Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, the first Indian-American woman to be elected to the US House of Representatives, has been arrested here during a protest against the Trump administration’s “inhumane” “zero-tolerance” border policy.

The administration’s controversial “zero tolerance” policy of separating immigrant parents and their children on the US border resulted in the separation of nearly 2,000 children from their parents and guardians, sparking a public outcry.

Jayapal, 52, was arrested along with over 500 other women at Capitol Hill yesterday, when they were having their sit-in protest at the Senate Hart Office building. They were charged with unlawful demonstration. The protesters were soon released.

She was arrested on the floor of the Hart Senate Office Building for a sit-in as part of their civil disobedience action.

“These women understand, they’re from all over the country...they understand that this is far beyond politics, this is about right and wrong. We have to step up and put ourselves on the line,” said Jayapal who was elected to the House of Representatives from Washington State in 2016.

“Not in our country. Not in our name. June 30 we’re putting ourselves in the street again,” she said.

Jayapal, the only Indian-American woman so far elected to House of Representatives, is seeking a re-election in the mid-term elections later this year.

She was the first member of Congress to visit a federal prison where parents were separated from their children.

Hundreds of people across the country are scheduled to protest against the Trump administration’s ‘zero-tolerance’ policy in rallies organised by a coalition led by the National Domestic Workers’ Alliance tomorrow.

The public outcry in the wake of images and stories of the children caught in the middle of Trump’s immigration policy has sparked fierce debate in the US.

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