SPOKANE, Wash. — largely dispersed from the area around an ICE facility on the north bank of the Spokane River in downtown Spokane Wednesday night.
A blockade around the ICE facility started when former Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart issued a “call for action” on Facebook after he said a young Venezuelan that he was serving as legal guardian for was being detained.
That protest started several hours after a protest was scheduled to take place by the red wagon in Riverfront Park. It also came the day after Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a curfew amid days of protests in her city.
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown issued a curfew for a portion of downtown near the ICE facility to take place from 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday to 5 a.m. on Thursday.
was among several people detained for refusing orders by police to disperse. In a press conference Wednesday evening, Brown said she had heard the ICE detainees at the center of the protest had been taken from the facility.
Spokane Police Department spokesperson Officer Dan Strassenberg told NonStop Local that the ICE facility was “empty,” earlier in the evening, however he couldn’t say who had been in the facility and whether anyone detained for immigration violations had been removed.
A spokesperson for the ICE office in Seattle didn’t immediately respond to a request for information on any potential immigrant detainees.
Brown and Spokane Police Department Chief Kevin Hall said that no tear gas was used against protestors, despite rumors. Brown also dismissed rumors that her office was in communication with ICE to negotiate release of detained migrants.
“The safest course of action was for Spokane police, not ICE, to try to safely disperse the crowd,” Brown said, “to try to convince the crowds to leave, and (if they didn’t) to follow through with arrests.”
When the crowd grew and ignored orders, Brown said she issued a curfew “with ample time” for protestors to leave.
Brown said no serious injuries were reported.
Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels, whose deputies helped respond to the protests, told NonStop Local that protestors went beyond exercising their first amendment rights.
“It crosses a line when it violates somebody else’s rights,” Nowels said. “You saw people start to get physical with the officers.”
Hall said the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office also responded to their request for mutual aid.
Mayor Brown said the city’s response was an example of how a local community can police itself without federal interference.
“I think we demonstrated this evening that the city is capable of conducting interactions with peaceful protests, utilizing our methods to deescalate them and keep the public safe,” Brown said. “It was fairly clear to me that if there was no Spokane police presence, that could be used as a justification for (federal agents) to come in and take control of the situation.”
Mayor Brown also said that she was in communication with Washington Attorney General Nick Brown to discuss potential legal action the city could take.
Attorney General Brown on Wednesday as well.
