May Day protests for immigrant, worker rights draw thousands across WA

Thousands of May Day protesters across Washington state, including hundreds in Seattle, went on strike, rallied and marched Friday in support of worker rights and an end to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

The annual May 1 demonstrations were among thousands across the U.S. celebrating International Workers' Day, marking the 1886 date an estimated 500,000 workers across North America went on strike to demand a legal eight-hour workday.

In addition to protesters' usual calls for better pay and working conditions, this year's demonstrations focused on immigrant rights and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency - a response to surging ICE arrests, detentions and deportations over the last two years.

Protesters rallied and marched through city streets in Washington state, including in Tacoma, Vancouver, Yakima and Tukwila, demanding the ICE detention center in Tacoma be shut down and that ICE agents be barred from this summer's World Cup events in Seattle.

In Seattle, hundreds of protesters arrived by noon for a rally at Cal Anderson Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, some carrying signs with messages like, "Stop war in Iran," "Immigrants make America great" and Unions: Take the lead against ICE!"

Some in the crowd joined the "afternoon of solidarity" in lieu of going to work or school as part of a nationwide May Day labor strike. A simultaneous economic boycott urged people to not spend money Friday, as many face soaring gasoline and grocery prices while top U.S. officials sink billions into funding a war against Iran.

Attendees squinted through spring sunshine as union members, community organizers and activists gave speeches in Spanish and English, their voices booming from speakers and echoing across the park's turf field.

Cheers and applause followed speakers' demands for the federal government to tax billionaires and wealthy corporations, stop funding deportation and war efforts, and direct money to public programs that help workers and their families.

April Sims, president of the Washington State Labor Council, urged the hundreds of "working people" at Cal Anderson Park to unite against the "billionaires and the politicians who serve them." Sims' organization is one of the largest AFL-CIO state federations in the country, representing most of the estimated 615,000 union-represented workers in Washington.

"They want us divided, they want us powerless, but look around. Are we powerless?" Sims shouted, to loud "Nos" from the crowd. "We have power because we are united and we are unstoppable."

Other speakers, including a barista and a man once detained at the Tacoma ICE facility, also took the stage, accusing the Trump administration of exploiting immigrants and "everyday workers," and private companies of profiting from "ICE terror."

Attendees, some waving Palestinian flags and wearing shirts emblazoned with labor union logos, marched out of the park shortly before 2 p.m. and onto East Pine Street. Loud drumming accompanied the crowd as it traveled west, led by a group carrying a banner that read, "Workers, migrants & immigrants unite!"

Eliana Pesola, 70, and Ken Sharma, 69, took light rail Friday morning into Seattle to participate in the protest. The couple, who live together in Lynnwood, held hands as they marched north on Fourth Avenue, each carrying a sign with a Seattle Seahawks logo and the words, "ICE out of Seattle."

Pesola, who immigrated to the U.S. from Peru 45 years ago, said she wanted to send a message that "immigrant workers are what make the country strong." Preventing immigrants from working in the U.S. will hurt companies and wealthy people - including Seattle-headquartered Amazon and its billionaire founder Jeff Bezos - by taking away workers they rely on, she said.

"We're cutting ourselves by not giving opportunities to immigrants," she said.

Sharma, who immigrated to the U.S. as a child, agreed.

"This is our land, our world," he said. "Everyone should go where they feel safe. That's the goal."

Several marchers focused on local issues, holding a banner reading: "Mayor Wilson shut down the cameras!" Mayor Katie Wilson has faced backlash over her decision not to turn off police CCTV cameras and for pausing an expansion of the cameras while an audit is conducted.

As the protest veered around the Amazon Spheres, speakers pointed to Amazon Web Services' contracts with the Department of Homeland Security, handing out flyers that said "Amazon Delivers ICE … Bring the fight to our hometown corporation." Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection have contracted with AWS for data storage services.

Marchers also pointed to the company's reputation of relying heavily on immigrant labor and poor treatment of warehouse employees. A person with a megaphone chanted: "If you work for Bezos, you should quit your job."

"It is the United States and U.S. multinational corporations that literally torture the entire world," said Inez Gonzalez, an organizer with International Migrants Alliance. "When our politicians tell us that they support our movements, when corporations put pride flags on their (expletive), just know it doesn't mean anything until our people are free."

The protest was peaceful and with few disturbances, police said.

"It was pretty calm, Detective Brian Pritchard with the Seattle Police Department said around 5 p.m. One motorcycle driver was arrested for reckless driving after doing wheelies on the sidewalk, he said. A juvenile was also arrested for eluding a police vehicle, Pritchard said.

At one point, a man passing the crowd made a Nazi salute while walking against the marchers. Most protesters ignored or leered at him until he was cornered by several black bloc protesters, followed by some yelling, before separating.

Six members of the Police Department's Police Outreach Engagement Team, a unit tasked with communicating with protest organizers, and six King County sheriff's office deputies walked alongside the crowd. Police cars, lights flashing, blocked lines of vehicles waiting to get on Interstate 5 as the crowd approached Lake Union.

"All we want is it to be a safe environment," said P.O.E.T.'s commander, Seattle police Lt. Larry Langley. "We try to use as much communication as we can to de-escalate everything."

At Lake Union Park, marchers walked amongst booths set up by organizations including the Seattle Green Party and Party of Communists USA. Around 4 p.m., protesters dispersed into the sunshine.

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