Former Spokane City Council president pleads guilty to impeding ICE officers to prevent the deportation of two legal immigrants
Former Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart pleaded guilty Monday to a felony charge of impeding the duties of immigration officers while trying to prevent them from transporting two legal immigrants to a Tacoma detention center for deportation.
“I understood what I was up against, but I felt it was necessary to take a stand,” Stuckart told media outside of Spokane’s federal courthouse following his plea hearing. “I accept full responsibility for my conduct.”
Stuckart, executive director of Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium, ignited a massive protest by posting on Facebook a call to action about the detainment of two young immigrants on June 11.
Crowds of people showed up to Spokane’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office off West Cataldo Avenue near Riverfront Park and began blocking law enforcement vehicles and exits to the building to prevent the two immigrants’ transport to the detention center across the state.
The two immigrants who came into the U.S. legally through a government-regulated humanitarian program were 21-year-old Cesar Alexander Alvarez Perez and 28-year-old Joswar Slater Rodriguez Torres, both of whom attended church and worked steady jobs at Walmart. But the Trump administration didn’t extend the program. They had escaped persecution in Venezuela and tried to come into the U.S. legally for five months until they were granted entry by the government, according to previous reporting from The Spokesman-Review. Stuckart was Perez’s legal “sponsor,” or a guide to help an immigrant navigate life in America.
Perez chose to self-deport because he felt it was better than being treated poorly inside Tacoma’s immigrant detention center, The Spokesman-Review reported in August. Torres was awaiting a hearing to be released from detention in October, but it’s unclear what came of it.
As Stuckart spoke about the immigrants – whom he called “my friends” – he and his wife, Ann, were brought to tears.
“If I have learned one thing over the last six months, it is that you can do the right thing and still have negative consequences,” he said. “When ICE took Cesar and Joswar and put them in chains, I decided to try and stop them … At the time, it was my hope that the government would do the right thing and release them from custody.”
According to Stuckart’s grand jury indictment, the government alleges he blocked a transport bus carrying the two immigrants. Others blocked the pathway and door to the transport bus despite orders to disperse, the indictment says. Some stood in front of the bus, released air from the tires and painted the windshield of the bus, making it unsafe to drive, according to the indictment.
Stuckart has the opportunity in 18 months to withdraw the felony plea and instead plead guilty to a less serious misdemeanor charge if he abides by all release conditions until June 2027, as part of a contract between him and prosecutors. Under the agreement, Stuckart likely would not face jail time.
Stuckart is only one of nine protesters to face federal charges in connection to the protest. Mikki P. Hatfield was the first of the protesters to plead guilty in a hearing last week, but more are expected to take similar plea deals soon.
Collin Muncey and Bobbi Silva are set for change of plea hearings this week. The remaining five – Justice Forral, Erin Lang, Thalia Ramirez, Bajun Mavalwalla II and Jac Archer – are currently scheduled for trial in May.
The protest and arrests spurred controversy throughout Spokane, and even made national news momentarily for how closely they mirrored President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown agenda, which encourages more immigration arrests and deportations. The U.S. Justice Department sent a mass email to all 93 U.S. attorneys ordering federal prosecutors to prioritize cases against protesters who defy federal immigration enforcement and to publicize those types of cases, according to a Reuters report, just one day after the June 11 protest in Spokane.
Then came the sudden resignation of Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington Richard Barker, who posted on social media he was glad he never had to sign an indictment he didn’t “believe in.”
Two days after Barker’s resignation, FBI agents swarmed the homes of nine protesters who were at the demonstration. Mavalwalla II was handed a warrant for law enforcement to search his home. They took the clothes, his phone and the boots he was wearing that day, according to previous reporting, and he was later charged with conspiracy to impede the duties of a federal agent.
“I feel the truth every day by this administration, but it’s a lot closer to home now,” Bajun Mavalwalla said about his son in a previous interview. “These are not new feelings about the Trump administration.”
Similar feelings were brewing from Barker, too, who told The Spokesman-Review in a September interview that he resigned because he was concerned about the Justice Department’s leadership in Washington, D.C., under Trump. To him, it felt like senior leadership across the country was straying from “staying true” to “upholding the rule of law without fear or favor.”
Stuckart on Monday, like many others involved in this case, appeared to question why the U.S. government fought so hard to bring forward the indictment they did.
Ultimately, he chose not to address it.
“That is not what matters. What matters is that we each find the courage to take care of each other, take care of our friends and our loved ones and take care of our community,” he said. “Martin Luther King Jr. explained that the antidote to fear is courage, and we must be courageous while accepting the consequences for our actions, and we must never stop fighting for each other.”
Stuckart’s next hearing will be in June 2027, when a judge will decide whether to accept the withdrawal of the plea or proceed with sentencing. If Stuckart is sentenced, he faces a maximum term of six years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines.