by Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle
November 26, 2025
Oregon’s U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas went to Tacoma, Washington, on Tuesday expecting to meet with three of her constituents who are detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.
Instead, the second-term Democrat — whose 6th Congressional District includes cities in the northern Willamette Valley grappling with increased ICE presence and arrests — and a lawyer from the Portland-based nonprofit Innovation Law Lab, who represents the three detained, were left to wait.
Although she did get a tour of the facility, their meetings with detainees were cancelled, Salinas said, because there was a lack of rooms to hold them as hundreds of people detained in the facility compete for time and space to meet with their lawyers.
“While you have theoretical access, you don’t really have access in the way that you need to,” she said of detainees’ ability to talk with their lawyers. “And we as members of Congress don’t really have access to see our constituents in the way that we need to.”
Salinas’ district includes parts of Washington County, Woodburn and Salem. Washington County and Woodburn have declared states of emergency and Salem is drafting an emergency declaration over increased ICE presence and ICE officers — often wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves — targeting Hispanic and Latino-looking residents, Spanish-speakers and even arresting U.S. citizens.
On Friday, a 17-year-old McMinnville student and U.S. citizen was arrested by ICE officers who smashed his car window to grab and detain him, sending shockwaves through the city. He was among four U.S. citizens detained in Oregon by ICE officers last week.
Almost one-quarter of residents in the 6th District, spanning the southeast corner of Portland to the eastern half of the Willamette Valley, are Hispanic or Latino, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
“It’s sending horror through my communities,” Salinas said.
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The trip Tuesday was her first to the Tacoma detention center, and her second to ICE facilities following a September visit to an agency processing center in Portland. Other Democratic members of Oregon’s Congressional caucus have also visited the facilities to help advocate for, and even secure the release of, constituents.
About half of the people at the Tacoma facility, where capacity can reach 1,500, are there due civil violations of immigration law, according to reporting from KUOW, and 70% of detainees there have no criminal history.
“Trump said when he tried to get elected: ‘I’m only going to go after criminals.’ That’s bulls**t.” Salinas said. “He’s being brutal and inhumane. He’s arresting people in a very inhumane way, and then they’re asking questions later, if they even ask questions later.”
Salinas described the tour of the Tacoma facility as a “fishbowl experience,” and said it felt as though officials designed the visit to go quickly and to keep her away from direct contact with any detainees and the spaces they are kept.
While there, she met with Scott Meyer, interim Seattle field office director for ICE, and Bruce Scott, a building administrator employed by private prison company GEO Group, which runs the facility.
She was not allowed to meet directly with her constituents, not allowed to see where the men — who far outnumber the women — are kept, and only allowed to see the women’ s dormitory through glass. She said she saw about 50 women in the dormitory, where they sleep in bunks and have bathing privacy only via shower curtains.
Above the dormitory is a catwalk for guard supervision, and she noted the shower curtains do not cover overhead views of the bathing areas. There is another women’s dormitory with about 75 women that she did not get to see, she added.
Salinas said she “played by the rules” and gave officials at the facility seven days advance notice of her visit. As a member of Congress, she has the legal right to visit any immigration detention facilities without notice, but she said ICE officials have requested lawmakers give them a week’s notice. In hindsight, she said, she wished she had not obliged that request.
“Though I probably wouldn’t have seen the facility at all,” she added.
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Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: [email protected].