Venezuelan man wrongly arrested by ICE released from Northwest Detention Center a month later
Aug 27, 2026, 6:20 AM
A sign for the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. (Photo courtesy of KIRO 7)
(Photo courtesy of KIRO 7)
A Venezuelan asylum-seeker has returned to work after being released from the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center.
Cellphone video showed multiple ICE agents dragging Moises Velasquez from a car and arresting him in Lakewood in July.
Velasquez said he was parked and waiting for his shift to start at the barbershop where he works when ICE agents smashed his windows and pulled him out of his vehicle.
He said his fiancé, who was eight months pregnant at the time, was on the phone with him and heard his screams for help during the arrest.
Velasquez’s attorney, Bart Klein, said ICE agents were actually searching for a Mexican national, but arrested the wrong man.
Velasquez is from Venezuela who has a work permit and had an upcoming immigration hearing in December.
Klein said ICE knew they had the wrong man, but sent Velasquez to the ICE facility in Tacoma anyway.
After Klein filed a habeas corpus, Velasquez was released last week.
