Senator Murray Statement on Federal Arrests of Spokane Residents for Protests Against ICE

ICYMI from June: Senator Murray Statement on Protests in Response to Immigration Arrests in Spokane

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement on the news, reported by the Spokesman-Review, that federal agents arrested and searched the homes of Spokane residents who took part in a protests in Spokane on June 11^th. The protests in June were sparked by the sudden detention of two asylum-seekers whose work visas were abruptly revoked days before.

"The Trump administration is abusing the force of the law to intimidate Americans exercising their First Amendment rights-whether you are a Democrat or Republican, this is wrong and we all need to speak out against this disturbing perversion of justice.

"If you are as angry as I am about Trump's unconstitutional and cruel assault on immigrants, we need to speak out peacefully against inhumane policies. We lose our democracy when our voices fall silent.

"Let's be perfectly clear about Trump's unconstitutional immigration crackdown: he is diverting limited federal resources away from pursuing violent criminals to instead round up individuals with no criminal record-and now, apparently, he's going after peaceful protestors as well. We cannot be silent and I will be contacting DOJ directly regarding this gross abuse of federal resources."

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