Tucked away in a corner of Washington’s Yakima Valley is the small town of Sunnyside, made up of roughly 17,000 residents, a majority of whom are Latino and some lack legal status.
In January, shortly after President Donald Trump took office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raised fear in the local immigrant community when they arrested two people in the parking lot of Fiesta Foods, the largest Latino grocery in town.
Local leaders later held a meeting to address some of these concerns. In that public meeting, a person who claimed to be a “bounty hunter” said ICE would soon use bail bond agents to arrest people in the U.S. without legal authorization and pay them $1,000 for every arrest made.
Washington lawmakers have since introduced Senate Bill 5714, which seeks to prevent bail bond agents from enforcing civil immigration warrants and sharing a defendant’s immigration status with anyone outside their business.
It would expand the list of unprofessional conduct for the agents to include those activities and enable the Department of Licensing to enforce disciplinary action if agents are found to be in violation.
The bill passed the Senate last week with bipartisan support and will next be heard in the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee.
“It’s needed because sometimes people can operate right on the boundaries and clarification of boundaries can help ensure that everyone knows exactly what they are and exactly what will happen if folks step over them,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma.
A bail bond agency is a business that sells and issues bonds to guarantee a criminal defendant will appear in court. The agents are not considered law enforcement officers and they must be licensed by the state’s Department of Licensing.
Agents are subject to discipline by the department for unprofessional conduct. Consequences can include revoked or suspended licenses, probation or fines.
“I really dislike seeing people acting as law enforcement when they are not truly law enforcement,” said Sen. Nikki Torres, R-Pasco, one of the bill’s co-sponsors. “They’re pretty much a glorified bill collector is what a bail bond agent recovery appears to be.”
For weeks after the incident in Sunnyside, stores were emptier than usual, employees didn’t come to work, and kids didn’t show up to school, said Mike Gonzalez, the city manager. He said while things have gotten better, people are still worried.
In a small town like Sunnyside, this can affect the local economy. If fewer people are out making purchases, sales taxes can decline and that can eventually undermine services.
Meanwhile, in Missouri, the Legislature looked into awarding a $1,000 bounty for tips resulting in the arrest of an immigrant without legal authorization to be in the U.S. The bill would also have allowed for bounty hunters or bail bond agents to track down people identified using the information. This Missouri bill failed to move forward.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment about whether they plan to use bail bond agents to enforce immigration law.
“We’re going to just make it crystal clear that sharing information and collaborating, whether that is contracting or any other form of collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is outside the scope of professional conduct,” Trudeau said.
The person who made the comments at the public meeting in Sunnyside was not a bail bond agent, Torres and the Washington State Bail Agents’ Association confirmed.
In written testimony to the Senate Law and Justice Committee, the president of the association, Courtney Wimer, said bail bond agents do not currently have authority to get involved in immigration enforcement.
Gonzalez still has concerns. “The problem is when there’s dollars to be made, people will try to make the money and in this particular case I think it’s particularly egregious to target individuals to make money off them because of their immigration status.”
“We need to eradicate these types of endeavors,” he added.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com.
I certainly wouldn’t want them to be out hunting illegal immigrants but I certainly don’t think it is right to not cooperate with federal jurisdiction. Seems we don’t hold people on bond much anymore so it is largely a mute point except for those more serious crimes I guess If i were a bond agency i would just not help illegal immigrants bail out to much risk of them running.
More far left Democrat efforts to regulate a private businesses desire to cooperate with ICE law enforcement and federal law. Massive over reach. Why do Democrats want to defy federal law to protect those who broke the law by entering illegally? Answer: They hope to make them future Democrat voters.
