Migrant mess fuels mass civil defiance
WASHINGTON: Women activists staged a “mass civil disobedience” act in the US capital yesterday ahead of weekend protests across the country against the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
Women’s March, a movement that began when President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Januray 21, 2017, then spread internationally, warned women to risk arrest at yesterday’s protest.
“We are calling for all women to join us for mass civil disobedience in DC to demand this administration stop criminalising undocumented immigrants and tearing children away from their parents,” Women’s March said on Twitter.
In another tweet it said it had conducted training sessions in Washington, DC, ahead of the protest. “Hundreds of women are here, ready to escalate. #WomenDisobey,” the tweet said.
The group did not specify what it was planning to do that would risk arrest.
The Woman’s March demonstration is part of a wave of actions against Trump, whose administration began seeking last month to prosecute all adults crossing the border without authorisation.
Under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, more than 2 000 children who arrived illegally in the US with adult relatives were separated from them and placed in detention facilities or with foster families around the country.
The policy led to intense criticism in the US and abroad. After several days Trump signed an executive order that would allow children to stay with their parents as they moved through the legal system. The order still faces legal challenges.
Most of the children separated from their families before the order was signed have not yet been reunited with them. The White House also said the order was not a long-term solution and called for Congress to pass immigration reform.
Larger protests are being planned for tomorrow in Washington, DC, and cities around the country under the banner of #FamiliesBelongTogether.
Trump critics have said the executive order that allows children to stay with detained parents is inadequate.