The Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma houses detainees of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Stephani Gordon / OPB
A Palestinian resident of the Portland area is set to be deported to the West Bank on Wednesday after spending the past 13 years in the Pacific Northwest.
The federal government’s plan to remove Tareq Zakarneh, 44, comes as Israeli settlers and the Israeli military have increasingly came into conflict with Palestinians in the occupied territory. Zakarneh and advocates rallying around him say he is likely to face imprisonment or violence if the deportation moves forward. They’ve pressured members of Congress to advocate on his behalf, so far unsuccessfully.
Israeli forces and settlers killed 316 Palestinians in the West Bank from the beginning of 2025 through this July, with 5,641 more injured, according to the United Nations, which counted 20 Israeli deaths in the West Bank over the same period.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials did not respond to written questions about Zakarneh’s case.
Before he was detained more than two years ago, Zakarneh had been living in Portland and Vancouver, Washington, for more than a decade, studying and working as an engineer. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him in May 2024, seven months after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel supercharged the country’s assault on Palestinian territories — with U.S. support.
Palestinians facing deportation from the U.S. are considered stateless by the federal government. Their deportations are coordinated with an Israeli government that applies different legal standards for Israelis and Palestinians.
ICE attorneys have argued in court that Zakarneh will not be placed in the custody of the Israeli government during his deportation because the U.S. has permission to transport him from Israel to the West Bank. The Palestinian territory has been occupied by Israeli military forces since 1967.
Related: 9 months into a ceasefire, Israel now controls nearly 70% of Gaza
Zakarneh moved from the West Bank to the U.S. on a student visa in 2013 to attend Portland State University, court records show. Later that year, he married a U.S. citizen and obtained conditional permanent resident status. He divorced in 2017. Immigration courts later found he did not enter the marriage in “good faith,” and he was ordered to leave the country voluntarily or face deportation.
Zakarneh has filed multiple appeals to remain in the U.S., but a judge signed his final deportation order last April.
When reached by phone at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma this week, Zakarneh sounded exasperated.
“The last resort is the judicial system,” he said. “But if you are outside of the country, good luck to you … I know what will happen if I go back.”
The West Bank saw 3,254 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians from the start of 2025 through this July, according to the U.N. Under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli settlements in the West Bank — deemed a violation of international law by the U.N. Secretary-General — have expanded significantly. Escalating settler violence last month drew a sharp rebuke from the Trump-appointed U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who is normally a staunch defender of Israel.
Zakarneh is almost certain to face “horrific” conditions if deported, said Karim Bouris, a Palestinian and Lebanese resident of Central Oregon who has worked with pro-Palestinian advocacy groups, including UNRWA USA — a nonprofit aiding Palestinian refugees — as well as Jewish Voice for Peace and the Institute for Middle East Understanding.
He said that in order to reach the West Bank, Zakarneh would likely be “entirely in the custody and control of the Israeli military,” and possibly tortured.
“When our system here in the U.S., our own justice system, turns a blind eye to the facts of the conditions that the Israeli justice system has, that’s really frightening to me,” Bouris said.
Zakarneh doesn’t currently have an attorney, but Eric Welsh previously represented him. Welsh said Zakarneh tried to claim asylum on the grounds that he would be persecuted by the Israeli military if deported to the West Bank.
“The board just said there wasn’t enough … specificity in his concerns that he would be persecuted,” Welsh said.
Local activists have been trying to get members of Congress to intervene.
One of their main targets is Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, whose district covers Vancouver, where Zakarneh lived for years before his arrest.
The moderate Democrat is in the midst of a fraught reelection campaign, and her consistent support for sending military aid to Israel for its war on Hamas has angered some voters in her highly competitive swing district.
“We never got her to respond to us until about two or so weeks ago, we went to a campaign event of hers in Vancouver,” said Jason Ohmann with the advocacy group Portland for Palestine. “They still really haven’t done much, and because time is getting short, we are trying to push to get her to do something about it.”
Related: Israeli strikes kill 23 Palestinians as Gaza ceasefire inches forward
Gluesenkamp Perez said in a statement to OPB that her office hasn’t gotten the legally required paperwork she would need to advocate on behalf of a constituent.
“In this matter, while my office has made several efforts to get the authorization forms signed, none have been submitted and therefore we are still prohibited from pursuing an inquiry,” she said.
Ohmann said his group has tried to get those forms to Zakarneh, but limited access to computers and mail lags have delayed the process.
Portland for Palestine plans to hold a rally at the Japanese American Historical Plaza at the Portland Waterfront on Saturday Sept. 5 at 1 p.m. to bring attention to Zakarneh’s case.
The deportation flight planned for Sept. 9 marks the U.S. government’s third attempt this year to remove Zakarneh from the country. In February, Zakarneh was unable to board a removal flight due to “continuing medical issues,” according to ICE agents’ statements in court records. The government canceled a June deportation flight after a court found ICE hadn’t provided Zakarneh sufficient notice of his removal.
The Supreme Court ruled in a 2001 case that people in ICE custody can’t remain in detention for more than six months. But there’s a carve-out if the government can show that deportation is “reasonably foreseeable,” language it’s argued in Zakarneh’s case.
In a July ruling denying one of Zakarneh’s petitions, a judge wrote, “there is nothing in the record … that suggests ICE’s removal efforts will fail.”
