Spokane Anti-ICE Activists Convicted of Federal Charges

Last June, a former member of the Spokane City Council named Ben Stuckart called for a protest outside an ICE facility in the city after a migrant he’d become a legal guardian for was scheduled to be removed.

The day of unrest began on Cataldo Avenue after former City Council President Ben Stuckart sent a social media post at about 1 p.m. asking “that if you care at all about these illegal detainers you meet me at 411 West Cataldo by 2 p.m. I am going to set in front of the bus. Feel free to join me ….

“The Latino community needs the rest of our community. Not tonight, not Saturday but right now!!!!” 

Stuckart was responding to the arrest of 21-year-old Cesar Alexander Alvarez Perez, who is seeking asylum from Venezuela, and Joswar Slater Rodriguez Torres, a Colombian national also in his early twenties.

Stuckart said he officially became the Venezuelan’s legal guardian three weeks ago, and arrived with him and the man from Colombia for a scheduled “check-in” appointment at the Spokane facility this morning.

Hundreds of people showed up in response to Stuckart’s call and some of them followed Stuckart’s direction to block an ICE transport bus from leaving.

…protestors joined Stuckart despite warnings from a pair of uniformed federal agents who came out of the building to warn the crowd that obstructing their pathway could lead to arrests and charges.

Protesters responded by parking their vehicles in front and behind the bus.

“I don’t want this bus to leave with my friends,” Stuckart said. “And I told everybody I was down here, and if people wanted to join me, they could. It’s not right. It’s not morally right, what’s happening.”

As the evening wore on, attempts to stop ICE from transporting the two detained men continued.

Around 5:25 p.m., a group of roughly 150 protesters ran around the back of the building to obstruct three unmarked law enforcement vehicles from leaving a fenced-in parking area abutting the public parking area for Riverfront Park…

A handful of agents, faces covered by ski masks and sunglasses, began to push the human chain of demonstrators, knocking their glasses and handmade signs scattering on the ground.

Protestors and officers shoved each other in a mass of yelling and chanting for about a minute before the agents retreated into their parking lot and the gate closed.

Not long after the agents retreated back inside, a handful of protesters hauled Lime scooters and park benches as a barricade to block vehicles from leaving from the gate.

Spokane police finally arrived around 6:30 and Stuckart and a couple dozen other protesters were arrested.

Former Spokane city council president Ben Stuckart was just taken away in cuffs. He called for this protest, when he said ICE was going to deport a man from Venezuela who was seeking asylum. pic.twitter.com/1xM9IlS40g

— Melissa Luck ☘ (@MelissaKXLY4) June 12, 2025

Here’s some additional video from the scene. Contrary to what this tweet claims, no tear gas was used by police only smoke.

more from spokane WA as police respond to crowd throwing stuff.

more tear gas https://t.co/mPqjaiPz3s pic.twitter.com/bojjNQS14E

— pine_tree_riots (@pine_tree_riots) June 12, 2025

Federal charges were eventually filed against 9 people who participated in the “protest.” Six of those people including Stuckart later reach plea deals that gave them reduced sentences. But three refused. They became known as the Spokane 3 and last week they were convicted.

A jury in Spokane, Wash., on Thursday convicted three anti-ICE demonstrators in a closely watched case that tested the effectiveness of the Trump administration’s effort to use federal conspiracy charges against protesters, and prompted the region’s acting U.S. attorney to resign.

The eight-day trial of the protesters, Bajun Mavalwalla II, Justice Forral and Jac Archer, stemmed from a June 2025 demonstration outside a building rented by the federal government…

During the trial, prosecutors argued that the defendants were part of a coordinated effort to prevent immigration officers from carrying out their duties and that their actions, including blocking gates, doors and a driveway and encouraging others to join them, constituted criminal conduct, regardless of the political motivations…

Jurors found Mx. Forral and Mx. Archer, who both identify as nonbinary, guilty of conspiring to impede federal officers, though they did not find that either had intended to injure law enforcement officers, according to the jury verdict form.

Despite the jury deciding to convict, this may not be over yet.

Defense lawyers have asked the trial judge to set aside the verdicts and acquit their clients. A district court judge, Rebecca Pernell, a former public defender appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., has agreed to consider the request this summer.

So we could see some kind of politicized jury nullification by the trial judge in this case. We’ll have to wait and see.

Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.

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