Since a person must be a citizen to vote, it is certain that undocumented immigrants do not vote, all claims to the contrary having been conclusively proven false. Those immigrants who go through the lengthy process of becoming citizens will have resided in the country for several years without breaking any laws or are, or have been, in the US military service. They will have had ample time to determine how they want to vote when they are eligible to do so. Statistics show that they will most likely know more about how the US system of governance works than native born citizens. To say that Democrats defy federal laws in order gain votes from newly naturalized citizens would be a statement demonstrating a serious lack of the facts. Compared to the 2020 and 2022 elections the Democratic Party in 2024 lost a significant percentage of the vote among Latinos and Blacks, and among men of all ethnic and racial groups. Those who changed their vote often cited a lack of control at the southern border and inflation as the main reasons. There was an erosion of blue collar and labor union votes. The Democratic Party is presently in disarray, as was the Republican Party after the elections of President Obama.
There was a story of a Washington state immigrant who was sent a ballot, if there is one there are probably more is it a big problem I don’t know, there was a story about thousands that needed to be removed from voter rolls in Arizona. So whether it was accidental or deliberate non citizens do end up getting on the voter rolls again a big problem I don’t know hopefully our election officials are doing their due diligence but when the state wants to protect criminal immigrants from federal enforcement officials I kind of wonder what other shenanigans are going on.
You left out the fact that it was discovered and the person was not allowed to vote.
You left out the fact that not one lawsuit filed has shown any evidence that there is widespread voter fraud that has impacted any elections.
You left out the fact that a majority of the people convicted of voter fraud, or Republicans voting for Trump.
Basically, you left out all the facts.
Jim, “There was a story” is pretty slim evidence to build any case, and then “if there is [a problem] I don’t know” is even slimmer, given the amount of nonsense, rumor and downright lies that spread on the internet. I share your concern, but I’d like to see something a little more fact-based before concluding that there is more than an accidental, very small problem. Could it be that at least a portion of this is partisan propaganda with internet amplification, designed to get us all worked up?
Certainly trust in our institutions, systems, government are really low heck they don’t even trust each other hence sanctuary cities and states. Here we have the annexation issue at the state level we have the parents bill of rights which seems to be turning into a student bill of rights and of course at the national level Trump is turning the bureaucracy upside down.
Yes, Jim, there are incidents when non-citizens have been given ballots by mistake. If one follows the stories, most of the time the immigrants know it is illegal to submit a ballot. They do not vote because the last thing they want is to get deported. There are other irregularities. None involving immigrants add up to any amount even close to change the outcome of an election. False narratives have gotten people to suspect foul play in all sorts of places. The Arizona votes were counted and recounted several times to verify their accuracy. According to the IRS Budget & Workforce pages of its DataBook on http://www.irs.gov in 2023 the service spent $16 billion to collect $4.694 trillion, a cost of $0.34 per $100. That is efficient work despite the service using outdated software and being understaffed. It has not been able to do all the auditing needed due to years of Congress funding the service at flat levels while the population grew. Other services in other departments have complained of the same shortcomings. Now there are firings of federal workers without a plan or rationale. Residents are picked up by people without explanation. ICE has publicly admitted that some of those it has detained have broken no laws. Yes, we need reform, but within the law. That is not too often not happening.
If memory serves me Arizona did a audit of its voter rolls and removed a couple hundred thousand people of those several thousand were non citizens, Arizona also switched from blue to red did it make a difference I don’t know. I wonder when the last time Washington state did a deep dive into its own voter rolls. We give out drivers licenses and I’ds to non citizens so I guess technically they are no longer undocumented although one could certainly question the accuracy of the information they provide.
It doesn’t require much effort to “take a dive” into what Washington does to maintain its voter data base. (sos.wa.gov) Look for Voter Rolls Data Base (VRDB). The depth of a deep dive would be in the mind of the diver.
A quick read would indicate dead people and felons are updated regularly it didn’t indicate any effort to to vet existing people which would be a audit I mean if all you have to do is attest to being a citizen to get a ballot what effort is the state making to verify eligibility? I am sure mistakes are made what are we doing to find those. Maybe a audit every 5 years would be prudent. Should we just blindly trust the system? Wouldn’t a audit go a long way to rebuilding trust?
Sorry. For my previous comment the last sentence should have been, “That is too often not happening.”
