Thread: WA: Pro-immigrant rallies in Shelton, Tacoma following raid

Pro-immigrant rally draws more than 70 in Shelton

Christian Hill
The Olympian

SHELTON — Holding American flags and signs, more than 70 people marched through town Friday to show support for immigrant families broken apart by the recent raid by federal authorities.

On the morning of May 31, U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents looking for four fugitives who had been ordered to leave the country detained 16 illegal immigrants from several apartments and a home.

The organizer of Friday’s event, Immigrantes Unidos de Shelton, or United Immigrants of Shelton, wanted to publicize that the raid left children without parents and forced many in Shelton’s growing Latino community into hiding. The march also highlighted the contributions Shelton’s immigrant population makes, the organizer said.

For more information, see this story on Page A1 in Saturday's Olympian.

http://www.theolympian.com/377/story/136848.html

Illegal alien latinos have systematically and purposely driven out many of the LEGAL immigrants from Asian countries (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines) in many of the small towns across western Washington over the past few years, including Shelton, Aberdeen, Raymond, Westport, etc. It's about time ICE got their act together and went after the invaders.

Protest In Tacoma Follows Portland Immigration Raid

POSTED: 9:16 am PDT June 17, 2007
UPDATED: 9:31 am PDT June 17, 2007

TACOMA, Wash. -- Activists gathered at a federal detention center in Tacoma on Saturday to protest a sweep by federal immigration agents in Portland, Ore. earlier in the week.

The raid Tuesday at a Fresh Del Monte Produce Co. plant resulted in 167 detentions of migrant workers, and 131 of them were sent to the to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma to await deportation proceedings.

About 60 to 70 protesters gathered Saturday in front of the center.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/13517330/detail.html


Melissa Campos, a Seattle immigration attorney, said the protest was to support the detainees as well as their family members, many of whom traveled from Oregon.

Tacoma police said no arrests were made.

The protesters included members of a number of immigrant rights groups, including Hate Free Zone, Washington Community Action Network and the Portland-based Sin Fronteras.