KNKX, NPR | Volunteers watch as immigrants are deported out of King County

Aug. 30, 2023

Activist Stan Shikuma and volunteers from the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice Northwest count white plastic bags of belongings are placed on the tarmac next to an airplane used for ICE deportation flights.

A little after 8 a.m., activist Stan Shikuma is getting on his bike to ride from South Seattle to King County International Airport, known as Boeing Field. He uses a flight tracker to find out when a deportation flight is landing. The airline is usually iAero Airways. It contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Shikuma, a retired nurse, is wearing a black t-shirt that on the back reads “NO MORE U.S. CONCENTRATION CAMPS."

He says the detention of immigrants by ICE reminds him of how his Japanese American family was held in internment camps….