Vancouver residents join voices decrying ICE during Latino Legislative Day at Capitol

They demand accountability, change after detention of Jose Guadalupe Paniagua Calderon

OLYMPIA — Unrelenting rain Monday glazed the marble steps of the state Capitol. Inside the state Department of Social and Health Services auditorium just a block away, the atmosphere was electric with a different kind of storm.

The 21st Annual Latino Legislative Day was billed as a celebration of political power, complete with mariachi music and free pizza provided by the Latino Civic Alliance. Carmen Paniagua of Vancouver, however, attended to issue a desperate plea for survival.

As she sat alongside her husband, Ulises, Paniagua spoke about the brutal reality that has faced her family since the Dec. 4 arrest of her brother-in-law, Jose Guadalupe Paniagua Calderon, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“They expect fear and silence. What they did not expect was unity, and unity is power,” Paniagua told the packed room. “We are gathered here today to condemn the actions of people who claim to be public servants but are terrorizing our communities instead.”

Paniagua spoke on behalf of the 27-year-old Vancouver man, whose detention has become a flashpoint for immigration activism across Washington. According to the family, Paniagua Calderon was boxed in by unmarked vehicles on East Fourth Plain Boulevard by agents who did not identify themselves.

During the chaotic arrest, witnesses and video provided to The Columbian show agents appeared to run over his foot with an SUV, an injury the family says went untreated for days as he was shuttled between detention centers across the country.

“Witnesses recorded as they held him defenseless on the ground and ran his own vehicle over his foot,” Paniagua described, her voice steady and searing. “The screams that followed will forever haunt us. It broke our hearts, and till this day, I can still hear his screams.”

Paniagua said the contrast between the official narrative and her family’s experience is sharp. She cited a comment from Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who reportedly dismissed the family’s account of the arrest as an “Oscar-level performance.”

“They are lying,” Paniagua said. “And they refuse to take accountability.”

Speaking to the same hushed auditorium, Josefina Mora-Cheung detailed the conditions that await detainees like Paniagua Calderon. Mora-Cheung is the director of organizing for La Resistencia, a grassroots group dedicated to shutting down the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.

She described a detention system where medical neglect is routine and basic sanitation is a luxury. She cited a report from last month alleging that detainees found rat feces in their food. (The private prison operator, GEO Group, denied that claim and said the substance was burnt rice.)

“The horrors that we’re witnessing on a national level out in the street are just a pinnacle of what has been happening behind closed doors for decades,” Mora-Cheung said.

She went on to detail a profit-driven model where the estimated 65,000 people detained nationally are treated as commodities worth roughly $200 a day. This structure, she argued, incentivizes cost-cutting measures that result in inedible food, medical neglect and a system designed to thrive on isolation.

As the indoor program concluded, participants spilled outside into the torrential rain. Thousands of people, including students bused from across Washington, donned clear plastic rain ponchos and marched from the office building to the Capitol steps. The mood shifted from somber to boisterous.

Gov. Bob Ferguson addressed the soaked crowd on the steps.

“Are you guys fired up today?” Ferguson shouted to the crowd, who roared back in approval.

The governor quickly pivoted to the issue at the heart of the Paniagua family’s complaint: the tactics used by federal agents in local neighborhoods.

“I have a question for you: Is ICE totally and completely out of control in our country right now?” Ferguson asked. When the crowd responded with cheers, he nodded. “Well, we’re going to put a stop to that. What’s happening across our country is deeply un-American. But you know that.”

Ferguson announced that his office is working on specific legislation to address the use of masks and unmarked vehicles by ICE agents, a direct reference to the tactics used in the Vancouver arrest of Paniagua Calderon.

Other speakers argued that ICE is actively racially profiling people across the country based on skin color, accent and location. While the speeches varied, the message remained consistent: We will not live in fear. We belong here.

At the event, Latino Civic Alliance presented awards to Andy Lara and Eduardo Torres of Vancouver for their work with the Southwest Washington League of United Latin American Citizens Council #47013.

As the rally wound down, young vocalist Noelia Delgado took to the steps to sing, her voice carrying over the wet plaza where students and families huddled in their ponchos. The pizza boxes were stacked, the speeches concluded and the legislators returned to their dry offices to the sound of reggaeton.

For the contingent from Vancouver, the drive home would be a return to a fight that is far from over. Paniagua Calderon remains in legal limbo — granted release on bond from a Kentucky detention facility but still being held — and fighting deportation, his family left waiting to see if the governor’s “fired up” rhetoric will translate into protection before they lose him for good.

“Today it is Jose. Tomorrow it could be me,” Paniagua had warned the room hours earlier. “This is the moment we stop hoping for change and start demanding it.”

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