Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
South Floridians join immigrant policy protests
HOLLYWOOD — Even as the heat index hit 100 Saturday, more than a thousand South Floridians took to the streets in Boca Raton, Hollywood, Miami and West Palm Beach to keep the heat on presidential policy that has separated some 2,000 migrant children from their parents.
They were part of the same movement that galvanized 700 nationwide demonstrations, organized by a collection of grass-roots groups including the Move On and Families Belong Together, organizations to bring about change in immigration policy. The sight of traumatized children united them.
“Our country was founded out of a concern for decency,” said Laura Samuels, who drove from Delray Beach to attend the protest in Hollywood, where several hundred marched outside the Diplomat Beach Resort, where state Democrats were holding their annual June conference. “There is no basic, fundamental decency to separating families of immigrants.”
After rallying with some words from notables such as U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, and West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio, about 550 people marched from the intersection of Southern Boulevard and South Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach, to the gates of Mar-a-Lago, estimated Jim Haug, 51, a Palm Beach Gardens editor, who was among the protesters.
About 250 protesters were counted in downtown Boca Raton. And social media feeds showed hundreds of protesters gathering at Freedom Tower in Miami.
Hollywood Police had to hold back the growing crowd that spilled off the sidewalk onto South Ocean Drive across from the Diplomat. Sporadic rain did not dampen the demonstrators’ resolve.
Some who showed up to the rally were seasoned anti-Trump demonstrators, others were new to immigration activism. Some parents said they feel compelled to show up after gutwrenching accounts of children forcibly taken from their families as they crossed the border illegally.
In West Palm Beach, Haug said the past few weeks have been a nonstop stream of reasons to protest against the current administration. To the idea of children being separated from their parents, “I had a visceral reaction,” Haug said. “I just can’t imagine separating kids from their parents at the border after a harrowing trip through Mexico.”
Rucsandra Vitere, 23, is an Orlando area school teacher who joined the Hollywood demonstrators in support of some of her students who came from trouble-spots in Venezuela, Guatemala, and especially Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, she said.
“I came out here because I teach a lot of immigrant children,” she said. “I’m the daughter of a refugee, my mom, who came here in the early 90s seeking asylum from Romania.”
Twylia Fannin is a selfdescribed feminist, activist and mother from Miami who is a regular participant for causes like keeping families together. She marched in Hollywood.
“It’s not just Trump, it’s the Republican leadership,” she said. “[They] could do something about this … but they just keep their mouths closed while we lose our democracy.”
The protest in Sanborn Square in Boca Raton included a voter registration effort. Counter protesters drove by, waving a middle finger at protesters; some had Trump speeches blasting from their cars. But the rally went on.
“The main message is to show more love, compassion and humanity when creating these immigration policies,” said Naomi Glanzman, with a Boca activism group. “Vote out these people … We want to get more people in the voting booth.”