Seattle protesters block ICE vans from leaving immigration court

Protests have reached Seattle this week in response to the recent unrest in Los Angeles, where President Donald Trump called in the military.

On Tuesday morning, about 40 people gathered at the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle, which houses a federal immigration court. Protesters chanted expletives directed at ICE in English and Spanish, while others clashed with police in an attempt to block vehicle access to the building with electric bikes and scooters.

Two protesters were arrested later in the evening, according to the Department of Homeland Security, after allegedly pointing lasers in federal officers’ eyes and tearing down and burning American flags.

“Things are definitely heating up,” said Mathieu Chabaud, an organizer with the University of Washington’s Students for a Democratic Society and an attendee at the demonstration Tuesday. “The school year is wrapping up. Students are looking for something to do in the summer, and the Federal Building is a target because there's immigration courthouses here.”

Just a few weeks ago, Immigration and Customs Enforcement began arresting people attending hearings in this building, after their hearings were dismissed by judges.

RELATED: ICE agents at Seattle courthouse arrest people whose deportation hearings are dismissed

Tuesday’s protest followed another on Monday, when roughly 300 people marched to Seattle’s City Hall in opposition to the arrest of a union leader last Friday in L.A.

A small group of protesters, some in black with faces covered, attempted to block the federal building's vehicle entrances by dragging Lime electric bikes and scooters, their alarms squeaking, to the ramps. They laid the devices out to barricade the exits with the apparent purpose of blocking federal vehicles from taking detainees out. When police with the Department of Homeland Security took the bikes away, the protesters put them back, and they remained in place into the afternoon.

RELATED: Could Trump mobilize Washington state's National Guard if immigration raid protests break out?

An immigration attorney told KUOW people taken from the courthouse by ICE could be on a plane out of the U.S. “in three hours.”

“Immigrants are going to be shuttled out one of those doors as they start stacking bodies today,” said Matt Payne, a volunteer observer, as he watched the protesters in the morning. “Vehicles are going to start exiting this building, and they're going to be [chock-full] of immigrants.”

No vehicles appeared to leave the courthouse during the morning and early afternoon. A lone counterprotester from Seattle, named Von Edlund, held a sign that read “100,000 deported, 11 million to go,” and asked onlookers to take a picture of him with his phone.

“I'm a Democrat, but I'm also an American, and I'm really tired of us getting overrun by all these foreigners,” Edlund said. “Trump's doing the right thing, and as much as I dislike him… this should have been done years ago.”

RELATED: The Los Angeles ICE raids are changing how immigrant communities go about their lives

On Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to KUOW, “ICE will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Update, 6/11/25 at 4:26 pm: This story has been updated to include new information about arrests made at Tuesday's demonstration and new comments from DHS officials.