Saturday Special: How ICE used a ruse to arrest a longtime Spokane resident

Seattle Now

KUOW News and Information

Daily News, News

2.4 • 613 Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re bringing you the best from the KUOW newsroom. As the Trump administration seeks to fulfill its campaign promises to deport millions of people, some have found themselves in deportation proceedings despite being legal permanent residents with a green card. Like Sergey Kostenyuk. He came to Spokane from Ukraine as a refugee more than thirty years ago, when he was a child. KUOW’s Eilís O’Neill reports that on the day of Sergey’s arrest, ICE officers used an elaborate ruse.

Transcript

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0:00.0	These days, there's so much news.
0:01.8	It can be hard to keep up with what it all means for you, your family, and your community.
0:06.4	The Consider This Podcast from NPR features our award-winning journalism.
0:10.7	Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a news story and provide the context and analysis that helps you make sense of the news.
0:17.5	We get behind the headlines.
0:19.4	We get to the truth.
0:22.8	Listen to the Consider This podcast from NPR. Hey, good morning. It's Patricia Murphy. It's Saturday. This is Seattle now. Today,
0:31.0	we're bringing you the best from the KUOW Newsroom. As the Trump administration seeks to fulfill
0:36.6	its campaign promises to deport millions of people,
0:40.2	some have found themselves in deportation proceedings despite being legal, permanent residence with a
0:45.4	green card. Like Sergei Kostinuk, he came to Spokan from Ukraine as a refugee more than 30 years ago
0:52.1	when he was a child. KUOW's ILeish O'Neill reports that
0:56.7	on the day of Sergei's arrest, ICE officers used an elaborate ruse.
1:08.9	What Sergei Kostin-Yuk does for a living is build and sell backyard sheds and chicken coops.
1:14.3	This is the most popular one we do because he does that round door.
1:18.7	And he puts the knocker on there in the window boxes.
1:21.0	Everybody loves them.
1:21.9	We do tons of them in every size.
1:24.1	Mary Lassotti has been with Sergei for more than 20 years, and they have two sons together.
1:29.3	Sergei builds the sheds, and Mary deals with the money side of things.
1:33.2	In mid-February, they were happy to meet with some folks who reached out on Facebook
1:36.8	Marketplace asking to see example chicken coupes.
	...

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