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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project

@nwirp.bsky.social
418 followers 37 following 55 posts

Defending and advancing immigrant rights since 1984. NWIRP is the largest immigration legal services organization providing free legal counsel to immigrants in the PNW.

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Reposted by Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Northwest Health Law Advocates (NoHLA) @nohla.org · 16/09/2026
Huge thanks to EXP Technical, Project Access Northwest, @nwirp.bsky.social, and Fulcrum Capital for helping us make Mending Health Care With Community happen! 👏🤩 Our sponsors rock! Join us - nohla.org/learn-2026 #HealthPolicy #HealthLaw #HealthJustice #HealthEquity #HealthAdvocacy #CommunityHealth
Logos for EXP Technical Custom IT Solutions and Support, Project Access Northwest, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and Fulcrum Capital - with purple and white footer that reads Thank you, Ally Sponsors - Mending Health Care With Community 2026, NoHLA.org.
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Reposted by Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Human Rights First @humanrightsfirst.org · 19/09/2026
DHS must respect due process and give people meaningful notification and the chance to contest removal to a country where they face harm and persecution. @nwirp.bsky.social
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Washington state should not aid the federal government in its goal of mass detention and deportation by providing access to sensitive data to be used for civil immigration enforcement ***when we have laws specifically prohibiting this from happening.*** washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/01/08/i...
washingtonstatestandard.com
ICE searched WA driver’s license data into November, report finds • Washington State Standard
Despite vows to restrict immigration agents' access to Washington license information, the data sharing continued, researchers said Thursday.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Thank you to the Yakima Herald-Republic for helping to spread the word on what community members can do to protect themselves and their loved ones from immigration raids and arrests.
yakimaherald.com
Advocates respond to community fears as immigration arrests grow in Yakima area
Data shows that ICE arrested more than 950 people in Washington state between July 29 and Oct. 15 — far outpacing the roughly 1,000 arrests made over the previous seven
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
“We need to put issues of light and darkness up alongside issues of nutrition and access to clean air and clean water,” said Lya Osborn, a Seattle-based lighting designer and founding member of the non-profit Light Justice.
theguardian.com
Dim days, bright nights: a hidden cruelty of Ice detention
Tens of thousands of people held across the US amid Trump’s immigration crackdown could face an insidious hazard: broken internal clocks
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Justice for Immigrants, Justice for All!
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Our Solidarity Social at Icicle Ridge Winery is coming up next Wednesday, and we’d love for you to join us. ✨We hope you can gather with us as we reaffirm our joint commitment to equity and justice for all. The event is free, with a suggested donation of $75. RSVP here ➡ bit.ly/3HH5jn7
Many members of NWIRP's Wenatchee staff wearing matching green shirts stand together in a wooded forest with yellow leaves on the trees.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Please join us for a CLE July 31 at Seattle U to learn how private sector attorneys can help non-profits further civil rights for people in Washington state. The event is moderated by Justice Sal Mungia. www.mywsba.org/PersonifyEbusiness/Default.aspx?TabID=1356&productId=26577224
Working with non-profits to further civil rights, moderated by Supreme Court Justice Sal Mungia.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said the administration is “adopting a draconian interpretation of the statute” to jail people who may have lived in the U.S. for decades, have no criminal history and have U.S. citizen spouses, children and grandchildren.
seattletimes.com
Immigration agency flexes authority to sharply expand detention without bond hearing
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is moving to detain far more people than before, tapping a legal authority to jail anyone who entered the country illegally.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
Yesterday, we received a credible report that ICE enforcement officers would be present at the Seattle immigration court. Our team and volunteers quickly mobilized to support community members attending their court hearings. ICE enforcement officers were not present and there were no arrests made.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
"Aaron Korthuis, an attorney at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, who is representing Juarez Zeferino in the class-action lawsuit, said he did not doubt the activist was a political target."
theguardian.com
Ice ‘politically targeted’ farm worker activist Juarez Zeferino, colleagues say
Detention comes amid Trump crackdown against perceived political enemies, including immigrants and labor organizers
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Last week, we stopped seeing ICE presence at the Seattle immigration court. Unfortunately, it seems that instead of getting the message that we don't want them in our community, they have simply adjusted their tactics.
seattletimes.com
As pushback grows to WA immigration court arrests, ICE changes tactics
ICE spent weeks at immigration court. No longer, a sign of changing methods that are breaking norms, sowing confusion and sparking evolving pushback.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
In the midst of so much terrible news, we are proud that Washington State legislators have passed several new laws to protect immigrant and worker rights in our state. These laws provide more state oversight at the detention center in Tacoma, provide important protections for workers, and more.
inlander.com
New Washington laws strengthen protections for immigrant communities amid federal attacks
The legislative session in Olympia this year was dominated by a focus on the biennial budget. But between discussions of funding cuts and new taxes,...
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Our response to a recent "oversight" letter NWIRP received today from the Committee on Homeland Security.
Our response to a recent oversight letter NWIRP received today from the Committee on Homeland Security written in text overlaid in front of the seal of the United States of AmericaNWIRP, like many of our partners across the country, received this "oversight" letter yesterday from the Committee of Homeland Security, from the U.S. House of Representatives. This is overlaid over the first page of the letter we received.It states that "the Committee is concerned that certain NGOs are now actively advising [undocumented noncitizens] on how to avoid and impede law enforcement officials, which can only be seen as an attempt to undermine the work [of the] federal government." This is overlaid over the second page of the letter we received from the Committee. This is just the latest example of what can only be described as authoritarian efforts to intimidate all those who do not share the administration's anti-immigrant agenda. This is overlaid over the 3rd page of the letter we received from the committee.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
