A RESOLUTION reaffirming Seattle as a welcoming city, expressing the Seattle City Council’s solidarity with Seattle’s South Asian community regardless of religion and caste, and opposing India’s National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act.
The chair will sign. Oh. Agenda Item two Resolution 319 26 reaffirming Seattle as a welcoming city, expressing the Seattle City Council's solidarity with Seattle's South Asian community regardless of religion, caste and opposing India's National Register of Citizens and Citizenship. Citizenship Amendment Act. I moved to hold Resolution 31926 until February 3rd, 2020. Second. Appreciate that. A lot of folks took time out of their day to come and speak to us today in anticipation of a vote on this resolution. The legislative process always has as a potential the a request for for a hold. I am asking that my colleagues support me in my request for a hold. We have heard from the Washington State Trade Relations Action Committee, as well as we have heard from a number of individuals representing themselves. And we have heard also from the the Indian consulate in in San Francisco that this resolution would benefit from a little bit more time and care. I'm very sensitive to how these resolutions are appropriately and powerfully used, and they are used in an in a way that encourages other legislative bodies to adopt them. And for that reason, I want to really make sure that we have taken the extra time and care to make sure that everything in this resolution before bringing it forward to vote is characterized in a way that we can stand by and say that we have done our due diligence and that we are certain that the information contained in the resolution is accurate. We're working with our Office of Inter-Governmental Relations because, as Councilmember Peterson mentions, our staff, because of the heavy workload that we have working on city business doesn't have the time to to fact check resolutions like this. So we have an Office of Intergovernmental Relations that has reached out to an individual who is with the Seattle International Affairs Advisory Board at the Jackson School of University of Washington, who's working to connect OIRA with subject matter experts in south the South in the South Asian Center for additional feedback. And so I'm confident I was willing to hold this for one additional week. Council member Swan asked that it be held instead until February 3rd, when she will be able to be in attendance because she will not be here next week. And with that, I would request the support of my colleagues on the Council for the hold until February 3rd. It has been moved and seconded that the resolution be held until February 3rd. Are there any comments members want. Just in terms of process? I have comment on the hold itself, but I also have comment on the base legislation which I think I have the right to speak to it as well because it's on the agenda. So do you want me to say it all at once or. I think all at once would be great. Okay. So first I want to speak to the hold up. And, you know, again, I'm speaking to members of the public in the movement who are here and also who are watching. I know many, many, including people in other countries, are watching the proceedings of this city council today. I want to be clear whether the resolution is passed today or at a future date in a couple of weeks. We are going to make sure that council members are going to vote yes on this resolution because it will be up to them to explain why they would why they would not support a fight, a global fight against egregious injustices. And I'm confident that that's going to happen. But I do not but I do not support delaying this vote. I think as many of you yourselves who have taken time off from work, I know some of you have actually taken the day off. Some of you got your children early from school because you wanted them to be here as well. I think it's disrespectful to all of you and people who are watching this. And also it it sort of quells the you know, it has a dampening effect on the movement. But I want to urge you to not be discouraged by this, because, as I said, we're going to make this happen and. But I do want to state for the record that it is it is unfortunate and disrespectful to the ordinary people who have come here. You know, we we as council members do a lot of work. Yes, I should know that because my office fight on a lot of issues on the ground. However, people here are also hardworking. They have their day jobs. They are there looking after their families and they make time to come here. So I want to say that it's really unfortunate and also a wonder to point out that the council has had access to my draft resolution for a week now, but I hadn't heard any questions about it or any comments for it for all of that time until just 2 hours before this before this meeting today. And I am. Can I. Let me. Let me speak. Let me. No, no, no, no. Nobody's lying. It's just. I just want to clarify. We had some fire. We. I completely agree. I mean, as an economist myself, I completely agree with fact checking. But I don't believe that the origination of the delay is is from a fact checking concerning the origination of the delay is because the consul general of India sent an email to the establishment, and they are worried by that. So it's fine. It's fine. We will we I'm going to vote. I'm let me speak I'm going to vote no on the on the delay. But I also I'm completely willing and able I mean, I'm I'm looking forward to working with the whole council to make sure everything is fact checked. However, I do want to point out that some of those are some of the entities. I think I remember her well. You mention I don't see them as neutral agencies on fact checking. So we our movement will also be doing its own fact checking. And from there, from whatever amendments are proposed, and we are going to make sure that the essential character of the resolution is not taken away. And we also I also just wanted to share that just as a point of information that I've been in touch with myself, with professors at the Jackson School of International Studies who are also experts on this. And so I look forward to a a frank discussion on this. But I want to be clear that we are not we're not accepting the consul general's position because the consul general is nothing but a modi representative. It's an extension of the administration. So and and I want to talk about I look, I want to I want to talk about the base resolution in a second. But just want to point out that I just want to point out I have gone through the consul general general's letter. I am not misguided. I am not misinformed. You know, as people would like to believe, some people would like to believe. I'll tell you the most striking thing, and I urge you all to read that letter as well, we can share it with you. The most striking thing about that letter, and this is what makes that letter completely dishonest and basically useless, is that it avoids any mention of the National Register of Citizens. That is where the problem starts and ends, because that's where the crux of the problem lies. And that's what I want to get to, because that's the explanation of why the combination of Syria and anarchy is so bad and why it's a blatant threat to the citizenship rights of India's 200 million Muslims, hundreds of millions of poor people, indigenous communities, oppressed, gassed women, women and LGBTQ people are going to be at some point that made for the benefit of my colleagues in the morning. But since you all are here, it's important to share this. The National Register of Citizens came long before the Citizenship Amendment Act even existed. There was no Citizenship Amendment Act. US There was a