A “quick read” doesn’t sound like a “deep dive”. One downside in the financial struggles of newspapers is the decline in numbers of investigative journalists. These people are great at keeping government agencies honest. Another downside is the rise of conspiracy theorists who claim without proof deceit and corruption in public places. I have heard the expression, “Democracy is not a spectator sport.” I prefer to trust and verify what I choose to believe about my government.
I used your link and search the page that came up wasn’t very detailed, so it was a quick read. For me trust is earned the more I learn about government the less I trust them seems they are more interested in protecting the institution and growing their control than working in the best interests of the people even going so far as challenging the vote of the people in court 30 dollar tabs and more recently undermining the adopted parents bill of rights. I would hope actions like these would give your trust pause.
My experiences seem to be very different than yours. My contacts with the federal government have been fairly few and generally positive. As an employee of a local government in a city in a state other than WA, I can honestly say that it was no better or worse than large private organizations which employed me. I refuse to allow people who easily see the negative to change my outlook on life. Since our government employs my countrymen, I will trust in their interest to do what is right. Then I will verify if what is happening justifies that trust. Nothing that I have read or experienced regarding voting in WA has made me doubt the veracity of the process.
I gave you a link. You chose not to do a “deep dive” from that link. Rarely is the whole story about anything in one place.
Hear, hear!
The handful of government employees I’ve known (two at a VERY high level) have been among the most decent and honest people I know.
RE: immigration
Mr T made it pretty clear in his speech several weeks ago – Democrats want to use laws, he preferred to send in, was it the military? at the southern border
Before Mr T’s return, I read that there was a bipartison bill ready to go regarding immigration, but it was scrapped when Mr T told his followers to scrap it.
Also, I am really tired of the de-humanization of people trying to get a better life, or a – safe – life for themselves and their families!
RE: voting
I have read that some states – actually do – allow non-citizens to vote in local elections
Yes there was a bill that didn’t pass some of it was good but the part I didn’t like was it would allow about 1.8 million people entry each year. Reform is certainly needed what that looks like is up for debate asylum rules, vetting, how many, what for. As a low wage worker a constant flood of cheap labor makes it difficult to demand better wages.
There are non-citizens who reside legally in this country. It is nothing new or subversive. Yes, Victor, in the local communities where these non-citizens reside, they may vote in a number of ways: for example for their church elders or even the town’s mayor if that municipality permits resident non- citizens to vote in the election of that official. All this being said, only citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections. Under federal law these elections are administered by the state. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 spelled out things that states could not do to prohibit voting by citizens who were non-white. In one respect the federal election of 1966 was the first free and fair election in our country’s history.
It’s probably worth noting here that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is currently under attack by the MAGA establishment and the project 2025 group that supported MAGA. They are counting on the current Trump friendly Supreme Court to make this Act, that was fought so hard for by Black activists at that time, essentially meaningless. I suspect that Chief Justice John Roberts is about the most nervous man in the country right now as he may be held historically responsible for dismantling the Civil Rights movement in America.
As long as we are discussing elections, who really wants free, secure, fair elections?
Trump Is Still Trying to Undermine Elections, Now that Trump has installed election deniers throughout his Administration, he has been busy dismantling the guardrails protecting voting and voters.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/trump-is-still-trying-to-undermine-elections
The Trump Administration Is Going After Our Elections Too, Government employees have long protected the ballot from attacks. The president is preparing to fire many of them
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/02/trump-doge-layoffs-project-2025-election-security-cisa-firing.html
Dismantling of federal efforts to monitor election interference creates opening for foreign meddling
https://apnews.com/article/trump-election-security-fbi-cisa-foreign-interference-98f1e17c8a6d5923db945a27f06458e7
and according to Greg Plast, investigative journalist, many people insist on “controlling” the vote
https://www.gregpalast.com/
He provides a link on his website to free streaming of his documentary: Vigilantes Inc, America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen
Also, WHO invests millions of dollars into election outcomes???
Citizens United v. FEC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC