Originally Posted by J-M
Sounds to me like the reason for the delay in response (which is a problem) was due to the fact the reporting party should have called Seattle PD (911) to report it instead of ICE. If the Port police arrived within a few minutes, they could have detained the illegals and called ICE after that.
Yes, most likely the call should have went straight to the P.D.. Depending on where they came from can account for why it took the Federal agencies longer to get there. In most cases Federal Agencies (even if 24 hour) are not deployed like local P.D.'s., as far as having "beat officers" in the area. (working the border is a different story) They may have had to drive from the other side of the city, nearest station (possibly miles away), ect.
To have federal coverage like a city P.D. does would be a very, very costly thing. Also take into account that (unless there was some indication otherwise) the call was non-emergency, and units would not have been responding "code 3".