Latest news with #LatinosEnSpokane
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'My father would be crying': Hundreds protest Trump at downtown Spokane march
Feb. 17—Hundreds gathered in the snow by Spokane's Big Red Wagon Monday to protest President Donald Trump's sweeping and rapid actions to reform immigration enforcement, dismantle diversity programs and oversight of police, and more. Taking advantage of the Presidents Day holiday to gather in the park at noon Monday, organizers argued the protest was an opportunity to recognize and organize the power — not of the president, but of residents. The Residents Day March circled the Spokane River, marching with a police escort in one lane of the street northward on Monroe before looping back down the Washington Street tunnel under Riverfront Park. The event, one of at least two protests scheduled in the city Monday, was organized by over 30 primarily progressive advocacy groups, including Spokane Community Against Racism, Latinos En Spokane, Spokane Pride, the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund and the county Democratic Party. Pui-Yan Lam, a sociology professor with Eastern Washington University, decried the White House's threats to withdraw federal funding from schools if they use race in numerous ways, including for scholarships, administrative support and housing. The letter outlining the Trump administration's threats also highlighted race-based preferential admission — which was already found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023. It also criticized "toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon 'systemic and structural racism,' " wrote Craig Trainor, acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Education in a Feb. 14 "Dear Colleague" letter. "Trump and the far-right want to destroy the education system because they are afraid of the liberatory power of education," said Lam, who is an immigrant from Hong Kong. "Authoritarian regimes will not tolerate an education that teaches students how to think for themselves — they don't want that for girls and women, and they don't want that for working class students." Pat Castaneda, executive director of immigrant resource organization Manzanita House, and Mark Finney of Thrive International, which provides transitional housing for refugees arriving in Spokane, both spoke to the Trump administration's freeze on all new refugee arrivals and renewed crackdown on undocumented immigrants. "I refuse to watch my fellow immigrants live in fear in the shadows," said Castaneda, who is an immigrant from Venezuela. "Every day I see immigrants raising families, working hard, starting businesses. We make this city stronger." Evee Polanski, a Mexican immigrant who came with her family to the U.S. in 1991 as a child without legal documentation and who was protected by the Obama-era DACA policy before receiving legal residency, described the fear she experienced as an undocumented immigrant. "I was that child who came home to her parents being gone because they got picked up by ICE," Polanski said. "I was also that adult that grew up afraid to go to work when ICE raids were happening in Nevada, because that meant I might not come home to my own two children." "Immigrant children are not criminals," she added. "I am not a criminal. You know who is a criminal? The current administration." Kurtis Robinson, executive director of post-incarceration aid organization Revive Center for Returning Citizens and former president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, urged those in attendance to expand their activism beyond Monday's march and to focus their attention locally, not just to D.C. "Where's the work being done here at home?" Robinson asked. "We have a lot of work to do, and some of that work is right here." Attendees included college students and parents with young children who didn't have school Monday, at least two people who are among the many who believe they were illegally fired last week from their federal jobs, public educators, activists and several who said they had never participated in a protest before. Kirk Phillips, who said this was the second protest he attended recently to express his displeasure with the Trump administration, hoped that Monday's event would put pressure on elected leaders like Rep. Michael Baumgartner to "actively put forward their constituents' interests more than they're doing right now." Nan Lubbert, a member of the local chapter of Raging Grannies, pushed her rollator through the slush as she tried to keep up with the march. "We literally have felons and perverts and rich billionaires who want to get more billions in our government," Lubbert said in frustration. "Our fathers fought in World War 2 — come on! My gosh, my father would be crying, or just go back into his grave, if he could see."
