Indian-American Congresswoman arrested in Washington anti-immigration protest
Washington, June 29: Indian-American Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal was arrested along with 575 other women during a protest staged here against US President Donald Trump's border and immigration policy.
Jayapal said she was asked to speak at the demonstration called by women at the Hart Senate Office Building on Thursday, reports The Seattle Times.
The civil disobedience was a reaction to the Trump administration's crackdown at the US-Mexico border, including separation of thousands of children from their parents in recent months.
"I decided that I, too, would sit down with them and submit to arrest," Jayapal said. "We chanted and sang and talked about the need to reunite these families and to end the President's zero-tolerance policy."
The women were arrested and charged with unlawfully demonstrating in the Senate office atrium, said Eva Malecki, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol Police.
Jayapal was issued a $50 fine for "crowding, obstructing, or incommoding". It was her third arrest at a protest, the other two occurring years before her 2016 election to Congress.
A longtime immigration-rights leader who founded OneAmerica before running for elected office, Jayapal said she has been outraged and unable to sleep over Trump's "zero tolerance" prosecutions of people crossing the US-Mexico border, The Seattle Times reported.
"I think that every American, Republican and Democrat, just has to try and imagine what that looks like, to have a six-month-old baby taken from your breast," she said.
Jayapal has also helped organise "Families Belong Together" protests set for Saturday, with demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and other cities across the nation.
The Trump Administration launched the so-called "zero tolerance" policy in April, which considers illegal border crossing as a criminal offence, meaning that immigrant minors will be separated from their families, reports Efe news.
Last week, Trump penned an executive order to end family separations at the border due to harsh criticism.
Since then, the US government has reunited 538 children with their relatives, but more than 2,000 minors still remain separated, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
