‘Tell me what crime this 10-year-old committed’: Governor, local leaders and parents react to immigration detention of Spokane student and her father

As parents queued to pick up their children outside Logan Elementary School on Friday, some were reflecting on the recent immigration detention of 10-year-old Karla Tiul Baltazar, a Logan student, and her father, Arnoldo Tiul Caal.

“It sounds like her father was a good person, just trying to make a good life for his family,” said Tony Polignoni as two of his children played in the grass nearby. “It’s just sad that kids have to go through this. She didn’t get to say goodbye to her friends, and her friends had to find out this way.”

“We’ve just lost our way, to be treating good people and children this way.”

Tiul Caal was detained by Border Patrol agents while on his way back home from dropping his daughter at school the morning of Jan. 9. He does not have a criminal record and was in the country legally during an active asylum case with a court date set for 2027, as well as a valid work permit and a Social Security number, according to Olga Lucia Herrera, who had been volunteering to help the family through court proceedings.

Tiul Caal and his daughter have since been transported to an immigration processing facility in Dilley, Texas, where they now await a March court date.

“President Trump says he’s going after criminals – tell me what crime this 10-year-old committed. Spokane has been her home since she was four while her dad sought asylum,” Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said in a statement. “Now she’s in a detention facility in Texas. This is wrong and un-American.”

Customs and Border Patrol officials did not respond to an interview request.

Logan Elementary has a higher proportion of Hispanic and Latino students than the Spokane Public Schools district average and nearly twice as many English Language Learners at a little over 18%. Several Latino families approached at Logan Elementary on Friday said they felt too nervous about the political climate to talk or be named for this story.

“I think this is absolutely horrible and traumatizing the child it happened to and the children here who have to witness it,” said one mother who declined to be named. “I think the schools should definitely be a safe zone, and no parent should feel like they’re going to be targeted for taking their child to school and doing the right thing.”

Spokane Faith leaders held a vigil to pray for those experiencing unrest in Minneapolis and who have been affected by ICE in their communities on Friday. Among them was Spokane School Board President Jenny Slagle.

“I was offering a prayer for our neighbors and shared humanity. We gathered today to support those who have gone to Minneapolis and are doing the work here locally to support people who are struggling,” Slagle said. “Especially children and families like Karla’s, whose hopes and dreams were taken away.”

The board has discussed what they can do to assist Karla and her father, Slagle said, such as sending a letter of support for their court case. Students affected by Karla’s absence are encouraged to seek counseling through the district, she added.

Slagle stopped short of theorizing about what the district would do if more students are detained.

“I know that it could be a reality,” she said. “And we share the community’s concern.”

Gretchen Rehberg, the ninth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, told the attendees of the vigil that silence is no longer an option.

“It is time to stand between ICE and those who are oppressed,” Rehberg said. “You and I are related to every single human being on this earth. You can find a connection point with six degrees of every single human being on this earth, which means what happens to you, or the other one, or the sixth degree also happens to me.”

“And so we show up,” she added. “It is time.”

Others flooded social media with messages like “Justice for Karla.”

Several elected leaders, many of whom have already been signaling disdain for the Trump administration’s policy of mass deportation, condemned the family’s detention on Friday .

“Parents and children should feel safe walking to school, getting an education, being a part of this community because it is their community too,” Spokane Councilwoman Sarah Dixit shared on social media. “CBP stalking this father, who is an active asylee, and his 10-year-old daughter, is absolutely disgusting.”

Councilman Zack Zappone, in the midst of a Friday press conference explaining the council’s vote to accept a police hiring grant from the federal government that some community groups had worried would force cooperation between Spokane police and immigration officials, noted Baltazar’s detention.

“We have opposed the terror that ICE has been wreaking on our community,” Zappone said. “Just this week, we saw that an elementary student was taken from our community, and these things are wrong. It is absolutely wrong.”

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown called the detention “another example of the Department of Homeland Security’s overreach” in a Friday text.

“The federal government keeps telling us they are focused on criminals, yet a Spokane father and child, neither of whom have a criminal record, were detained and sent to Texas,” the mayor wrote. “That contradiction demands accountability and Congress needs to step up to ensure this does not keep playing out in our cities.”

Rep. Michael Baumgartner, a Republican who represents Eastern Washington in Congress, did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said the options available to her office were limited, but she was looking into the case.

“This week the Trump administration decided to detain a hardworking roofer with a 10-year-old daughter who’s lived in America the majority of her life – a family who, as far as I know, did everything legally to be here,” Murray said in a statement. “Trump isn’t going after criminals or the ‘worst of the worst,’ he’s deporting hardworking people who make our communities better.”