U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has identified the homeless Centralia man who was arrested, likely for deportation, behind Centralia City Hall on Jan. 29 as Manuel De Jesus Zavala-Martinez.
He was one of four “criminal aliens with convictions or charges related to sexual assault” arrested by ICE Seattle on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, ICE Seattle said in a news release on Friday.
Zavala-Martinez, 40, was most recently convicted in Lewis County Superior Court in October 2024 for touching a female acquaintance in a sexual manner and then hitting her with a stick when she punched him and ran away on Aug. 12, 2024, according to court documents. He pleaded guilty to one count each of third- and fourth-degree assault and was sentenced to four months in jail with credit for 51 days served. He was arrested again on Nov. 28 for violating his probation and was re-released on Dec. 5, according to court documents.
Zavala-Martinez’s felony criminal record also includes a 2022 second-degree assault conviction, which stems from a July 4, 2022, incident where he swung a handsaw at a family celebrating Fourth of July in a Chehalis parking lot. He was also arrested in 2020 for allegedly getting into a standoff with police officers while wielding a knife, though he was not convicted on any charges, according to court documents and previous Chronicle reporting.
Zavala-Martinez is a citizen of El Salvador, according to ICE Seattle.
He was arrested in an alley behind Centralia City Hall sometime around 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, Centralia Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston stated in a Facebook post shortly after the arrest.
The Centralia Police Department was not involved in the arrest, but interim Centralia Police Chief Andy Caldwell was notified by ICE officials, according to Smith Johnston.
“ICE informed Chief Caldwell that their operations in this area of Washington state is purely focused on immigrants with criminal records,” Smith Johnston wrote. “Currently, they are neither targeting nor sweeping the general population.”
ICE Seattle identified the other three individuals arrested in Washington state last week as:
• Pedro Garcia-Lopez, 47, a citizen of Mexico, arrested Jan. 30 in Yakima, who ICE Seattle said has been charged with theft, lewd acts with a child under 14 and sexual battery. The Chronicle was unable to find a record of the charges on Monday.
• Rubi Jeronimo Cruz, 22, a citizen of Guatemala, arrested Jan. 30 in Lynden who ICE Seattle said has been convicted of DUI with reckless driving and charged with rape of a child. Court documents indicate Jeronimo Cruz’s trial for the rape case was scheduled to begin April 14, 2025. He has no other felony cases on his record.
• Jaspal Singh, 29, a citizen of India, arrested Jan. 29 in Tukwila who ICE Seattle said has been charged with assault with sexual motivation. The Chronicle was unable to find a record of the charges on Monday.
“Protecting our communities, and preventing further victimization is of paramount importance to ICE throughout the Pacific Northwest,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Seattle Field Office Director Drew H. Bostock in the news release. “These arrests reinforce the message that the presence of illegal criminal threats will not be tolerated.”
All four individuals will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings, according to the news release.
Washington state is one of 11 states in the U.S. with a sanctuary state law, which prohibits local police from assisting federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement.
Washington’s law, called the Keep Washington Working Act, went into effect in May 2019 with the stated purpose of “ensuring the state of Washington remains a place where the rights and dignity of all residents are maintained and protected in order to keep Washington working,” the law reads.
State officials estimated that more than 300,000 undocumented immigrants lived in Washington state in 2021. Of those, 77% were employed within Washington state and 12% were children under the age of 19, according to data released by the state Office of Financial Management.
Last week, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson created the “Family Separation Rapid Response Team” aimed to help children whose parents are deported. Ferguson has stated his administration “will do everything we can possibly do to address those significant harms” tied to the Trump administration’s immigration policies, according to reporting by the Washington State Standard.
While Washington’s sanctuary law and Ferguson’s commitment to supporting immigrant communities mean it’s less likely for ICE agents to conduct a sweep of the general population in Centralia, the current political climate has Centralia’s Hispanic community on edge.
“It’s hard to hear members of my community having a very hard time. It’s scary to hear the kids worry about what’s going to happen, and it’s heartbreaking,” Centralia City Councilor Adrianna Garibay said during the city council’s regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 28 — the day before ICE agents arrested Zavala-Martinez.
During her designated time to make reports and comments during the meeting, Garibay expressed appreciation to Centralia community members who have called her in the last few weeks to ask “how Centralia’s Hispanic community is doing,” she said.
“I really want to thank the members of the community who call and say, ‘If you guys need anything, you have my house here. Let the Hispanic community (know) we support you guys.’ Thank you so much for making us feel this is our city. Thank you so much.”
Garibay immigrated from Michoacàn, Mexico, in 1998, and settled in Centralia.