Founder of Hate Free Zone Pramila Jayapal running for Washington State Senate

As a Democrat for the 37^th District.

By Deepak Chitnis

WASHINGTON, DC: One of the most prominent immigration attorneys in the US, Pramila Jayapal, is running in the Washington State Senate this election year.

Jayapal, 48, is running as a Democrat to represent the state’s 37th District, a seat that will be abdicated at the end of the year by Democratic incumbent Adam Kline. The seat is already being contested by Rory O’Sullivan, a local attorney who specializes in helping victims of eviction, and activist Lou Watanabe.

She currently resides in Renton, a city in western Washington that houses factories for several large companies, such as Boeing. The District she is running for stretches from the northwestern regions of the state, touching Canada, until midway down near the southern expanses of the state.

Born in India and raised there, along with Indonesia and Singapore, Jayapal has been an activist for immigrants’ rights for over 20 years. She is best known as the founder of Hate Free Zone, an organization founded in the wake of 9/11 to spread tolerance between the Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

During her time with the organization, Jayapal “enlisted pro bono attorneys and led a successful effort to file a nationwide class action lawsuit against the Federal government to prevent the deportation of 5,000 Somalis across the country, [becoming] a leading voice nationally for comprehensive immigration reform.”

In 2008, the organization’s name was changed to OneAmerica, with Jayapal serving as its executive director until two years ago. She stepped down in order to turn her focus towards national issues, rather than just local ones, and became a fellow at the University of Washington Law School, which she currently still is.

She is also the co-chair of We Belong Together, a national campaign that works to “engage women in immigration reform.” An author as well, she has published two books, entitled “Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland” and “A Woman Alone:  Travel Tales From Around the Globe,” in addition to several essays about the state of minority communities in the US and immigration reform.

Jayapal was recognized by the White House as one of 14 Asian Americans who are “Champions of Change” in May of last year, and already has a slew of endorsements to her name. These include city councilmembers Sally Clark, Mike O’Brien, Tim Burgess and Tom Rasmussen, as well as Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and King County Executive Ron Sims.

The following is a video of a TEDx talk, given by Jayapal in 2010, in which she talks about “immigration, migration and movement, [and] challenges xenophobia and discrimination.”

To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com