SEATTLE — Flames, fireworks, and clashes with police in downtown Seattle got the attention of people nationwide on Wednesday night as people took to the streets to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
But Matt Adams, the legal director with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, says that kind of destruction can overshadow the main reason thousands of protesters marched in the first place.
“What we don’t want is that there be distractions of violence that the administration brings in troops and tries to make a spectacle of a political theater out of it in order for the administration to justify their actions,” Adams said.
While he wholeheartedly supports the peaceful protest that made its way to downtown, Adams says the damage and vandalism are hurting their cause rather than helping it.
“It allows the government to then have an excuse to see what we saw in California, where they send in the troops, and they’re taking actions that, again, are unprecedented in using the military to harm the communities that live here,” he said.
Crowds of people participated in the anti-ICE rally in Seattle while supporting immigrant rights in solidarity with what we’re seeing across the country.
When that wrapped up, things got violent.
Adams says he doesn’t want to see anyone in our community get hurt. He says the actions of the Trump administration with ICE have already been affecting his clients.
“We have parents who have said, ‘oh, I’m afraid to take my kid to the hospital. Can I do that?’ Just things that you wouldn’t even think of that now. We have community members that are afraid to just carry about the normal, the necessities of life,” he explained.
Adams says they will be participating in the “No Kings” protests against Trump’s policies on Saturday, which will be happening nationwide.
Seattle police is preparing for more than 2,000 people to march from Cal Anderson Park to Seattle Center starting at noon.
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