At least two undocumented immigrants were arrested by ICE agents in D.C. over the weekend, organizers say.
In response, local advocacy organization Sanctuary DMV is planning a rally on Friday, according to the Washington City Paper, which was the first to report on the arrests. The organization hasn’t yet nailed down a time or location for the protest.
The reported arrests happened in Northwest, says Luzhilda Campos of United We Dream, a national immigrant advocacy organization. A family was inside their home waiting for a repairman to show up, Campos says, when ICE agents knocked on their door. Expecting the repairman, they opened the door to the agents, who immediately began interrogating each family member, Campos says.
Eventually, the agents arrested both parents and took them to a detention center, leaving their two teenage sons—who were also in the home at the time of the arrest—in “limbo,” she says. The sons are protected under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, while the parents are both undocumented, Campos says. United We Dream was able to confirm the arrests after speaking with one of the sons and one of the parents’ employers. Campos declined to identify the people arrested until they feel comfortable speaking with reporters themselves, she says.
Sanctuary DMV also confirmed the detention of the two parents in D.C. in a Facebook post on Monday. “We are outraged to confirm that over the weekend ICE targeted immigrants in Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights,” the post reads. “They detained at least two DC residents and interrogated several others. Folx are understandably fearful so no further details are public at this point.”
An ICE spokesperson told DCist the agency cannot confirm reports of arrests without names and dates of birth of the people arrested.
The arrests come after President Donald Trump announced massive raids that would target 2,000 families across the country; just 12 hours before they were reportedly set to begin, he canceled them.
Activists are planning a rally in the Senate Rotunda on Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. to demand budget cuts to ICE and Customs and Border Protection, according to a release from the Defund Hate Campaign.
Campos says she does not know whether the arrests have anything to do with those planned raids, but that immigrant arrests happen every day.
“With or without Trump’s announcement, we are seeing this all the time. And it’s sad that until he announces the raid, Democrats don’t stand up and say anything about it,” she says. “It’s very upsetting to see how they can play with our lives and use us as a bargaining chip.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser released a statement opposing Trump’s planned raids last week—but she has received criticism before for not doing enough to protect immigrant communities in D.C.
This story has been updated to include confirmation that United We Dream and Sanctuary DMV were referring to the same arrests.
Natalie Delgadillo