Activists planning boycott of stores allowing ICE to detain people in parking lots

After immigration agents swept up at least three people over the Christmas holiday, activists are working on a boycott of the Yakima stores where the detentions happened.

Ezequiel Morfin Jr., a board member of Latino Votes and a former Toppenish City Council member, said groups are working out details for a boycott of both the East Chestnut Avenue Walmart in Yakima and the WinCo Foods store in Union Gap, where people were taken away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Christmas Eve.

“Walmart and WinCo have the right to run (ICE) off the parking lot,” Morfin said.

In contrast, he said Fiesta Foods’ management has informed ICE agents that they are not welcome on the store property.

Morfin said ICE agents didn’t take a break on Christmas, following a man from the Sunnyside Fiesta Foods to his home to detain him.

“Now they have a different strategy,” Morfin said Friday. “They don’t want to create a scene at different stores.”

Morfin said the WinCo and Walmart boycotts are still in the planning stages, as well as plans for a protest either this Sunday or next for the East Chestnut Avenue Walmart.

Organizers will encourage people to shop at locally owned businesses to avoid being targeted by ICE agents because of their ethnicity, Morfin said.

People were detained by immigration agents in the Walmart and WinCo parking lots on Christmas Eve, a time when people are making last-minute shopping runs before one of the holiest holidays on the Christian calendar.

“This is not right. This is not being a Christian,” Morfin said. “There’s going to be a reckoning, and when that day comes, God’s going to ask what did you do for the American refugee citizen.”

In a news release Monday, ICE officials said they planned to continue enforcement work during Christmas week.

Activists have been going to the stores and, when they see an ICE detention, recording it. They also blow whistles and yell at the ICE officers.

In video from the WinCo incident, a Union Gap police vehicle was seen parked near the immigration officers. Morfin said that an immigration agent had called the police to report that he was being “stalked” by the activists.

Morfin said the officer observed the situation but took no action.

Union Gap police did not return a call for comment on the incident before press time.

Under the Washington Works Act, police are barred from assisting immigration agents in enforcing immigration law.

At Walmart, Morfin said while they protested, a bystander tried to hit him and another activist with his pickup truck. Morfin said he called YPD to report the incident.

He said it was also inappropriate that when ICE detained the man, they also took the items the man bought at the store.

A call to Yakima police for comment was not returned by press time.