This morning, NWIRP staff members and volunteers who have been providing Know Your Rights materials and consultations to community members at the immigration court in Seattle were told they would be restricted from entering without an appointment. Attorneys with appointments were permitted to enter.
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Reposted by Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
ProPublica @propublica.org · 10/06/2025
While ICE agents can note in their database if someone they’ve investigated turns out to be a citizen, they are not required to do so. As a result, records are often wrong and left uncorrected even after agents have been told of a mistake. (Published March 2025)
propublica.org
Some Americans Have Already Been Caught in Trump’s Immigration Dragnet. More Will Be.
Federal immigration authorities have a history of wrongfully detaining U.S. citizens. Advocates warn that the Trump administration’s immigration policies mean that more citizens will get caught up in…
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
NWIRP Executive Director Malou Chávez spoke with @msnbc.com about the confusion and fear our communities are experiencing because of the Presidential Administration's many attacks on their due process rights. www.msnbc.com/chris-jansin...
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
We are heartbroken to see immigrant communities under attack, again. This new travel ban, despite exceptions, sends a clear message of exclusion, undermines family reunification, and endangers lives. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
seattletimes.com
‘Another layer of cruelty’: WA immigrant communities shaken by Trump travel ban
The Seattle region has large numbers of people from several of the countries named in the ban, including Afghanistan, Somalia, Eritrea and Iran.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
These community members are in Djibouti only because DHS violated the terms of a federal district court order requiring DHS to provide them with due process before deporting them to a country that was not listed on their removal orders.
theintercept.com
ICE Official Reveals Miserable Conditions for U.S. Immigrants at Djibouti Prison
A top ICE official said illness is common at Camp Lemonnier, with inadequate medical care and exposure to smoke from burn pits.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Our partners at @immcouncil.org have prepared an analysis of the latest travel ban.
americanimmigrationcouncil.org
Analysis of Trump's New Travel Ban
Analysis of the June 4, 2025, proclamation imposing visa and travel restrictions on 19 countries.
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Reposted by Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Heartbreaking! Reporting suggests that the facility is currently operating nearly 300 PERCENT above capacity, with 1,700 people crammed into a facility with an official maximum capacity of 600. The conditions have devolved dramatically in the last few months, threatening health and safety.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit heard arguments from NWIRP and the State of Washington defending the district court’s finding that the Executive Order is a blatant violation of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing U.S. citizenship to all who are born in the United States.
seattletimes.com
In Seattle, appeals court grapples with Trump birthright citizenship order
The arguments at the courtroom in downtown Seattle were far different from a few months ago when a judge called Trump's order "blatantly unconstitutional."
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Reposted by Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
🚨🚨🚨 In the last two hours, the Trump admin: - Banned all immigrant visas from 19 countries, including Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela - Banned all student and researcher visas to Harvard - Colluded with Texas to kick 20,000 undocumented college students off of in-state tuition.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Our May Newsletter is now live! In this month's issue: > ICE presence in immigration courthouses > The latest on NWIRP's ongoing class action suits > Upcoming free immigration webinars > Resources for immigrants > How we stay determined in the face of injustice
docs.google.com
May 2025 NWIRP Newsletter
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
We have seen an increase in the number of green-card holders being detained at ports of entry like Sea-Tac airport. This week, NWIRP Deputy Director Vanessa Gutierrez spoke about the issue with the South Seattle Emerald.
southseattleemerald.org
Sea-Tac Airport Detentions Prompt Travel Warnings for Washington Green-Card Holders
An Olympia father returning from the Philippines was detained at Sea-Tac Airport — part of a pattern advocates say is targeting green-card holders under renewed federal enforcement. Immigration groups...
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Supervising Attorney Henry Hwang spoke with @kuow.org's Soundside podcast about your rights if stopped by immigration officers like ICE. Check it out at the link below!
omny.fm
A Seattle immigration attorney on ICE and your rights - Soundside
An attorney with the Northwest Immigrant Right Project talks about ICE and your rights, regardless of a person's legal status.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Immigrants deserve due process, which is why our staff has been present this week at the Seattle Immigration Court to warn and inform community members that ICE officers are trying to place people whose cases have been dismissed in expedited removal proceedings.
seattletimes.com
How WA advocates are reacting to a new ICE tactic
People mobilized at Seattle Immigration Court to advise immigrants of their rights and support those taken away in what appears to be a new tactic to fast-track removals.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Yesterday's ICE raid in Kent also involved the IRS, and at least one person from the raid is now being held at the detention center in Tacoma. We are heartbroken for those who were impacted yesterday, as well as their families. www.spokesman.com/stories/2025...
spokesman.com
IRS participates in immigration raid at Kent beverage company
In one of the first immigration raids involving the Internal Revenue Service, federal agents arrested 17 people at a Kent beverage manufacturing company Tuesday.
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Reposted by Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Here's a picture that a @kuow.org photographer took in Seattle yesterday, showing the ICE officers masked up in the hallways as they waited to arrest people coming out of their hearings.
ICE agents at Seattle courthouse arrest people whose deportation hearings are dismissed

