A large ICE protest that started in Cal Anderson Park and traveled down to the federal building on June 11 was overarchingly a joyous event that featured an eclectic mix of attendees, but a former elected official announcing their candidacy led to concerns within the movement—primarily the silencing migrant voices.
Organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) Seattle chapter, the Cal Anderson portion of the event featured a band that tied the Mexican flag to stands at the front and invited audience members to express their feelings through the mic, with the band creating tunes to flow with each word.
“Why the fuck is it so hard walking through the streets of Seattle and being Trans? I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, do you know?” sang one woman.
Former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant spoke to the hundreds of people in attendance about the labor movement and said it should be calling for strikes in major cities across the nation, drawing in loud cheers from the crowd.
“Nothing will defeat Trump’s agenda like millions of workers shutting down the profit machine of the bosses—this is the only language they understand,” Sawant said.
But as she began to announce her candidacy for Congress in Washington’s 9th District, two people who were patiently waiting to speak jumped in and said their people cannot even vote. Things swiftly got heated, with Sawant clinging onto the mic.
Superfamilia_KC on Instagram, which is an undocumented-led group that’s trying to prevent kidnappings and forced disappearances of their people, created a post following the Sawant incident:
“On Wednesday, June 11, the Seattle chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) hosted a rally at Cal Anderson in ‘solidarity’ with migrants against ICE. During the rally, autonomous undocumented migrants waited to speak on the mic, only to be talked over and forcefully pushed aside by PSL co-opters. All to allow an ‘independent’ politician to speak about her running campaign.
“When migrants intervened, they were pushed, shoved, and grabbed by PSL ‘protestors’ - causing distress, bodily harm, and outrage as comrades were forced to kettle around undocumented migrants to protect them from ‘anti-ICE activists.’
“If you’re so ‘anti-ICE,’ why are you using force to erase Indigenous voices from speaking their truth?
“PSL Seattle has a history of silencing Indigenous voices of the resistance and replacing it with political propaganda in their ‘protests’- enacting lateral violence through colonial tactics of the suppression and erasure of Indigenous people and their reclamation to land, rights, and autonomy. Is this what liberation looks like?”
A representative of the Tacoma chapter of the Black Panther Party was another speaker at the event and passed the microphone to the two migrants when it was her turn to speak.
“Did you cross a fucking imaginary border imposed by a settler colonial government genociding your people?” one of the migrants asked to those who prevented them from getting on the microphone to talk to their community.
“And these politicians want to speak for us? Get behind us. Earn our trust, because this is a movement led by undocumented people and migrants. We are not immigrants—we are migrants! We are in our ancestral homelands displaced by a fascist government displacing people worldwide! Wake up, together we are unstoppable,” they said.
ICE activity in the region
A member of La Resistencia Northwest, which is a grassroots and undocumented-led movement that seeks to end all deportations and detainments of immigrants, explained the inhumane conditions that detainees in Washington are experiencing. She noted how they have been refused yard time for over two months, and asked if there aren’t enough personnel to take people outside, why continue to kidnap and detain.
Hygenic conditions are terrible, she said, as 24 people share one bathroom and people are sleeping piled on top of each other. Furthermore, they cannot speak out or complain because they are immediately placed in solitary confinement or removed to another detention facility in another state as a form of retaliation. People who have still won their cases and can be freed are also still being held in the Northwest Detention Center, located in Tacoma.
“There are people being harassed and sexually abused by the very same medical personnel,” she added.
La Resistencia Northwest said there are currently three deportation flights taking place each week when previously it was just once per week. People who refuse to board these planes are wrapped up in vests, and detainees don’t have the right to free calls. Its call to action?
“Free them all!” she exclaimed.
Mom crosses border 8 months pregnant
Another woman who is a community organizer for renter protections spoke about her mother crossing the border while she was eight months pregnant—who migrated to the US because the Drug Enforcement Administration destabilized the Indigenous communities of Sinaloa, Mexico due to cannabis plants.
