Seattle City Council briefly suspends meeting after ICE protest disruptions from multiple groups

The Seattle City Council was interrupted Tuesday when two groups — one led by former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant and the other by Seattle Alliance against Racist and Political Repression (SAARPR) — flooded the council chambers to have their respective voices heard.

Each group had roughly a dozen people in attendance, with many signing up to speak during public comment. Some speakers even led chants with their groups when they had a chance to talk.

“ICE out now! ICE out now!” one chant exclaimed during Tuesday’s city council meeting.

 

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“Trump’s ICE agents are terrorizing our cities,” Sawant said at the council meeting. “Thousands of immigrant, working, and poor people are being grabbed off the street.”

SAARPR launched an “anti-ICE petition” for members of the Seattle City Council to sign, demanding accountability for ICE’s actions while additionally calling for an immediate end to ICE raids and mass deportations in the region.

The council engaged in a back-and-forth discussion with the public after the public comment period closed, but the interruptions got out of hand, prompting the council to briefly suspend its meeting.

“Will you let us continue our business?” Hollingsworth asked. “OK, we’re going to go into a 10-minute recess to cool it out.”

The Seattle City Council was able to take up business after a recess. Newly elected City Council President Joy Hollingsworth agreed to meet with SAARPR after the council meeting, but it ended abruptly when Hollingsworth would not commit to signing the petition at that time.

“Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth claimed that she would meet with us face to face, and we had a short meeting where she and the rest of the council admitted she had not read our letter, and would not be signing onto it,” SAARPR stated on social media after the meeting. “Knowing this, we have declined the meeting on Wednesday. We will not waste our time. We will continue to disrupt and demand action from the city council.

Platitudes are no longer acceptable,” the statement continued. “Now is the time for action.”

Kshama Sawant is running for Congress against incumbent Adam Smith.

MyNorthwest has reached out to the Seattle City Council for comment.

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