The photo shows two men in the foreground wearing camo baseball caps and with neck gaiters pulled up to cover everything but their eyes. They are in plain clothes. Three other men are seen in the background, all wearing surgical masks. One has a hoodie entirely up so that only his eyes are visible. All are standing around looking suspiciously cop-like.

caption: Gustavo Sagrero Alvarez
Gustavo Sagrero Álvarez
May 21, 2025 / 5:45 pm

caption: Suspected agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement line the hallway outside a courtroom at the Seattle Immigration Court Wednesday.
Suspected agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement line the hallway outside a courtroom at the Seattle Immigration Court Wednesday.
KUOW Photo / Gustavo Sagrero Álvarez
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Three very talented artists recently created work for us inspired by the immigrant rights movement. We are so excited to share their beautiful pieces with you! Each artist is recognized in the alt text for their respective piece.
A collage of people, including a recent graduate, a gardener, a physician, a father and child, a young girl flying a rainbow colored kite, and a blue haired woman with a yellow flower in her hair surround the words "immigrant rights are human rights." 

This piece was created by Brigid Slinger.A stoic woman, painted in a melancholy blue with a vibrant red covering her neck and right cheek, looks upward. there is a monarch butterfly rested in her black hair. Overlayed across the painting are the words "Justice for Immigrants Justice for All."

This piece was created by Periko the Artist.A group of protestors holding signs reading "keep going," "we are stronger together," and "justice for immigrants, justice for all" stand in front of a cityscape with Mount Rainier nestled above the buildings. Overlayed above them are the words "immigrant rights are human rights."

