LYNDEN, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – Dozens of workers at a Lynden processing facility have been detained since March amid the federal crackdown on immigration.
That’s according to local advocacy group Racial Unity Now, or RUN, which said more than 50 workers at Premier Packing have been detained by federal agents through targeted intercepts.
Four of those employees were detained over the past two days in what the group is calling Whatcom County’s first known “soft raid.”
RUN said it gathered the information from local partners and verified it with Premier Packing ownership and employees. The group estimates that about a dozen of those workers who were detained have since been deported.
RUN’s Executive Director Jeremy Dorrough said federal immigration agents appear to be shifting their tactics locally.
“We’re really concerned about the secretive approach to enforcing immigration laws,” Dorrough said. “The typical thing that they’ve been doing is roadside stops. They track people leaving, they have check points set up on local county roads and, particularly on paydays, they just lurk.”
Dorrough said this latest development with Premier Packing is the first major immigration enforcement action in the county since ICE detained 37 employees at Mt. Baker Roofing in April 2025.
He believes Whatcom County’s location near the border makes it “low-hanging fruit” for immigration enforcement.
“My other concern is that they’re just trying to reach regional quotas here, because they don’t want to have to commute, essentially,” Dorrough said.
Premier Packing and ICE did not respond to requests to comment from My Bellingham Now.
