ICE Agents Arrest Wash. Man After He Talks To Newspapers: Report

TACOMA, WA - A Pacific County man who was quoted in two recent articles about stepped-up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity was arrested and placed in detention last week. The ICE agent who arrested Baltazar Aburto Gutierrez told him they found out about him from those articles.

Aburto Gutierrez was quoted anonymously in a recent Seattle Times story about increased ICE enforcement in Pacific County, which overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump. Aburto Gutierrez was also interviewed by the Chinook Observer newspaper, which referred to him by his nickname "Rosas." In both stories, he talked about how his girlfriend was arrested by an officer who met her to buy a pinata she had advertised for sale online.

Aburto Gutierrez was arrested outside a supermarket in Ocean Park last Monday, according to the Seattle Times. He is now incarcerated in the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. He has been in the U.S. for about 18 years, according to the Times. His girlfriend was deported to Mexico earlier this year.

Rural Pacific County along Washington's Pacific Coast has a large seafood processing industry, which employs a large number of immigrants. The original Seattle Times story that Aburto Gutierrez was quoted in detailed the shock the pro-Trump county was experiencing as ICE began arresting longtime residents. At least eight people have been arrested there this year, but there had been zero arrests in years before that.

Photo: A Federal officer watches as DACA supporters protest outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement shortly after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' announcement that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), will be suspended with a six-month delay, Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017, in Phoenix.

Photo by Matt York/Associated Press