Turning up the heat for immigration reform

Comprehensive immigration reform! In the national spotlight because of the recent racist enactment in Arizona, the issue has already sent hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets of Seattle and other U.S. cities, including our nation’s capital.

Yet immigrants continue to be deported at the rate of a thousand a day, tearing families apart and compelling millions to live in fear.

And with honorable exceptions, most members of Congress have barely stirred -- and President Obama has yet to provide the necessary aggressive leadership.

Accordingly, the reform movement nationally, and the Washington Immigration Reform Coalition (WIRC) in this state, are ratcheting up the pressure, bringing into play a tactic that created the climate for the enactment of the Civil Rights Act: Non-violent civil disobedience.

Seattle advocates joined their counterparts in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Tucson, Detroit, San Francisco and Washington, DC, in inviting arrest for blocking traffic on busy streets and disrupting business in buildings that house immigration-related government offices.

“Throughout history,” WIRC declared, “advocates have used civil disobedience – or peaceful, non-violent action – to bring about change in the face of injustice, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and Ceaar Chavez.”

In Seattle, the police for undisclosed reasons refrained from arresting the 30 or so activists who first blocked the elevators leading to the immigrant courts in a building at 2009 2nd Avenue, and then blocked traffic at three busy intersections on Madison Street.

Among those who vainly invited arrest was Puget Sound Alliance President Robby Stern. A dozen other PSARA members were among the 250 who rallied at the nearby Federal Building before marching to support those who planned civil disobedience.

“We tried,” said Pramila Jayapal, executive director of the immigrant advocacy organization OneAmerioca. “Next time, we’ll be looking at something bigger.”

At our deadline, “something bigger” was already in the works. A delegation from Washington and Idaho was en route to Phoenix for a weekend of events challenging SB 1070, the anti-immigrant bill signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23. The Northwest delegation will join tens of thousands from throughout Arizona and the rest of the country In a 5-mile march to the state capitol for a huge protest rally with music and a roster of speakers from the faith, labor and civil rights movements.