National Register of citizens. This requires that every person in India produce proof of citizenship. But not a passport, not your Aadhaar card, nothing like that. But a new set of criteria have been devised by the NRC. The NRC was tried out in one state in Assam, which others have mentioned. What are the documents required under the Assam National Register of Citizens? I want you to read that pre you if you have a pre 1971 self-identity, you know, like a birth certificate, you're fine. If you don't have that, then you have to present both a pre 1971 parents identity proof and a relationship proof with your parents or grandparents. Think about this. I was born after 1971. I have none of those documents, so technically I would not get that. I would be rejected as a citizen personally in India. But I won't be affected. Why? Because when they saw the Nazis, disastrous effects were. Indians were. I mean, Hindus were falling into the non-citizen category. They immediately had to act and, you know, make make something happen so that Hindus were not unintentionally getting caught because their intention was to put Muslims in the non-citizen category. And so then they quickly came up with the Citizenship Amendment Act, which basically says that if you have a Hindu name, you don't have to provide documentation. So in other words, because I come from a Hindu family, even though I don't have any of the documentation I am, I'm all set . I will get citizenship. But those of you who are Muslim will not get a citizenship. And not only that, if you can't provide the documentation as a muslim or as a person of other religion or whatever, then you are facing the prospect of detention centers or prisons. And again, this is not speculative. This is actually happening in Assam. We have seen 2 million people become stateless, being declared stateless, and many of them are languishing in detention centers. You know, people said, you know, little children are dying. So protests have been happening throughout the nation. They started on university campuses, but now they are all over the country. And as piece I note said in recent, you know, in my lifetime, I have not seen India, the whole of India wake up in the way that it has. And we've seen massive actions. I, I, I wanted to quickly read out the message of solidarity that Arundhati Roy, famed writer and activist, has sent to me personally on this resolution. I wanted to quote that quickly because it's very brief. It says, quote, The Indian government Citizenship Amendment Act, coupled with a national citizenship register, resemble the Nuremberg citizenship laws of the Third Reich. They go generate panic, uncontrollable chaos, and a population of stateless people on an unimaginable scale in the state of Assam alone, pending a last round of appeals. The number is close to 2 million. The government must be prevailed upon to repeal these laws as quickly as possible. I support Seattle City Councilmember Sharma Salman's resolution. I hope others around the world will follow its example. And I'm happy to say also that the City of Seattle LGBTQ commission voted unanimously last week to support this resolution . We will make sure other commissions also follow. We also have API Chia and the Indian American Islamic Council and we also had the continent American Islamic relations give us solidarity and there are hundreds of South Asians who are not necessarily under any group but are organizing together. And it's all the way from tech workers to less paid workers to small business owners who are all coming together. And just last point that I want to make, the people who are supporting Modi are saying that our resolution is divisive. Let me tell you, it's exactly the opposite. Is the Citizenship Amendment Act on the National Register of Citizens that is deeply divisive and actually what they are doing is uniting people. I wanted I wanted to quote the last paragraph of B.S. letter that Sujata read out, but she couldn't finish B.S. and says. The one. Thing that can be said for the authors of these vicious laws, they have succeeded in uniting countless millions of people across the length and breadth of the land, many of whom are out there showing the world what democracy is all about. So let's remember these encouraging words. If the vote is for February 3rd, then and I'm sorry because I'm out of town next Monday, but let's make sure we keep getting organized. Let's not stop here. Let's bring more people on February and let's make sure we win this. And let's and the next stop is, you know, where it's Bellevue City Council. Let's demand Bellevue City Council. Doesn't this. So it has been moved and seconded that the resolution would be held until February 3rd. Are there any additional comments? Councilmember Lewis. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I want to first off, thank everybody here on both sides of this discussion who came out and commented publicly. It's always hard to get up in front of your neighbors and express strong opinions on these public matters. I want to start out by saying I didn't run for Seattle City Council to opine on matters of international relations. I certainly didn't to comment on the internal politics of India. But we as council members aren't always the people that decide what is important. The community does as well. And as you coming out here tonight have shown, there is massive interest in Seattle in debating and discussing this matter. And I think it is appropriate that we take it up. I do want to comment, and I think that the Iran resolution we passed earlier is a good example of this, that while I think we on occasion we can or should comment on matters of international relations, I think it's most proper to do it in the form of instructing our congressional delegation or instructing the federal authorities in our system that have the power to take action most immediately on addressing these concerns. I think we have a very strong partner in Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who has taken on leadership in this issue in the United States Congress. So I would just saying this by way of flagging from my colleagues that going forward, I would like to work on potentially strengthening the resolution going forward and structuring it more toward instructing our congressional delegation in the kind of things that we would like to see addressed. Just for the record, I believe it's House Resolution 745, but I'm not sure that Congresswoman Jayapal has introduced that. I did read this morning that touches some of the same issues, but not all of them. The process that we went through with the Iran resolution did produce a I believe, a stronger resolution. I don't think that delaying for a little bit of time, especially on issues that I am not personally at this moment, a proficient expert in, without further deliberation and broader consultation. And I have the humility to recognize that. I don't think that that is going to make the final product suffer. And I look forward to folks continuing to express through email their sentiment on this issue. I have gotten a considerable amount of emails from all sides of this issue over the last couple of days, and I do appreciate that feedback in that outreach and look forward to working with my colleagues and everyone in this room in this conversation going forward for a meeting on February 3rd. And do you support holding the ordinance or resolution? Okay. All right. So those in favor of holding the resolution vote i, i. I. I, those oppose vote. No, no, no. I believe the motion carries and the resolution is held until February 3rd, 2020. We will be back. All right. Look forward to seeing you again. So other business, adoption of other resolutions, please read into the record.