The federal government released two people remaining in jail Friday afternoon charged with crimes following a mass protest against federal immigration authorities, but the release didn’t come without a fight from prosecutors.
Mikki Hatfield, 34, and Bobbi Silva, 38, are two of nine people who were indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month and charged with crimes of violence against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a chaotic Spokane protest last month. The first seven people charged with conspiracy to impede or injure federal officers were released Tuesday pending trial, while Hatfield and Silva remained in jail based on their additional charges of assault against a law enforcement official.
Everything sparked June 11 when two asylum-seekers were detained by ICE at a routine immigration check-in. Former City Council President Ben Stuckart, one of the immigrant’s sponsors in the U.S., had posted a call to action on social media urging people to show up. Stuckart was also one of the nine people arrested and later released by federal authorities this week…