This piece was created by Valeria Ortiz.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Know Your Rights in Immigration Court!
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Breaking News: Judge Finds U.S. Government Unlawfully Deported Noncitizens on Flight to South Sudan in Violation of Court Order, Issues Remedial Relief
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
⚠️ ICE at Immigration Court Thread ⚠️ Recently arrived immigrants (who have been in the U.S. for less than 2 years), non-U.S. citizen immigrants with criminal history, and immigrants with final orders of removal are at greatest risk of being detained by ICE if their case has been completed.
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Reposted by Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 21/05/2025
NEW: Mahmoud Khalil's attorneys urgently ask Judge Farbiarz to order ICE to permit Khalil to hold his newborn son today "for the most elementary human reasons." ICE has so far denied the request, despite his wife and child having made the 1,500-mile trip. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Dear Judge Farbiarz:
Petitioner respectfully writes with an urgent request for this Court's intervention regarding his ongoing detention. Specifically, and for the reasons set forth below and to aid in his habeas and proceedings, Petitioner requests that this Court issue an order: (1) requiring the LaSalle Detention Facility to permit Mr. Khalil to have a private contact visit with his wife, Dr. Abdalla, and newborn child today, May 21, 2025, for two hours' and/or (2) at a minimum, permit Dr. Abdalla to join a contact visit currently scheduled with immigration counsel at LaSalle so the legal team can discuss legal strategy and facts known collectively between Dr. Abdalla and Mr. Khalil and which is relevant to his pending habeas case and for pending motions in his immigration proceedings. One of the first orders issued in this case was to direct the U.S. Attorney's office to ensure that DHS would provide regular access to counsel, Khalil v. Joyce, 1:25-cv-01935, ECF 29 (S.D.N.Y.), which is an equitable power this Court retains and authorizes the relief requested modest as it is as compared to the painful costs of denial.
As the Court is aware, the Khalil family welcomed their first child one month ago, on April 21, 2025. In order to provide the most indispensable human connection and to help Mr. Khalil prepare for his ongoing habeas proceeding and for the upcoming immigration hearing, Petitioner's wife and his newborn baby have traveled over 6 hours and 1500 miles to visit Mr. Khalil in detention, which will be the first time he will be able to see or hold his family since his arrest and transfer to Louisiana, over 10 weeks ago. As this Court well knows, Mr. Khalil is purportedly in civil immigration detention, where he cannot be subject to punishment or retaliation; yet currently, routine legal or family visits only occur in a confined space permitting muffled communication through a full plexiglass window that permits no human touch.
Petitioner's counsel have made repeated requests for a contact visit to occur between Mr.
Khalil and his wife and baby to the relevant ICE and GeoGroup administrators at the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena. Such a visit is necessary for the most elementary human reasons and given the ongoing strain of his pending habeas petition, this visit is critical to ensure Mr. Khalil, who is an active participant his legal case, can continue to meaningfully contribute to the proceedings before this Court.

The relevant administrators have responded that they are unable to accommodate this request, including a confirmation of this refusal this morning. (Email correspondence attached as Exhibit A). ICE policy authorizes contact visits between detained individuals and family members, subject to the reasonable discretion of DHS officials? The refusal to permit a contact visit is not reasonable and is further evidence of the retaliatory motive behind Mr. Khalil's arrest and faraway detention as well as the ongoing punitive nature of his detention. Petitioner, his wife and infant son are, as all the evidence in this case demonstrates, the farthest thing from a security risk It is the government who chose to detain Mr. Khalil and send him 1500 miles from his family rather than detain him, as they could have (and as we have requested in seeking a transfer there), in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where counsel confirmed with an EDC official that family contact visits are ordinarily provided on a daily basis and where a parent is permitted to hold their child. 3
In addition, a legal contact visit has been authorized for today between Mr. Khalil and his counsel, from 11-3pm CT. It thus appears the facility can accommodate contact visits absent a plexiglass barrier. Thus, the facility should make accommodations during or after this time for a private in-person visit where the family can be alone together for the first time. In addition, and at a minimum, counsel needs to meet with Petitioner …
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
A federal judge has issued a strong judicial rebuke to the Presidential administration in a finding today after the the administration deported 8 immigrants to Djibouti without first giving them an opportunity to object to their removal, violating a court order. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/u...
nytimes.com
Judge Finds U.S. Violated Court Order With Sudden Deportation Flight to Africa
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Community members already in immigration court must have the opportunity to pursue their immigration cases before an immigration judge. Yesterday, we learned that case dismissals may lead to ICE detention for some community members. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
seattletimes.com
ICE arrests at WA immigration court spark fear of fast-track removal
Immigration attorneys suspect ICE is using an "underhanded" tactic to sidestep court proceedings and boost deportation numbers for the Trump administration.
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Northwest Immigrant Rights Project @nwirp.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
We're very excited to be part of Bluesky! Here's a short thread about who we are and what we do at Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
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