Camano Island Man Acquitted of Assaulting Federal Agents, Now Faces Deportation

Victor Vivanco-Reyes, a 25-year-old landscaper identified as a citizen of Mexico, was acquitted by a federal jury of four felony counts alleging assault on federal officers stemming from a June 6 enforcement operation on Camano Island. Despite the criminal acquittal, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says Vivanco-Reyes remains detained at the Northwest Detention Facility in Tacoma and faces deportation.

Court filings and trial documents cited by local reporting describe surveillance of Vivanco-Reyes by Homeland Security Investigations and Customs and Border Protection, including helicopter activity. A U.S. attorney’s office press release described the arrest approach this way: agents in “three unmarked vehicles converged upon him and tried to block the road.” The defense trial brief portrays the encounter differently, saying Vivanco-Reyes “tried to drive around, but his truck scraped the side of an agent’s vehicle and the trailer he was towing flipped and struck an agent’s car.”

After his vehicle stopped, the defense brief reports officers taking Vivanco-Reyes into custody. The brief described agents as “clad in balaclavas, face masks and hats.” A separate newspaper account preserved an image-caption line that said, “The masked men handcuffed Mr. Vivanco-Reyes and posed with him for a photo.” Those descriptions come from parties and reporting cited in court materials; the competing versions of the vehicle contact and the operation itself are presented in prosecution and defense filings and were not independently reconciled in the available records.

Prosecutors had charged Vivanco-Reyes with four felony counts alleging assaults on federal officers. A jury returned not guilty verdicts on all counts, but the acquittal did not end his interaction with federal authorities. ICE confirmed he is “still being held at the Northwest Detention Facility in Tacoma,” and local headlines note he “faces deportation.” The public record excerpts available do not include the year of the June 6 operation, dates for indictment or trial, or whether a formal Notice to Appear or other removal documents have been filed; those items remain to be confirmed through court dockets and ICE records.

The case has local resonance in Island County. Camano Island and neighboring communities rely on seasonal and year-round laborers in landscaping and construction, and arrests tied to immigration enforcement can chill worksite cooperation and community trust in law enforcement. The gap between a jury’s criminal verdict and ongoing administrative immigration custody is likely to raise questions among neighbors, employers and legal aid groups about transparency and due process.

The Vivanco-Reyes matter also sits against a backdrop of similar cases nationwide in which criminal prosecutions and administrative deportation processes have moved on separate tracks. In Minnesota, prosecutors dismissed a federal complaint against a 19-year-old accused of ramming an enforcement vehicle, and the prosecutor Brisbois said that action “in no way affects” the administrative immigration process. Reporting from other jurisdictions has documented disputed use-of-force incidents and prosecutorial challenges, including testimony that an injured agent said, “It was pretty excruciating pain,” and national commentary noting that some judges have said the “use of force” by immigration agents “shocks the conscience.”

For Camano Island residents, the immediate questions are practical: whether Vivanco-Reyes will be transferred to immigration court, what legal counsel he can access, and how local officials and employers will respond to calls for clearer procedures at work sites. The acquittal answers the criminal allegation, but the detention at the Northwest Detention Facility and the possibility of removal mean the story is not finished for Vivanco-Reyes or for the community that depends on immigrant labor.