By Nina Shapiro
The Seattle Times
(TNS)
May 21—In one of the first immigration raids involving the IRS, federal agents arrested 17 people at a Kent beverage manufacturing company Tuesday.
The IRS’s Criminal Investigation division helped execute a federal search warrant at Eagle Beverage and Accessories Products, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson David Yost. ICE and Border Patrol also carried out the raid, which appears to be the second workplace roundup in Washington since President Donald Trump returned to office in January.
“I haven’t seen anything like this,” Seattle immigration attorney Adam Boyd said, referring to the IRS’s participation. But he said he has been expecting such a development.
In February, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent she wanted to deputize IRS criminal investigators to help root out immigration violations, according to news reports. Noem noted that the Treasury Department has “qualified law enforcement personnel.”
Boyd said he deduces from the Kent raid that IRS personnel have now been trained and are acting accordingly.
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The Trump administration also made an agreement with the IRS that allows the agency to share information from employee tax records with immigration officials. A federal judge last week refused to grant a preliminary injunction sought by nonprofit groups that argued the agreement infringes on taxpayers’ privacy.
An IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson said she could not yet respond to questions about the division’s involvement in the Kent raid and broader immigration enforcement. The division typically investigates tax violations and financial crimes, according to its website.
The Trump administration, seeking to carry out mass deportations, has been tapping other federal agencies to achieve that goal, reports from the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse have noted. Despite that, the current rate of removals lags slightly behind that of the Biden administration, a May 15 TRAC analysis of ICE data shows.
Yost, of ICE, said in an email the federal agencies involved in the Kent roundup were participating in an ongoing criminal investigation into the employment of people who are not legally authorized to work. Those arrested had fraudulently represented their immigration status, he wrote.
“Worksite enforcement investigations focus on reducing illegal employment, holding employers accountable and protecting employment opportunities for the country’s lawful workforce,” the statement read.
Federal officers, at least some of whom wore masks, can be seen escorting nine men and seven women in handcuffs and ankle restraints out of a Kent warehouse and onto a bus in a video posted online by immigration lawyer Luis Cortes Romero. Another person who was arrested is not seen in the video.
Inside the facility, officers asked by name for the people they arrested, according to Gretchen Korb-Nice, a Seattle immigration attorney who represents one of those detained and was told that by her client.
The client is a young adult from Nicaragua, like many of the employees taken away. He lives with a guardian, and a state Superior Court judge has determined it is in the young man’s best interest to remain with his caretaker in the U.S., Korb-Nice said. That determination, for juveniles who have been abandoned, abused or neglected, paves the way toward a classification by immigration authorities that has historically prevented deportation and conveyed eligibility for a green card.
The young man, who was taken to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, is scared, Korb-Nice said. “He doesn’t know what’s happening.”
Tim Warden-Hertz, directing attorney in the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project’s Tacoma office, said he arrived at the warehouse Tuesday after the bus departed with those arrested. Some distraught family members were still there.
They told Warden-Hertz multiple unmarked law enforcement cars had been at the site. Officers blocked all entrances and exits to the warehouse and kept people off the sidewalks.
Last month, in what appeared to be the first workplace immigration raid in Washington this year, officers arrested 37 people at a Bellingham roofing company.
Before that, Washington hadn’t seen immigration workplace roundups in years. But they have taken place under previous administrations, including those of former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
On Wednesday, it was quiet outside the Kent warehouse. Birds chirped, planes droned by and semitrucks carrying long trailers rattled through wide parking lots before backing into the building’s bay doors.
Hardly anyone walked into the facility, save for a couple of Eagle Beverage employees and a small handful of people carrying résumés. One man brought his in a manila envelope tucked into his jacket. He said he was there because he had heard about the raid.
The company declined repeated requests to comment, including when an employee at the site was asked.
Eagle Beverage, founded in the 1970s, reported to the state Department of Labor and Industries earlier this year that it had between 76 and 100 employees. The company produces beverage mixes, syrups, teas and frappés, among other products, and moved into the 100,000-square-foot Kent facility in 2017, according to its website.
The company has held nationwide contracts, the website also says, and is “proud to be certified minority and women owned.”
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© 2025 The Seattle Times. Visit www.seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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