‘No Kings Day’ protest draws record crowd in Wenatchee

WENATCHEE — What began as a compact, bilingual speaking program in Memorial Park from about 1:00 to 1:40 p.m. on Saturday spilled into a noisy, colorful streetside demonstration for “No Kings Day” that packed both sides of Chelan Avenue and all four corners at Chelan and Orondo and became handily the largest public protest in the history of Wenatchee.

One organizer, Meliesa Tigard, opened the presentation part of the program by cueing the call-and-response format; each speaker’s remarks were translated into Spanish on the spot.

Former police officer, therapist and local media personality Mike “Maddog” Magnotti led off, warning against rhetoric that “dehumaniz[es]” undocumented immigrants and links them to criminality. He argued that the strain in the national conversation is being “supported by Christian nationalism,” adding, “I am a Christian myself, and I want to say that Christian nationalism is neither Christian nor supportive of the United States of America.” Urging attendees to read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), he said gatherings like this matter: “There are people who say meetings like this are meaningless. They obviously weren’t alive in the 60s.”

Local Palestinian-American organizer Anour Esa described moving to the valley in 2023 and finding a longstanding Arab community here. A chance meeting in Leavenworth led to “Falasteen! in the Valley,” an arts-and-culture fundraiser that drew more than 180 people and, together with summer events, raised roughly $12,000 for humanitarian aid. Esa invited the crowd to this year’s installment — “unapologetically Palestinian, unshakably steadfast” — scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 25, 11 a.m.–7 p.m., at Icicle Creek Center for the Arts. “Keep doing those things that you love,” he said. “We are going to make the world the beautiful world our hearts know is possible.”

Dr. Maria Morales, of Wenatchee Valley College and formerly of CAFE, shared her family’s migration story to underscore how policy lands on neighbors. “I came to this country at the age of five. My earliest memory as a child is crossing the border,” she said, later adding, “I’m not a better immigrant than my neighbor just because I am a naturalized immigrant… People are not undocumented because they’re not working hard enough. It’s because there’s no door or opportunity.” In Spanish, she offered, Para todos los que están aquí inmigrantes, les doy un abrazo… hemos apoyado a este pueblo desde siempre, which translates to “For those here who are immigrants, I embrace you… We have supported this town forever.”

Rachel Pashkowski, a volunteer with Wenatchee for Immigrant Justice, said the situations seen on national news “are happening here,” then recited the kinds of calls the group fields: “My kids keep asking for him… Can you help me find my partner? She never came home from her asylum check-in… My neighbor said immigration is looking for me but I’m a permanent resident.” Quoting a well-known proverb in Spanish, solo el pueblo salva al pueblo — “only the village can save the village” — she framed it as a commitment to tangible help: “If we truly want to be a village united, we will all need to understand that this work will not be easy, convenient, or comfortable.” The crowd joined a bilingual chant: El pueblo unido jamás será vencido — “The people united will never be defeated.”

Closing the microphone portion, Leanne Lafferty, introduced as Managing Director of Special Services at the regional educational service district, criticized federal staffing cuts she said undermine oversight of special education. She called them “another massive reduction in force that specifically cut the support to our nation’s most vulnerable children,” and urged attendees to contact elected officials via QR codes at the front tables. “We’re talking about 7.6 million students in our country who need these dollars,” she said, linking the issue to broader democratic values: “The real safeguard of democracy is education.”

With the speeches over, Tigard led a final call — “Hey hey! Ho ho! These oligarchs have got to go!” — and the crowd moved to the streets. Organizers estimated 1,500 to 2,000 people cycled through over the afternoon, many with homemade signs, some in costumes, others banging drums or playing portable speakers. The street action was the local incarnation of “No Kings Day,” a nationally organized, decentralized set of pro-democracy demonstrations; locals said no single group funded the Wenatchee event.

A tiny counter-presence — about five supporters of President Donald Trump — set up nearby, joined by a street preacher with a headset mic who alternated between messages about salvation and sin. Traffic slowed periodically as motorists honked, waved, or argued through windows.

One incident briefly knotted the Orondo Avenue turn lane. A man in a small white pickup, plastered with pro-Trump bumper stickers and seen circling the block to rev his engine at the crowd and deliver vulgar hand gestures, rolled to a stop in neutral in order to do it again — and stayed there after what witnesses described as a transmission failure. Several protesters offered to help push the truck clear; the driver declined until law enforcement arrived. When Chelan County Sheriff’s Office deputies pulled up, demonstrators nonetheless helped push the pickup through the intersection and into a nearby bank lot, and traffic resumed.

As afternoon slipped toward evening, the crowds thinned but the call-and-response lingered at the corners, snippets of chant in English and Spanish rising between green lights. Saturday’s rally never resolved the arguments it aired; it did something more basic and visible. It put faces to the headlines, staked out a few blocks of downtown as shared civic space, and sent people home with phone numbers to call, dates to remember, and the sense that the next chapter will be written in the open.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media