Tacoma ICE detention center reported that someone escaped from custody, police say
The Tacoma Police Department responded Wednesday to the federal immigration detention center on the Tideflats after the facility reported that someone in custody escaped, according to a police spokesperson.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not confirmed whether a person detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center escaped. A spokesperson did not immediately respond Friday morning to a request for information.
A representative for the GEO Group, the federal contractor that runs the facility, also has not responded to questions.
Sgt. John Correa with Tacoma police said in a phone call that South Sound 911 received a call from the facility Wednesday at about 7:30 p.m. reporting that someone in custody had escaped. He said officers responded to assist in conducting an area check, but no one was located.
“Officers got to the area around 8 p.m., and about 20 minutes later they were told that the facility’s resources would be taking over the matter,” Correa said.
About an hour later, Correa said, someone from the facility called again asking Tacoma police to check the area of a Pilot Express gas station on Puyallup Avenue. According to Correa, no one was located.
“TPD isn’t coordinating anything with the Northwest detention center into this matter,” Correa added.
Reports surfaced on social media Thursday about an escape. Katie Daviscourt, a reporter with the Canadian news website The Post Millennial, posted on X that “federal law enforcement sources” told her there had been an escape at the ICE detention center in Tacoma and that the “escapee” was on the loose.
The Post Millennial has been described as a far right website by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Media Matters for America, which describes itself on its website as a nonprofit “dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation.”
La Resistencia, a group that advocates for closing the ICE facility and ending deportations, posted Thursday to Instagram that it had received several messages informing the group that phone lines were shut down inside the facility and there was an unscheduled call for an emergency count. The group keeps in close contact with detainees inside.
The facility at 1623 E. J St. has a capacity for 1,575 detainees. It holds people who are suspected of being in the country illegally or awaiting deportation. Lawyers who work in the facility and La Resistencia said this week that the population of people detained there is nearing capacity.