Seattle, considered a sanctuary city—meaning employers are unable to ask a person their immigration status— has seen an uprising in immigrant detainments and student visa terminations. This summer in Seattle, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) became a present threat throughout the city, with both students and the broader immigrant community directly impacted.
The Seattle Times reported in August that Tom Homan, the director of U.S. Immigration Enforcement, said that Seattle, among other sanctuary cities, will start to see an escalation of arrests. In 2025 alone, ICE has arrested 1,032 people in Washington and ‘encountered’ about 909 more people—meaning the number of people they have approached with reason to arrest, but didn’t follow through. Homan also stated that ICE is not planning or willing to share how many resources and agents would be sent to Seattle and other cities, such as Chicago and Los Angeles.
International Students at Seattle U
The escalation also hit Seattle University. In April, multiple international students had their visas revoked. Dale Watanabe, director of the International Student Center, shared that they weren’t even notified of the visa status change.
“In the past, if they had a concern about a student, they contacted us first through SEVIS to verify information. But this year, especially after April, that stopped. They now go directly to students—sometimes even at their homes. That’s terrifying,” Watanabe said.
The Student & Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is where international students’ visa information is stored. In April, the SEVIS records for Seattle U students were terminated without any notification to Watanabe or his staff. They had to manually go into the system to check each individual international student’s visa status. Some of the visas were reinstated, but according to Watanabe, one student left the country in panic and is now unable to return.
This summer was also noticeably more challenging as Watanabe worked with students planning for the fall. For a month, the government paused the issuance of visas and stopped accepting applications altogether. In consequence, a significant number of international law students had to defer to the second semester.
“This summer, there was a month-long pause in issuing visas worldwide—something I’ve never seen before in my career, except briefly after 9/11. Normally, exchange students get visas by mid-August, but this year, half didn’t. We worried they’d miss fall entirely, since many only come for one quarter. Thankfully, they all got visas in time, but it was nerve-wracking,” Watanabe said.
According to Watanabe, the process for exchange students is easier to track, as they apply with a J-1 visa. However, for other international students applying under an F visa, updates typically don’t arrive until late September. Still, he urges students to stay informed.
Watanabe, along with other faculty from the Student Health Center, Counseling and Psychological Services and the MOSAIC Center, is launching a ‘Global Social Thursdays’, an informal weekly drop-in to give students the tools and information they need to keep themselves safe and informed.
Michelle Kim, president of Seattle U’s MOSAIC Center, echoed Watanabe’s sentiment about creating a sense of belonging for minority and undocumented communities.
“We have our resource guide for undocumented students and students from mixed-status families. We will do our part, largely in collaboration with other campus partners, to continue providing UndocuAlly training and Know Your Rights information,” Kim said.
Legal Advocacy
Immigration attorney Vicky Dobrin, who represented four Washington students with revoked visas, emphasized the severity of the decisions made by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“Last spring, DHS instructed the State Dept. to revoke student visas to thousands of students throughout the US for extremely minor offenses, even where no charges were filed and even in cases where a student was the victim of a crime (not the perpetrator). DHS then terminated their student status in SEVIS. Although they restored their student status in SEVIS in most cases, those students whose visas were revoked did not get their visas reinstated,” Dorbin said in an email to The Spectator.
Dobrin warned international students to be hyper-aware that even small actions online or in public could be scrutinized by the DHS. At the same time, Seattle U’s National Lawyers Guild (NLG) has been pushing the administration to clarify protections. Seattle U Law student Noah Bandit confirmed.
“Last May, the NLG wrote a letter addressed to the SU administration addressing concerns and questions we had regarding the school’s position on the rising political climate and how the school planned to protect students,” Bandit said.
While no public response has been shared yet, Bandit confirmed that updates are coming in the next few months. The hope is that this will bring more clarity to Seattle U’s stance on immigration, deportation and student safety.
The Realities of Being Detained
For students like Via Tay, an accounting major in her second year at Seattle U, the situation feels deeply personal. Tay immigrated from the Philippines as a teenager and eventually gained U.S. citizenship, but she sees her community struggling.
“It just feels wrong seeing what happens to people that are the same as me. We all came here for a better future, for a better life. And it feels wrong that they’re being punished. Getting to talk to detained migrants and their families while waiting at detention centers—like, this isn’t right. Why did someone get stabbed three times? Why is there blood on someone’s food? Why are migrants going on hunger strikes? This isn’t right,” Tay said.
Tay participates in Anakbayan, a Filipino youth organization, as well as Tangol Migrante, which focuses on protecting migrants. Through them, she’s witnessed extreme conditions at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.
She spoke about detainees like Ate “M,” who was released in May this year but had no access to medication while she suffered from a benign tumor, and Aunty Lynn, a University of Washington Medical Center lab technician who lived in the U.S. for 50 years but was detained in March after visiting family in the Philippines.
“One of the recently pre-detainees, I was talking to him at a barbecue recently, and he said he got put in solitary confinement because he was organizing other migrants in the area. I think now they’re cracking down on the rights of these migrants a lot more,” Tay said.
Calling for Student Action at Seattle U
Over the summer, there have been numerous demonstrations and pushback from people, whether it was a group getting arrested for blocking an ICE bus holding immigrants in Spokane or lime bikes being set on fire in downtown Seattle following the No Kings Protest.
Vince Dela Cruz, a second-year biology major and member of Anakbayan, argued that conversations about immigrant rights should be ongoing across campus.
“I don’t think it should be on students, but students should step up and inform themselves, learn about it. Leadership can host events and inform faculty so they spread the word. But I think it really relies on students to spread information on campus,” Dela Cruz said.
He added that he believes fear is what keeps many students from engaging.
“A lot of people are scared to go to rallies or events because they think they can’t help. But even just showing up means something—it means you care, it means you’re informed, or at least willing to become informed. If I were reading, I’d want to know how to get involved,” Dela Cruz said.
What Now? What can I do to protect myself and my peers?
The question on everyone’s minds now—“What’s next?”
While Seattle U administration has put out a statement acknowledging that “this is a time of heightened anxiety for many” and that they are “committed to the health and well-being of all students,” there has been no detailed explanation of how Seattle U plans to keep students safe from ICE coming onto campus or whether they will withhold student information.
If you find yourself or a peer in a situation where ICE is a threat, you have guaranteed rights under the Constitution, regardless of immigration status, such as the right to record your interaction with immigration agents. The American Civil Liberties Union provides guidance on what to do if you interact with ICE in public.
