Outcry over family separations continues
Arizona protesters keep up heat over border enforcement actions
The public outcry against family separations at the border continued Sunday with a protest at a Southwest Key Programs facility in Glendale, where demonstrators argued President Donald Trump’s recent executive order didn’t go far enough in addressing the “cruel and inhumane” practice of splitting up parents and children.
By the time Trump promised to stop the separations in his Wednesday order — still vowing to keep prosecuting every immigrant who crosses the border illegally — officials had already removed more than 2,000 children from their parents.
“I feel like the children are being punished through no fault of their own,” organizer Saundra Arellano said.
“Your heart breaks for them because they are children, and many times they can’t speak for themselves.”
Arellano said the protest was not meant to be partisan: Everyone should oppose family separations regardless of political affiliation, she said.
Organizers chose the Southwest Key facility because eight of the non-profit’s Arizona shelters house migrant children under a lucrative government contract.
“It’s happening right here in our own backyard,” Arellano said. “It’s just incredibly cruel and inhumane.”
Buckeye-area resident Donna Durand said she hoped protests like Sunday’s would prompt officials to ensure migrant families are quickly reunited.
Federal officials released a plan Saturday to return migrant children to their parents in a mass detention center near Brownsville, Texas, but it remained unclear how long the reunifications would take.
The statement also indicated reunions may not happen until after parents’ deportation proceedings.
“It’s a built-up anger that I’m trying to channel in the right direction,” Durand said. “I don’t know how to help. I don’t know what to do.”
A half-hour into the protest, about 50 people had gathered at the facility near 51st and Glendale avenues. At times, they sang patriotic songs including “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful.”
Phoenix resident Jorge Soria said he wished more people had shown up, contending the situation at the border should move all parents to action.
“If you have any sort of empathy, you should be out here,” Soria said, holding a sign suggesting the president should be impeached.
Marc Graham, a Sun City resident, said he supports strong borders and the detention of migrants who enter the country illegally. But he doesn’t think children should be separated for a decision they did not make, he said.
He suggested that the University of Phoenix stadium in Glendale be used to house “every person involved in this until we sort them out.”
“If one person sees (the protests) who’s in a decision-making position, who could do anything to improve the lives of these children, certainly that’s a plus,” he said. “If we could make a greater change than that, then that’s fabulous.”
Sunday’s gathering followed a week of protests against migrant-family separations, with the Arizona Indigenous Peoples Caucus and Latino elected officials sending a flurry of opposition letters to Trump, Gov. Doug Ducey and a host of federal officials.
The indigenous caucus’ letter to the president described the administration’s zero-tolerance policy as “a continuation of the dehumanization of Indigenous People, imposing irreparable harm to our indigenous families.”
Its letter to the governor asked Ducey to “meet with administration officials like (Homeland Security) Secretary (Kirstjen) Nielsen to find a resolution that does not inflict further trauma on innocent children, and upholds our American values.”