More than 30 protesters were reported to have been arrested after refusing to leave the Washington State Republican Party Headquarter’s Bellevue office Thursday afternoon.
This was one of 10 acts of organized civil disobedience orchestrated by Washington CAN, the Alliance for a Just Society and We Belong Together and demanding Republican lawmakers get behind H.R. 15, an immigration reform bill stalled in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“This is something that Republicans and Democrats can come together on and need to come together on,” said Pramila Jayapal with We Belong Together: Women for Common Sense Immigration Reform.
Only Three House Republicans currently support the Democrat-sponsored immigration reform bill, and Jayapal said Thursday’s protests were to encourage Republican lawmakers, such as Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, to get on board.
“If they’re really for immigration reform,” said Jayapal, “there’s a bill.”
Those arrested were all women, she said, adding 75 percent of immigrants in the United States are women and children. They entered the GOP headquarters and refused to leave. Bellevue Ofc. Carla Iafrate said all were arrested for first-degree trespassing. Peggy Lynch, wife of Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, was among the 33 women arrested and later released.
Keith Schipper, communications director for the Washington State Republican Party in Bellevue, said the landlord of the headquarters’ office building on Northeast First Avenue requested the protesters be trespassed after several other tenants went on lockdown.
“Us political people, we’re used to that,” he said, “but the insurance broker, he’s not used to that.”
The state Republican Party was unaware of the planned protest, said Schipper, adding the plan Thursday was to celebrate the predicted victory of Jan Angel for state Senate in District 26.
“We weren’t able to get any work done at all.”
Washington State Republican Party Chairwoman Susan Hutchison is in Washington, D.C., but distributed a news release during the protest agreeing the immigration system is broken.
“We are happy to have a dialogue with anyone on the important issue of immigration reform,” she states. “You cannot fix a broken law by breaking the law.”
