICE experiment with different approaches in Yakima County over the past year, he said. Early in 2025, agents were making a lot of road stops and arrests outside businesses frequented by Latino patrons, he said. Then they seemed to focus more on court system arrests. Late in 2025, agents began setting up in big-box store parking lots and scanning license plates to find people to arrest, Morales said.

Although ICE activity in Yakima County hasn鈥檛 received the same attention as mass surges in big cities like Portland and Minneapolis, it鈥檚 just as concerning, he said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 presenting itself in a different way鈥� in Yakima County, and getting overlooked for that reason, he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a huge problem.鈥�

'Historically unprecedented territory'

Neff said some of the data should be reviewed with caveats. The data appears to significantly underrepresent pending criminal charges and convictions among those arrested. And not all immigration-related arrests are reflected in the data, including some by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Sea-Tac International Airport or at the U.S.-Canada border.听

The total number of ICE arrests in Washington last year isn鈥檛 necessarily unusual. In 2023, under the Biden administration, more than 2,300 people were arrested. But Neff said the dramatic increase in arrests across the Pacific Northwest at the end of last year is troubling, and requires local and state leaders to take action.听

鈥淚t sets us up in 2026, if this continues 鈥� we鈥檒l be in historically unprecedented territory this year,鈥� Neff said.听聽

Many immigrants arrested last year appear to have deep ties to local communities. Just over 400 adults arrested by ICE officers from the Seattle Field Office 鈥� or about 10% of all taken into custody 鈥� had a child who was a U.S. citizen.

Arrests of adults with U.S. citizen children started dramatically increasing in October, with 105 arrested in November and 111 arrested in December. On average, people arrested last year appear to have been in the country longer compared with those arrested in 2024, Neff said.

In the Pacific Northwest, 38 children were apprehended by ICE last year. Far more children were arrested under the Biden administration, including more than 500 in 2022 and more than 400 in 2023.

Those figures may reflect children who were arrested and processed by ICE along with family members, but ultimately not detained, under , Neff said.听The Trump administration temporary protected status programs for .

'Red line of detentions'

While arrests in Washington steadily increased last year, the data shows arrests surged in Oregon at the end of last year 鈥� from fewer than 100 arrests per month between January and September, to more than 400 arrests in October and November and more than 300 in December.听

In Multnomah County, where most of Portland is located, 770 arrests were carried out last year, compared to about 180 arrested in 2024. About 75% of arrests in 2025 occurred in the last three months of the year. Arrests in nearby Washington and Marion counties also surged at the end of 2025.听

Alyssa Walker, coordinator with the Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition, which operates a statewide hotline to report ICE sightings, said those arrests can be attributed to an intense immigration enforcement effort known as 鈥溾�� that began in mid-October in Oregon, which immigrant rights groups have criticized as a dragnet surveillance operation resulting in widespread racial profiling.

Federal immigration officials with large immigrant communities, run license plates to identify owners and then check names against their own databases to see the person鈥檚 immigration status and determine their 鈥渄eportability.鈥澛�

Looking at a called into their hotline, Walker said a majority of detentions reported in the fall were along highways, suggesting many were detained as they were driving to work or a school.听

鈥淟ike from Beaverton to Forest Grove, there鈥檚 a highway that runs between those two, and it's just like this red line of detentions happening,鈥� Walker said.

The surge in Oregon has since slowed, Walker said. On Feb. 4, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering DHS to in Oregon without evidence of a risk of escape.

Meanwhile in Washington, the UW center has of ICE agents using driver鈥檚 license data for immigration enforcement, though it has not been challenged in court.

Seattle Times staff graphic artist Fiona Martin contributed to this report.