Local authorities are investigating a small fire and a broken window at a sub-office for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Yakima, Wash.
According to a post from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on social media, someone threw a rock through the ICE office window on Saturday. A fire was also set at the back of the building.
The Yakima Fire Department said those are two separate incidents.
“They're not linked at this time besides proximity and timing,” said Captain Jeremiah Stilley with the Yakima Fire Department. “Doesn't mean that they aren't related. They could be, but there has been no evidence found at this time that they are related.”
Stilley explained that the fire started at a homeless encampment. It was a grass fire burning with low fuels.
“The fire burned up to the property border of the ICE, and there is a fence there with a privacy screen on it, and the privacy screen burned, but the fire did not protrude past that fence,” Stilley said. “There's a good distance between the fence and the building. The fire didn't get close to it.”
He said the broken window happened while firefighters were working on the fire.
The fire is being investigated as arson, Stilley said, and there is a suspect in that case.
He also said that no witnesses or suspects were identified in the rock-throwing case. The Department of Homeland Security's post linked the incident to what they called "violent rhetoric."
Republican Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse condemned what happened in a press release.
"This violence has no place in our political or law enforcement process, and the fact that it has seeped into our backyard is unacceptable,” Newhouse said. “I will be reaching out to law enforcement, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, to find out what resources are needed in light of this inexcusable act.”
DHS post said that assaults against ICE have seen a recent increase.
According to information released by DHS last month, ICE officials are facing an 830% increase in assaults from January to July compared with the same period in 2024.
