Mayor issues 9:30 p.m. curfew after Spokane officers grapple with two immigration protests

Two major immigration protests erupted in Spokane on Wednesday, sparking a massive police response with officers who deployed tear gas.

Mayor Lisa Brown issued a 9:30 p.m. curfew for perhaps 1,000 protestors who flooded Riverfront Park and surrounding downtown streets. It’s the first such measure since the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. 

“Everyone must abide by this curfew. Limited exceptions apply, including law enforcement, emergency personnel, media, people leaving the soccer game at the Podium, residents living in the area, and people going to and from work,” Brown’s directive read.

The curfew was planned between Boone Avenue to the north to Spokane Falls Boulevard to the south and Howard Street to the west to Division Street. It also included all of Riverfront Park. 

“We want everybody to be safe and we thought this was the best path forward in order to achieve that,” Brown said. “It’s limited geographic area, but it gives us the ability to let the protesters go home for the night and keep everybody as safe as possible.”

She made the call in response to hundreds of demonstrators who blocked federal immigration enforcement agents in Spokane on Wednesday evening from leaving a downtown immigration office reportedly with refugees who were detained at court hearings earlier in the day.

The fracas is arguably the most extreme local showing of resistance, among others in Los Angeles and across the country, to President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdowns since he took office for the second time in January.

The day of unrest began on Cataldo Avenue after former City Council President Ben Stuckart sent a social media post at about 1 p.m. asking “that if you care at all about these illegal detainers you meet me at 411 West Cataldo by 2 p.m. I am going to set in front of the bus. Feel free to join me ….

“The Latino community needs the rest of our community. Not tonight, not Saturday but right now!!!!” 

Stuckart was responding to the arrest of 21-year-old Cesar Alexander Alvarez Perez, who is seeking asylum from Venezuela, and Joswar Slater Rodriguez Torres, a Colombian national also in his early twenties.

Stuckart said he officially became the Venezuelan’s legal guardian three weeks ago, and arrived with him and the man from Colombia for a scheduled “check-in” appointment at the Spokane facility this morning.

The two were in the United States on work visas and had full-time employment at the Walmart in Airway Heights until Friday, when their “work permits were revoked,” he said.

Both young men are hard workers who have been diligent about following the legal process and building better lives, Stuckart said.

“You can’t help spend time with them and not understand just what great young men they are,” Stuckart said. “They’ve done everything right, and they’re escaping horrible situations, and then to have them come in for a checkup and be detained illegally is morally reprehensible.”

For the first few hours, most of the demonstration remained peaceful, aside from a masked person who covered the driver’s side of the bus windshield with a layer of white spray paint about a half hour into the demonstration.

More than a dozen protestors joined Stuckart  despite warnings from a pair of uniformed federal agents who came out of the building to warn the crowd that obstructing their pathway could lead to arrests and charges.

Protesters responded by parking their vehicles in front and behind the bus.

“I don’t want this bus to leave with my friends,” Stuckart said. “And I told everybody I was down here, and if people wanted to join me, they could. It’s not right. It’s not morally right, what’s happening.”

The Cataldo crowd included several prominent politicians, activists and community leaders, including Spokane County Democratic Party Chair Naida Spencer; state Rep. Timm Orsmby; Spokane City Council candidate Sarah Dixit; union advocate and a former Democratic candidate for local, state and federal offices Ted Cummings; Thrive International Director Mark Finney and Latinos en Spokane Director Jennyfer Mesa.

While the protestors share a desire to see the young men let go, and frustrations with federal immigration enforcement, they disagreed as to how.

Some were a silent presence, others carried signs and chanted, while others were more direct in showing their displeasure by shouting at the law enforcement officers.

The disconnect became evident as barriers were formed in front of the gated parking lot using benches, cones and Lime scooters, taken down by others and then reformed in front of the line of Spokane police and Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy cars next to the building.

Mesa said both of the young men are clients of Latinos en Spokane. But her presence Wednesday was meant as a gesture for her friends, not just her clients.

“They’re good kids,” she said, choking back tears. “They have been volunteering, they’re doing the process and everything legally. I just don’t understand why they’re being detained.”

Stuckart said the federal employees in the ICE office would not allow him to accompanying Alvarez Perez during his appointment and they did not disclose why either young men were being detained.

Stuckart estimated it took around seven minutes from when they went back for their appointment for federal officials to come out and inform him they were being detained.

“And each of them has a stack of legal paperwork at least 2 inches thick, with all their asylum paperwork and their guardianship paperwork, and they clearly didn’t look at it,” Stuckart said. “They just said, ‘We’re detaining them.’”

Stuckart said he started the legal guardianship process earlier this year after a call from Latinos en Spokane for local residents to assist local “vulnerable juveniles.”

