Rep. Perez opens case for Palestinian immigrant detained by ICE while living in Vancouver

U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, was a few seconds into her opening remarks at an Oct. 5 candidate forum in Camas when a man in the audience stood and confronted her. “Why have you been silent about Tareq Zakarneh?” the man shouted. “He’s been in ICE detention for over two years. He’s your constituent. You have done nothing!” Zakarneh, a Palestinian immigrant, was living in Vancouver when immigration officials detained him in May 2024. Perez remained calm in her seat and waited for the man to leave the event before speaking. “To engage in constituent case work, I actually require a privacy release form,” Perez said. “The man in question had not completed that until very recently. We had spent weeks trying to contact him and make sure we had that document so we could be useful.” Perez told the crowd she would be happy to work on Zakarneh’s case. “That is my role. I’m proud to stand and be useful to that constituent,” she said. For Zakarneh, the assistance cannot come soon enough. The 44-year-old systems engineer grew up near Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and came to the Pacific Northwest in 2013. Zakarneh earned his bachelor’s degree at Portland State University, married a U.S. citizen and remained in the Portland metro area until his detention in 2024. On Friday, he spoke with The Columbian by phone from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Eloy, Ariz. He said he and his wife divorced, but he decided to stay in the area. He started his own company, Complex Technology, that specialized in software development and information technology services. Zakarneh said he had a green card and was living in Vancouver when ICE officers detained him. His attorney has said in court records that Zakarneh had no criminal history at the time of his detainment. Though most of his detention has been spent at a federal immigration detention facility in Tacoma, ICE transferred Zakarneh to an Arizona detention center in early September. ‘I will be tortured’ Zakarneh has repeatedly said he fears being deported to Israel. “Israeli authorities will target me directly because they are well-informed by the U.S. authorities that I have been categorized falsely” of being a member of Hamas — a Palestinian military group and political movement in the Gaza Strip that Israel, the U.S., European Union and some other Western countries have branded a terrorist organization — Zakarneh texted to Jason Ohmann in early September. Ohmann is the communications chair for Portland for Palestine, an advocacy group that has been working on Zakarneh’s case since January. Zakarneh said Friday that he fears he will end up in an Israeli prison if the U.S. deports him. “Israel is not my country. I have never been an Israeli citizen,” he said in a text to Ohmann. “I will be arrested, then I will be tortured. Israel will (imprison me) as long as they can … and this is well known in West Bank.” On Sept. 22, Zakarneh’s attorney, Hassan M. Ahmad with The HMA Law Firm in Virginia, filed an emergency motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona to prevent the U.S. government from deporting Zakarneh to Israel. Ahmad argues that Israel was never mentioned in a July 2019 order to deport Zakarneh to Palestinian Occupied Territories. “No alternate country was designated,” he said in the emergency motion. “Nor has any adjudicator evaluated whether (Zakarneh) faces persecution or torture anywhere.” Ohmann said in a declaration to the Arizona District Court that Zakarneh called him Sept. 9 and “said he could see officers laying out straps and chains for restraint outside his cell, and that he knew they were for him.” Several hours later, according to the court records, Zakarneh told Ohmann the plane to Israel had left without him but that ICE officers had held him in full-body restraints, “beaten him and broken his tooth or teeth … and that only ICE officers were involved.” Zakarneh said Friday by phone that he has not yet received proper medical care for his broken tooth and has only been offered ibuprofen to relieve his pain. The food served inside the ICE detention centers, Zakarneh said, is nearly inedible. “It’s like poison,” he said. “I’ve refused it and have lost 15 pounds.” Portland for Palestine representatives have said Zakarneh “has been subjected to harsh treatment” and “inhumane conditions” inside ICE detention centers. “Worse yet, if finally deported, he will very likely be imprisoned by Israel, facing possible torture and even execution,” the group said in a Sept. 10 news release. “These are the consequences for Tareq or any Palestinian immigrant deported to an active genocide, deported right into the hands of those conducting it.” Portland for Palestine has advocated for Palestinian immigrants to receive special status in the U.S. “(We) believe that all immigrants should be allowed to pursue a path to legal residency and even citizenship without fear of being harassed by a para-military force,” the group said in a news release. “Palestinian immigrants are especially vulnerable at this moment in time. While we call for an end to all U.S. aid to Israel as a means to end the genocide, we believe that Palestinian immigrants in the U.S. should be given special consideration.” Plea to officials Ohmann said Portland for Palestine has been pushing elected officials in Oregon and Washington to intervene in Zakarneh’s case and “uphold the rule of law” to prevent him from being deported to Israel. The group has reached out to Democratic officials in Oregon, including U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, but have had little success getting those officials to look into the case, Ohmann said. In mid-August, the group approached Perez at one of her campaign events. “She was friendly in tone,” Ohmann said of Perez. “She expressed that she needed a release form to do constituency work, and her campaign people said they’d look into it.” Procuring the necessary documents, however, is not simple, Ohmann said. “It is difficult to get a detained person’s consent form,” he said. “The mail is often unreliable.” Perez’s office said the congresswoman had been waiting to receive the necessary paperwork from Zakarneh but has been “in constant contact” with Zakarneh’s attorney since they received the necessary privacy paperwork in September. “As a member of Congress, one of my most important responsibilities is to be useful to residents of Washington’s 3rd District to get the best outcome possible when dealing with federal agencies. While House rules prohibit me from discussing the specifics of an open case due to strict privacy laws, I can confirm the appropriate paperwork was received from Mr. Zakarneh in late September and my office swiftly opened a case,” Perez said Friday in an emailed statement. “My team is working diligently to get answers for Mr. Zakarneh and his loved ones, as we do with every constituent case that comes to my office.” She has worked on 20 cases involving ICE during her current term. Four, including Zakarneh’s, remain open. Portland for Palestine members have asked officials, including Perez, to also visit the ICE detention facility in Tacoma, formerly known as the Northwest Detention Center. “There is quite a bit of chaos there — lockdowns, hunger strikes, seclusion of Tareq and others, and some beatings,” Ohmann said by phone Thursday. “We need public eyes in that facility.”

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