Washington Department of Licensing (DOL) continues “roadside assists” to ICE/CBP immigration investigations. In this research update to the January 8, 2026, “Roadside Assist” report, UWCHR highlights new cases and analysis of DOL data. New cases: UWCHR’s January 2026 report, “Roadside Assist,” documented 9 cases in which ICE or CBP queried DOL data prior to conducting

Executive summary Today, immigrant Washingtonians are increasingly afraid to drive, as our streets, highways, and public thoroughfares have become frequent sites for immigration enforcement. These incidents, in which drivers are typically apprehended by masked, unidentified agents driving unmarked vehicles, raise multiple human rights concerns: many arrests appear to have been warrantless,[1] some have been violent,[2]

Since our inception, UWCHR has conducted research on topics related to immigrant rights in Washington state, as specified by the state law under which our center was founded. These ongoing efforts are now grouped under our Immigrant Rights Observatory project. Over the years, our reports have documented both serious concern for the rights of migrants

This report is part of a series regarding Human Rights Conditions at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, based on ongoing research efforts and released to highlight initial findings in the urgent context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contents: • Introduction • Background, Methodology, and Human Rights Standards • Sanitation of Food and Laundry •

Summary Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) networks have become increasingly common in Washington state. Records obtained by UWCHR researchers via public records requests reveal that at least eight Washington state law enforcement agencies enabled direct, 1:1 sharing of their networks with U.S. Border Patrol at some point during 2025; effectively opening the “front

On August 21, 2025, UWCHR released our latest report, “Gross Human Rights Violations in Washington State: Enforced Disappearance and Refoulement,” tracing the connections between Washington state institutions and grave human rights violations against Washingtonian migrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). We found evidence of greater local involvement

Executive summary This report reviews local involvement in gross human rights abuses against immigrants, focusing on forced disappearance and refoulement. Its findings reveal that the connections between Washington state and these crimes are broader and deeper than has been previously known. They are broader because there are many more cases of Washingtonians being subjected to

This report is part of a series regarding Human Rights Conditions at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, based on ongoing research efforts and released to highlight initial findings in the urgent context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contents: • Introduction • Background, Methodology, and Human Rights Standards • Sanitation of Food and Laundry •

Since 2017, as part of a longstanding effort to examine the human rights implications of federal immigration enforcement, the Center for Human Rights has sought to obtain information about conditions of immigrant detention in Washington state.  Our findings are published in an ongoing series of reports, Conditions at the Northwest Detention Center, with the newest

This report is part of a series regarding Human Rights Conditions at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, based on ongoing research efforts and released to highlight initial findings in the urgent context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contents: • Introduction • Background, Methodology, and Human Rights Standards • Sanitation of Food and Laundry •