‘What is the American dream?’: Kootenai County Jail’s border holds jump 450% after Trump inauguration

Border detainments in Kootenai County’s jail have skyrocketed in less than a month following the second inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Trump promised a massive immigration overhaul during his campaign to deport “criminals” in the country without authorization. But as his presidency took shape over the last few weeks, “anyone that doesn’t have status is deportable,” said Vanessa Gutierrez, the co-deputy director of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project . Gutierrez’s organization runs an immigrant education and orientation program at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma for those who are being held and are looking for guidance.

Those detained in or around Spokane are sent to Kootenai County Jail first, which allows ICE and Border Patrol to hold detainees there. Each federal hold in the North Idaho jail is reimbursed at a rate of $112 per day per person, according to reporting by the Coeur d’Alene Press.

In the first 29 days of January, the jail saw 22 holds, with five in one day . The numbers jumped 450% from December, when the jail recorded just four holds. The number was slightly higher in November, with 10 recorded Border Patrol and ICE holds.

The sharp rise in holds in Kootenai County mirrors those seen elsewhere in the Northwest since Trump’s second term began.

Gutierrez’s organization gets the rosters of everyone held at the detainment center – and Gutierrez is seeing 800 to 1,000 people detained at any given time, she said, which increased after Trump’s inauguration.

If Tacoma’s detainment center isn’t already at capacity, it soon will be, Gutierrez said.

While a majority of Border Patrol’s contact in Idaho were with unauthorized immigrants from Canada, Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris told The Spokesman-Review in an interview last year that more contact with Spanish-speakers is an indicator that a rise in criminal cases is “going to come.” This week, he pledged in a statement that all of the county’s resources will be used to “assist in the deportation” of noncitizens who commit crimes, noncitizens who are here “legally” and commit crimes, and any unauthorized person in general.

“As part of our policing practice, if we come in contact with anyone suspected of being in the country illegally, we notify Border Patrol,” said sheriff’s office spokesperson Lt. Jeff Howard.

Nothing has changed as part of their enforcement efforts, he said.

“We have had an increase of inmates brought in on detainers under our contact with the U.S. Marshal’s Office,” Howard wrote in an email last week. “Several of those that have been brought in are foreign nationals.”

All are typically held for less than 48 hours unless a court order prompts otherwise.

Howard said the jail ends up taking “several detainees” from around the area, which includes Washington, Montana and Idaho. But it’s unclear how many people held in Kootenai County’s jail are coming from Washington.

While the Spokane County Jail has a contract with the U.S. Marshals to hold people facing federal criminal charges, the jail does not have a contract with Border Patrol or ICE in compliance with the Keep Washington Working Act. The act was passed in 2019 and prevents local law enforcement from giving federal authorities information about a civil immigration matter. This means anyone arrested by ICE or Border Patrol in Spokane will be transferred to the Kootenai County Jail and then back across the Washington border to Tacoma.

While there are criminal acts related to immigration, being an unauthorized immigrant in the U.S is not a crime, it’s a civil offense. It’s why Gutierrez calls the word “illegal” her pet peeve.

“Most immigration cases brought before courts are civil, not criminal. There are immigration related criminal charges, like a re-entry … There are lots of people here, undocumented, without crossing the border because they legally entered in a port of entry,” she said.

As soon as Trump entered office, he issued a sweeping executive order that suspended migrants from seeking asylum at the southern border. His administration also shut down the CBP One app, which allowed migrants to apply to enter the U.S legally as they sought asylum from war-torn or violent countries. Pending appointments were also canceled.

“We see asylum seekers now expressing fear. Before Trump, they were given permission to come in, apply for asylum and appear in court,” Gutierrez said. “That’s legal … Now they can’t seek asylum, even though they are permitted to … People still have rights, regardless of their immigration status.”

On Monday, at least 200 flooded Spokane City Hall in a pro-immigration rally. Among the attendees was 17-year-old Mia Pelayo.

She peered above the Chase Gallery, draping a Mexican flag over the barrier, as she watched the crowd below her.

“I’m here for my parents,” she said. “My mom is an immigrant.”

Pelayo’s parents came to the U.S. “without anything,” she said, and worked hard to give her a better life. This weekend, her mother came into her room and was talking about making copies of Pelayo’s passport and other legal documents to put in her school backpack.

“It made me bawl, because I was thinking about how I have to worry about carrying my papers around. Now, that is relevant to who I am as a person,” Pelayo said. “This is supposed to be the American dream. But … what is the American dream?”