Immigration agents detained and deported at least 50 employees of Premier Packing in Lynden, Washington, over a five-month period beginning in March, with the most recent incident on July 23, according to the nonprofit Racial Unity Now. The group said agents tracked workers' commute routes, waited near a grocery store service road, and detained some as they crossed the street for water offered on a hot day, in what it called the first 'soft raid' in Whatcom County. Racial Unity Now said the agents appeared to come from multiple federal agencies under the Department of Homeland Security rather than solely ICE, and that neither ICE nor Premier Packing responded to requests for comment. The organization's executive director, Jeremy Dorrough, said he worried Whatcom County was being used as a 'soft target' for tactics that could spread elsewhere, and raised concerns about children facing poverty, trauma and hunger when a parent is detained.