Hospitality table provides comfort to immigrants outside ICE facility

TUKWILA — Jerry Johnsen volunteers at a hospitality table, known as Café Gratis, near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in facility in Tukwila. When a woman approached the table saying she learned she had to return to Honduras, Johnsen and other volunteers offered to pray with her and connect her with legal resources. 

“We were able to give this woman the power of feeling loved,” said Johnsen, a parishioner at St. Therese and St. Joseph parishes in Seattle.

He is one of approximately 100 volunteers who serve outside a nondescript office building in Tukwila. They provide comfort, coffee and snacks for immigrants being monitored through the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. Immigrants, who wear GPS-monitored ankle bracelets, come from across Western Washington to make personal check-ins every two weeks.

“It’s a very hidden location. The only way I know about it is with people who are involved with the program,” said Sarah Riggio, a parishioner at St. James Cathedral in Seattle, who started the hospitality table in December 2025.

For the past six years, Riggio’s family has hosted asylum seekers and refugees in their home, and she accompanied a woman who is in the program to appointments in Tukwila.

“It’s just a really barren place,” Riggio said, adding the facility was difficult for the kids.

Her experiences planted a seed for an idea. Riggio would set up a table and offer basic hospitality for people attending their appointments. Volunteers serve coffee and snacks while providing children’s activities for people arriving for their appointments.

“I feel very strongly in Jesus’ call as disciples to welcome the stranger,” Riggio said, referencing the Matthew 25.

Over the years, the Riggios hosted a father and his five kids from Central America, participated in the cathedral’s Welcome Circle program and opened their home to refugees from Afghanistan.

Johnsen noted the immigrants are going through the legitimate process of applying for citizenship.

He learned about the hospitality table when he attended a meeting at St. Therese. After he finished swimming at a pool in Tukwila, he stopped by and saw Riggio setting up a table and asked if he could help.

“You meet people from all different faiths and different communities,” Johnsen said. “They all feel a love for their brothers and sisters who have come from other countries and horrific circumstances.”

He said volunteers come from Seattle University, Catholic parishes from as far away as Tacoma and Puyallup, and Seattle’s Japanese Presbyterian Church.

“They just want to be there and participate,” he said.

Mercedes Miramontes, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Seattle, is new to the area. At her second time attending Mass at the Capitol Hill parish, she saw the hospitality table item in the bulletin. “This light went off in my head: This is it.”

She volunteers at the hospitality table once a week for three hours. Sometimes immigrants have traveled several hours to attend their appointment, and they’re hungry.

“I think this has just been a reaffirmation and how much I need this for my spiritual life,” Miramontes said, adding that she is inspired by her own family as her father is an immigrant from Mexico.

There has been friction in the early months of the program. Riggio had to move the table off the office building’s property. Tukwila Police showed up, she said, but officers have been supportive.

She added Tukwila’s mayor and city officials visited the table, and a special-use permit was crafted to allow the hospitality table to remain. “After months of being there every day, we’ve built trust,” she explained.

Johnsen said police and truck drivers come by to talk, and the table makes it so people can participate.

While the hospitality table is available from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday, Riggio would like to see it open until 5 p.m. on weekdays.

“There’s this beautiful community being built,” Riggio said. “It’s a little taste of the kingdom of God.”