“And now these pinches gringos are getting fucking rich off marijuana stores while our people are displaced? While Black and Brown youth have lost life to life sentences for marijuana charges? Shame to the fucking sellouts who forgot their parents’ sacrifice crossing to this fucking country, and now they’re fucking ICE agents—and now they’re working with border patrol,” she said.
Her call to action is for people to be mindful of their neighbors who may be undocumented, and who may need repairs or the translation of documents that are threatening to displace them. This was something she saw during Trump’s previous administration—renters requesting maintenance and being kidnapped and disappeared.
“I do not want these fucking landlords to abuse their power and intimidate undocumented, Latine, Palestinian, any migrant into living into deplorable conditions or ending up homeless because they’re fucking using this time to abuse their power,” she said.
The speaker expressed how it is natural for humans and animals to migrate. To the migrant, undocumented, and refugee community she said:
“You are worthy of a life of dignity. That you are worthy of a life of joy and of rights and of peace. As a privileged ass motherfucker, because my mother crossed this imaginary border pregnant with me, I will use my privilege to work with my Black and Brown youth and communities.”
As the sun went down
“Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Donald Trump has got to go!” was one of the chants marchers echoed into the streets of Seattle as they headed towards the federal building. People surrounded the block of the building, with most on 1st Ave outside of the main entrance.
Some grabbed chalk to write things like “Fuck ICE,” one of the most common messages. Others took to spray paint, tagging around the building as scooters and bikes were strewn along garage entrances from the previous day of protestors working to prevent ICE agents from leaving the facility with Seattle residents. People chanted, celebrated, danced, and some even hopped on top of the bus stop covering.
But as the sun began to set, PSL organizers dipped out and the situation escalated. Some had previously blocked off the intersection of 1st Ave and Marion Street with a chain link fence, signs from nearby restaurants, and a dumpster, among other objects. Someone lit a US flag on fire, later tossing it into the garbage dumpster.
Overall, cops laid off from the protest, although as people marched closer to the federal building, cops began blocking off roads with their SUVs: one at Western Ave and Madison St was directing traffic with a lit-up stick.
It was when someone threw a firework into the dumpster that Seattle Police officers began to suit up and enter formation on their bikes. This firework caused sparks to fire back into the crowd as a pummel of black smoke rose into the sky.
Dumpster fires can be life-threatening, as the dumpster’s remains aren’t always known and may include flammable items, like lithium batteries. Toxic odors from the burning rubbish and plastic covering of the dumpster are unsafe to breathe in, and the fire itself could spread if not properly contained.
As cops were preparing for action, the crowd marched up Marion St meeting a line of bike cops head-on. Protestors had few gaps at the point, and people were still spread out along the block. Not long after, a person threw a firework that landed into the line of police officers, and SPD responded by charging forward, shooting pepper blasts into the crowd, and tackling some.
Cops were able to split up protestors into smaller groups, and the SGN was stuck on the corner of 2nd and Marion, reporting, as more action burst out further down the street.
Officers arrested several people but were unaware of how many people they put into paddywagons. A protestor asked SPD’s Brandon James Michael, a Police Outreach Engagement Team (POET) member, how many people were arrested and he said he didn’t know but that he personally saw two.
The SGN asked Officer David Gordon how many people were arrested, and he said he did not know and walked away.
King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office update
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO) sent out an email citing eight arrests in total from that evening, with two having been sent to the office for first-appearance hearings.
“The two reports sent to the KCPAO do not indicate there were any injuries to the officers. One case involves a push; the other describes a punch, though it’s not clear where the punch landed or if it caused pain,” according to the email.
In a detective’s narrative report, he noted how a dispersal order was provided to hundreds of protestors at 10 p.m.
“A line of fully uniformed officers began moving the protestors back. At approximately 2203 the defendant punched Ofc Howard with a closed fist and threw a water bottle at him while Ofc Howard was performing his official duties at the time of the assault,” according to the report.
The detective wrote another narrative report that occurred during this time, when the officers were moving protestors back.
“At approximately 2203 the defendant, using his hands and shoulders, pushed into Sgt. Newsome, assaulting him while Sgt Newsome was performing his official duties at the time of the assault,” according to the report.
KCPAO requested additional details from SPD.
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