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hundreds protest Trump at downtown Spokane march
Feb. 17—Hundreds gathered in the snow by Spokane's Big Red Wagon Monday to protest President Donald Trump's sweeping and rapid actions to reform education and immigration enforcement, dismantle diversity programs and oversight of police, and more. Taking advantage of the Presidents Day holiday to gather in the park at noon Monday, organizers argued the protest was an opportunity to recognize and organize the power, not of the president, but of residents. The Residents Day March circled the Spokane River, marching with a police escort in one lane of the street northward on Monroe before looping back down the Washington Street tunnel under Riverfront Park. The event, one of at least two protests scheduled in the city Monday, was organized by over 30 organizations of primarily various racial, gender, immigrant and progressive advocacy groups, including Spokane Community Against Racism, Latinos En Spokane, Spokane Pride, the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund and the county Democratic Party. Pui-Yan Lam, a sociology professor with Washington State University, decried the White House's threats to withdraw federal funding from schools that use race-based preferential admission — which was already found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 — but also which "toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon 'systemic and structural racism,'" wrote Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Education in a Feb. 14 "Dear Colleague" letter. "Trump and the far-right want to destroy the education system because they are afraid of the liberatory power of education," said Lam, who is an immigrant from Hong Kong. "Authoritarian regimes will not tolerate an education that teaches students how to think for themselves — they don't want that for girls and women, and they don't want that for working class students." Pat Castaneda, executive director of immigrant resource organization Manzanita House, and Mark Finney of Thrive International, which provides transitional housing for refugees arriving in Spokane, both spoke to the Trump administration's freeze on all new refugee arrivals and renewed crackdown on undocumented immigrants. "I refuse to watch my fellow immigrants live in fear in the shadows," said Castaneda, who is an immigrant from Venezuela. "Every day I see immigrants raising families, working hard, starting businesses. We make this city stronger." Kurtis Robinson, executive director of post-incarceration aid organization Revive Center for Returning Citizens and former president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, urged those in attendance to expand their activism beyond Monday's march and to focus their attention locally, not just to D.C. "Where's the work being done here at home?" Robinson asked. "We have a lot of work to do, and some of that work is right here."
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Spokane voices support for Washington's sanctuary law in most crowded meeting in years
Feb. 10—A nonbinding resolution to signal the city of Spokane's commitment to Washington's sanctuary state law, the Keep Washington Working Act, was the focal point of the City Council's first truly contentious meeting of the year. Roughly 500 piled into city hall Monday to voice support for undocumented immigrants or to demonstrate their desire to see deportations continue unabated and their frustration with the state's protections. Emotions flared, with immigrant activists booing the first public speaker of the night and one speaker each from either side of the issue telling the City Council that they felt physically unsafe sharing the room with advocates from the other group. So many were in attendance that the Spokane Fire Department requested that as many as 200 people leave the building, as the crowd was well in excess of the building's capacity. Dozens also gathered outside of city hall ahead of the meeting Monday night to protest the hard-line immigration policies of President Donald Trump. Pointing to a presidential administration that has vowed to enact mass deportations, local nonprofit Latinos En Spokane asked the city in January to affirm state sanctuary laws and to find money to support immigrant legal defense services. The Spokane City Council voted 5-2 Monday to symbolically commit the city to enforcing the statewide Keep Washington Working Act, which restricts law enforcement in the state from supporting the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The resolution, which is purely symbolic and does not create or modify existing law, states the city will also attempt to find funding for the legal services of undocumented immigrants. Despite the lack of teeth to the resolution, it drew a larger audience than any other council meeting in recent years, perhaps only comparable to the controversy following a 2023 resolution supporting Israel's right to defend itself in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. Advocates, like sponsor Councilwoman Lili Navarrete and Councilman Zack Zappone, argued the resolution restating existing law was important to make the community aware of the protections the state provides and to reassure residents and businesses that the municipality will not abridge their rights under state law. "Opponents of this resolution will say that the resolution doesn't accomplish anything, it's just enforcing state law, and it puts the city in jeopardy of losing federal funding," Zappone said. "The federal government continues to threaten local jurisdictions to intimidate us. However, the city must and will