2.15.17
Suggested lead:
Lawmakers in Olympia reached out Wednesday with a simple message to immigrants:
"We've got your back." Dan Frizzell has more.
Wrap (:80 total):
The Muslim ban may be shot down, at least temporarily, but House and
Senate Democrats at the state Capitol are preparing for more.
On a day when the Legislature took pause to recall and condemn the World
War II internment of Japanese Americans, representatives and senators met with
reporters to renew their pledge to resist any federal attempts to violate the
civil rights of Washington residents. Current House bills would prohibit state
agencies from helping the Trump administration compile religious registries, and
would establish a hot-line for reporting a growing number of aggressive
incidents verging on hate crime. Representative Lillian Ortiz-Self sponsored
that bill, and the Mukilteo Democrat was adamant.
ORTIZ-SELF: “We’ve seen a country that has been motivated by fear to create
hatred and discrimination and injustice. And that is not OK.
This is our state. It’s just
not going to happen in this Washington.” [:13]
Even without a single Republican cosponsor, both bills are
expected to pass the House, where Democrats hold the majority.
The picture is less promising in the Senate.
Republicans have a one-vote edge in that chamber, including a GOP senator
who spends much of his time in Washington, D.C., working for Trump.
Democratic senators, however, did go out of their way Wednesday to
commend Senator Joe Fain of Auburn, the lone Republican who agreed to cosponsor
the anti-registry bill. In Olympia, I’m Dan Frizzell.