‘The goal is to traumatize the children’: Gee bashes ICE arresting WA father in front of son

A 14-year-old boy was left alone inside his father’s truck after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested his dad during a traffic stop on I-5 in Lewis County.

The family said the father and son were heading north to a painting job on June 27 when they noticed vehicles following behind them, which later blocked their truck near Little Rock.

Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin, co-hosts of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, struggled to come to terms with the incident as Gee believes the intention of the arrest was to traumatize the son and community.

“What more can I say about this? This is very sad for the 14-year-old who will never forget that moment,” Gee said. “The mom talked about how they are in constant fear, and for that to happen. I don’t know what it is like to wake up every single day, whether it’s being a child or an adult, with constant fear. 14 years old. You’re seeing something that you will probably be traumatized by for the rest of your life. When we think about mental health, think about that 14-year-old going forward.”

Despite an old conviction, the father has since built a trouble-free life

While the man who was arrested is a felon, the offense occurred more than 20 years ago. He has since owned a contracting business and is the father of four U.S. citizen children.

Ursula advocated for, at the bare minimum, allowing him an opportunity to pursue legal citizenship, rather than be scooped off the road and hauled away from his son.

“Without even looking at our responses, I know that there are going to be some folks who say, ‘Well, he should have taken care of it if he is still in the country illegally,’ in particular, since he did have that felony conviction 20 years ago,” Ursula said. “In my opinion, he sounds like someone who should at least have the opportunity to make his case and pursue legal status.

“But instead, there are agents stopping him on I-5 and arresting him in front of his teenage son, and not really explaining, according to them, what was going on,” she continued. “My feeling is, we can enforce immigration laws without stripping people of their dignity or traumatizing their children.”

WA arrest came amid a nationwide surge in ICE enforcement

Over five days in June, ICE ramped back up its enforcement and arrested 10,000 people, while some vehicle stops had deadly consequences in Houston and Maine.

Gee argued that the goal of the ICE arrests is to intimidate, a tactic he said has been used repeatedly across various groups over time.

“I think that’s the goal. I think the goal is to traumatize the children,” Gee said. “The goal is to traumatize the community. The goal has been to traumatize other communities. In this country, that is the goal. One minute it’s this group of folks; the next minute it is this group of folks. That continues to happen, and some people justify the trauma that happens to these communities.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.