continue to live by our values." Carmela Conroy, a former deputy prosecutor for Spokane Country who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for Congress against Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, argued that local law enforcement should not be diverted from enforcing local crimes, and that federal authorities should be expected to handle federal immigration law themselves. Conroy and Councilwoman Kitty Klitzke both argued that the current proliferation of undocumented immigration was a direct result of the failure of federal lawmakers to reform immigration law in decades. "The U.S. congress must reform our decades-old immigration system that is hampering our economic growth and creating human tragedy for many essential workers and other members of our communities," Conroy said. "If there is a legal pathway, show me," Navarrete said, noting she was the council's first immigrant member in over 100 years. "Even the ones that are trying to find a pathway for citizenship, for permanent residency, for temporary residents, for work permits — their applications are being denied because denying them is a path faster to deport them." Others argued that their support for immigrants and immigration ends when it is done so without legal documentation. "Sanctuary cities or states are deceptive and unnecessary," said Mike Gleason, a local resident providing testimony. "Illegal entry into the United States is a crime, and the person who enters illegally is a criminal." Will Hulings, one of the most prolific commentators at city council meetings, argued that sanctuary policies prevent law enforcement from doing their jobs. "They create a haven for criminals, and make it easier for federal drug traffickers, violent offenders, and Biden cartel-linked gangs to operate freely in our city," he added, without elaborating on his claim that the former president is involved in drug trafficking. Councilman Jonathan Bingle, who voted against the resolution, argued that tight immigration laws were necessary to prevent a "very small group" of violent criminals and drug dealers from entering. "Now, had this resolution been: 'Dear Congress, please fix the broken immigration system, because what we want here is we want more people coming here legally ... I 100% would sign off on that all day long," Bingle said. Councilman Paul Dillon argued that the Keep Washington Working Act did not just protect undocumented immigrants, but all immigrants and in some cases citizens from being racially profiled. He noted that Greyhound Lines Inc. paid $2.2 million to settle a lawsuit over its practice of allegedly discriminating against customers based on skin color and allowing immigration raids on its buses in Spokane. Councilman Michael Cathcart, who was the second to vote against the resolution, argued that the law did nothing to further the protections of immigrants and possibly endangered them further. "It's not an ordinance that enacts any sort of law, it doesn't stop ICE in any capacity from operating inside the city of Spokane," Cathcart said. "What is this law going to do? It is likely going to draw the ire of the federal officials who are actively enforcing these laws." He added that the resolution could amount to little more than both sticking the city's neck out onto the Trump administration's chopping block and also mislead immigrants into believing they are fully protected when "ICE doesn't care about this resolution." "I'm very concerned that we are creating this immense false sense of security, that there will be a headline in The Spokesman-Review tomorrow, or other publications, about us passing this resolution," Cathcart said. "And suddenly individuals are going to say, 'Wow, OK ICE is gone,' but that's not the case."
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Local group asks Spokane City Council to voice support for sanctuary state law
Jan. 27—Pointing to a presidential administration that has vowed to enact mass deportations, local nonprofit Latinos En Spokane has asked the city to affirm state sanctuary laws and to find money to support immigrant legal defense services. A resolution floated last week and presented to the Spokane City Council on Monday would commit the city to enforcing the statewide Keep Washington Working Act, which restricts law enforcement in the state from supporting the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The nonbinding resolution also asks the city to explore funding it could give to local organizations, such as Latinos En Spokane, for the legal services of undocumented immigrants. "It's very expensive for families facing immigration, and we have very few pro bono immigration attorneys here," said Jennyfer Mesa, the executive director of Latinos En Spokane. In an interview, Mesa noted the case of Adams County, which is currently being sued for allegedly violating the Keep Washington Working Act. "This is also a way to protect the city, because other cities, other counties, are facing lawsuits," Mesa said. In addition to itself making a statement, the resolution would pledge the city to train staff, law enforcement and others on the relevant laws. "We know that a lot of the staff do not know about the Keep Washington Working law, even including some councilmembers," Mesa said. The resolution has garnered the support of dozens of local and regional organizations, including the Empire Health Foundation, Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, Thrive International, Revive Center, YWCA Spokane, Indigenous Eats and more, Mesa added. She expects the resolution to come for a vote on Feb. 10, when Latinos En Spokane plan to hold a rally outside of City Hall.
