U.S. Senator Patty Murray speaks out against ICE arrest in West Seattle: ‘Just plain sick’

That sign went up a few days ago north of Morgan Junction (that’s the West Seattle Church of the Nazarene at 42nd/Juneau in the background). A reader told us an ICE arrest had been reported at 41st/Juneau, but we had no photo nor other corroborating details – until now, when another reader pointed us to this video clip posted by U.S. Senator Patty Murray on social media.

This is the full text of what Sen. Murray wrote beneath the video:

On Thursday, ICE needlessly detained Eduardo Aguirre Esparza, a local Seattle small business owner with no criminal history. This is a man who is married to an American citizen and with deep ties to our local community who was working hard to pursue a legal pathway to lawful permanent residence. For the federal government to waste its resources to forcefully detain and deport Eduardo and tear apart an American family is plain sick. Our immigration enforcement should be focused on violent criminals and keeping Americans safe — deporting hardworking people like Eduardo makes no one safer, it’s just cruel and wrong.

I am demanding that DHS return Eduardo to Washington state so that he may receive due process and have access to counsel—flying Eduardo to Texas away from his lawyers to try and deport him is fundamentally wrong and un-American. I hope others in Washington state will join me in calling for Eduardo’s immediate return home so that the courts can fairly consider his case.

Her website also has a news release about this, dated yesterday, which adds:

Eduardo Aguirre Esparza is an undocumented immigrant, married to an American citizen. He’s a hardworking small business owner who owns a remodeling company in Seattle. He’s lived in Seattle for 23 years. Following his detainment to the Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC) on Thursday, Eduardo was flown out of Washington state on ICE Air at 2 AM on Saturday morning without notice to anyone, including his attorney and family. After several stops along the way, Eduardo is now being held in Texas where his family suspects ICE intends to conduct an expedited deportation hearing to remove Eduardo from his home as quickly as possible and without representation of counsel. Senator Murray is joining Eduardo’s family in demanding that he be returned to Western Washington to receive his due process protections.

We have a message out to the senator’s office to ask if they’ve received a response.

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