Seattle protesters enforce blockade against ICE, clash with cops, put a halt to detainments

Seattle, WA – In the early morning hours of June 10, activists and community members gathered at the courtyard of the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle in solidarity with the rebellion in LA and against deportations.

The federal building is the site of the area’s immigration court where ICE has been detaining and disappearing people before they can seek legal counsel or contact their loved ones.

The rally was organized by the Pierce County Immigration Alliance, Students for a Democratic Society, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and 50501 Washington.

The crowd’s chants penetrated the building’s walls and went into the offices. The building refused entry to legal observers from the Washington State Immigrant Solidarity Network (WASIN) on dubious legal grounds.

The day kicked off with speakers from the organizations represented, with a particularly moving and powerful speech delivered by Riley, a member of the Pierce County Immigration Alliance as well as FRSO Tacoma.

Riley said, “The people have answered the call! Across the country immigrants are being dragged into unmarked cars; Chicanos are being racially profiled for speaking Spanish; people are bound, shackled, ripped away from their families; they are thrown into countries where they are persecuted, threatened, assaulted and fear for their lives! Shame!”

She continued, “The government is refusing to even play by its own stacked rules. The struggle against this tyranny intensifies with every deportation; the need for action grows stronger by the hour, and the cry for justice can be heard around the country and around the world! The brutality of the state will not be met with passivity. We say, ‘No more!’”

After the main rally, activists covered every entrance to the building. They directed anyone entering for immigration court hearings to a table manned by WASIN that provided legal resources. They also gave the opportunity for people to give their information so the advocates could aid them if they are arrested by ICE.

As the day stretched on, the crowd grew. Through Super Familia, an ICE monitoring and information network, it was learned that several detainments had been made. In response, protesters improvised barricades on every vehicle exit, using rentable scooters and bikes and zip ties.

A standoff with ICE had begun.

The building was shut down and the workday cut short, leaving only ICE and its detainees inside, and only the militant crowd outside.

Eventually, the tension reached its breaking point. The Seattle Police Department instigated clashes between officers and protesters. The cops savagely beat the crowd, and, in the commotion, agents were able to exfiltrate the detainees.

Despite this, the occupation stretched on into the night.

The next morning, protesters arrived at City Hall to pressure the local government to allow legal observers back into the court, which was successful.

When observers entered, they discovered that ICE was nowhere to be found in the building. The exhaustion and struggle the night before halted their efforts at the court.

That day, all those who had hearings at the immigration court were granted additional time to seek counsel and resources, regardless of the decisions made. This was an unheard of state of affairs. The militancy from the night before had successfully pushed the court into greater leniency, and in the continuing occupation of the building the workday was once again cut short after hearings were finished.

At around 8:30 p.m. the crowd at the federal building were joined by a large marching contingent that had started from Cal Anderson Park, bolstering the numbers significantly. Protesters numbered well into the hundreds, and the entire block was taken over.

An impromptu bonfire was started in the street and American flags were burned to raucous applause. Graffiti denouncing ICE and its reign of terror covered every surface.

Later into the night a large contingent of Seattle police arrived and began blocking off roads, and eventually moved in to confront the crowd. After a short skirmish, police gained enough ground to put out the bonfire before protesters pushed them into a retreat. Protesters set up an improvised barricade on the street they stood on. Another push by the police, accompanied by beatings and chemical sprays, resulted in a return to the previously held line.

Members of the community looked out for each other, flushed eyes, carried the wounded to evacuation cars, and administered first aid. Eventually, after many successive pushes by the cops, the protest was dispersed just after 11 p.m.

Unfortunately for the cops and the ICE agents they are defending, the people of Seattle are only getting started. These first two days of clashes resulted from a spontaneous coalition of activists and militants, and they’re actively working together to get more organized, more strategic, and more effective. The lessons learned already will inform an even greater and more coordinated response going into the future.

The people of Seattle have answered the call, alongside nearly every major city in the United States. From the spark in Los Angeles a great fire rises, and the people are standing side by side to make the U.S. ungovernable.

#SeattleWA #WA #ImmigrantRights #WASIN #PCIA #SDS #FRSO #ICE

Source: https://fightbacknews.org/seattle-protesters-enforce-blockade-against-ice-clash-with-cops-put-a-halt-to?pk_campaign=rss-feed