Speaking to a crowd of several hundred people at Westlake Park Sunday, Seattle Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal called on members of the public to engage in a “mass mobilization” against the Trump Administration’s immigration policies.
She also urged her audience to fight Republican immigration bills Congress will consider this week. “Do not believe them when they say [House Speaker] Paul Ryan’s bill is more moderate. It is not more moderate,” Jayapal said.
Ryan plans to hold votes on two bills. One bill, which lawmakers are characterizing as a compromise, includes funding for a border wall, reductions in certain types of legal immigration, and a path to citizenship for Dreamers, immigrants brought to the United States children. The other would reduce legal immigration without a path for Dreamers.
Trump, meanwhile, indicated on Friday he wouldn’t sign the “compromise” bill. The White House later backtracked.
Protesters gathered in Seattle Sunday to oppose the administration’s immigration policies, particularly separating parents from their children at the border. According to the Associated Press, nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their families at the border from mid-April through May.
“We are protesting against the irreversible trauma that these kids and their parents are going through. Their sin is to search for a better life for themselves.” pic.twitter.com/eDhsRfg9h5
— Heidi Groover (@heidigroover) June 17, 2018
More than 100 immigrants, including mothers separated from their children are being held at a federal prison in SeaTac. That’s in addition to the Northwest Detention Center, a private prison in Tacoma where hundreds of immigrants are detained. Jayapal met with the detainees earlier this month. Some described being able to hear their children screaming in the next room.
She recounted those stories Sunday and explained some of the ways they were “deceived” about where their children were being taken:
“They never got to say goodbye.” Jayapal on what she heard from women detained at SeaTac, including lies they were told about where their children were going: pic.twitter.com/AeSWhuDcUt
— Heidi Groover (@heidigroover) June 17, 2018
Jayapal urged members of the public to call the White House and members of Congress about the family separation policy and to support organizations like Northwest Detention Center Resistance and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. She also said, “We are going to have a mass mobilization… It may be in D.C. with surrounding marches around the country.” Jayapal said organizers would announce details this week.
Another member of Washington’s Congressional delegation, Rep. Suzan DelBene, also plans to speak against family separation. Today at 11 am, DelBene will speak host a press conference with asylum seekers at a law office near Seattle Center.