He volunteers with the organization regularly and said he has greatly enjoyed getting to know Alvarez Perez, who’s lived in Spokane for six months.

Alvarez Perez came to Spokane by way of Miami, after walking through nine countries on his way from Venezuela and meeting Rodriguez Torres along the way. Stuckart said his main responsibility as a guardian is to provide mentorship.

“He’s not living with us, and I’m not in charge of his finances or anything,” Stuckart said.

The gathering grew to about 100 people at about 5 p.m., including about 15 blocking the bus. Stuckart was not in front of the bus at the time, but he remained  at the protest.

Around 5:25 p.m., a group of roughly 150 protesters ran around the back of the building to obstruct three unmarked law enforcement vehicles from leaving a fenced-in parking area abutting the public parking area for Riverfront Park.

Protesters shouted “Shame” repeatedly and about 10 of them linked arms in a line in front of the parking lot gate. 

A handful of agents, faces covered by ski masks and sunglasses, began to push the human chain of demonstrators knocking their glasses and handmade signs scattering on the ground.

Protestors and officers shoved each other in a mass of yelling and chanting for about a minute before the agents retreated into their parking lot and the gate closed.

Among the protestors was Alicea Gonzalez, 27, who brought her 5-year-old son Javell and father, Adam Betancort, 46. She wore a Mexico  T-shirt to the protest, and the pair brought flags, one of Mexico, the other half-Mexican, half-American.

The latter flag is representative of Betancourt and his identity, he said while holding the flapping fabric towards passing cars on the corner of Cataldo Ave and Washington Street, right outside the ICE facility.

“I’m American and I’m a Mexican,” he said.

Though they don’t know either of the men detained by ICE, they’re familiar with their story; Gonzalez’s maternal grandmother crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in the 1950s, floating across the river in a car tire, she said. Betancort’s parents are also immigrants from Mexico.

“I appreciate that; I wouldn’t have the life that I live without her,” Gonzalez said. “So I’m just showing my support, letting people know that they have people out here that will stand behind them, and use their voices to speak up for them.”

Not long after the agents retreated back inside, a handful of protesters hauled Lime scooters and park benches as a barricade to block vehicles from leaving from the gate.

Spokane Police officers arrived shortly before 6:30 p.m., followed by Spokane County sheriff’s deputies. The local law enforcement response grew to dozen by by about 6:45 p.m.

The group then formed a sort of protective barrier for an exit on the Washington Street side of the building. They carried weapons to shoot less-lethal munitions, with what appeared to be tear gas canisters and large hip bags with unidentified materials inside.

As the officers widened their perimeter to encompass much of the yard abutting the Washington Street side of the building, another group of deputies and officers began forcibly removing protestors from around the small bus.

A Spokane Police Department officer spoke over the regional SWAT car speaker system at 7:13 p.m. and ordered everyone present to disperse. The officer gave the demonstrators five minutes to do so. Few left the scene when police warned at 7:22 p.m. that they would use force if the crowd did not leave.

Stuckart and at least a dozen others were arrested just after 7:30 p.m.

A second, planned protest at Riverfront Park escalated hours after the Stuckart-led event and riot-clad officers began shooting tear gas and making arrests.

Harris Kahler, a 23-year-old protestor said he was standing in the front lines when officers pulled out paint guns and shot the ground in front of the line around 8:40 p.m.

After that, tear gas canisters were thrown and Kahler kicked one back in response. Kahler then went to grab another, turned around and was shot in the lower back with a rubber bullet.

“I’m in a lot of pain, but if I physically have to be here, I’ll be the shield I got to be,” Kahler said.

In a telephone interview, City Council President Betsy Wilkerson said she acknowledged the right of everyone to protest. 

“If I wasn’t somewhere else, I might be there myself to support our sisters and brothers,” she said. “I’m just hoping for the best outcome, elevating the issue and getting people involved in the way they feel they best can, and that’s a protest. 

“With that being said, we’re not trying to throw more wood on this fire, to elevate it to more than a peaceful protest.”

Reached by phone, City Councilman Jonathan Bingle said he fully supports the right of every American to peacefully protest.

“It’s one of the rights that makes our country so great! But, the moment a protest turns into small busdalism, threats, or lawlessness, it is no longer protected speech. It becomes a crime, and should be dealt with as such,” Bingle said. “I am stunned by the position of some of our current and former elected officials in our city. Instead of standing for the rule of law and the officers who keep our streets safe, they seem more interested in scoring points or justifying bad behavior. That is not leadership.”

City Councilman Paul Dillon in an interview that he supported those who were willing to stand up for their beliefs. 

“No human being is illegal,” he said. “This is a direct result of the escalation and fears the Trump administration inflicts on communities which create chaos.”

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Reporters Thomas Clouse, Emry Dinman and Corbin Vanderby contributed to this report which is developing and will be updated.

 

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