Immigration protests put focus on midterm elections
Some 700 rallies across nation decry children’s separation from parents
WASHINGTON – Tens of thousands of people turned out from coast-tocoast Saturday in “Families Belong Together” rallies to protest the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy and implore their fellow citizens to vote in November’s midterm elections.
While the thrust of the marches and rallies was to defend the 2,000 children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, the tone was decidedly political.
In Atlanta, Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights icon who once marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was blunt: “We’ve got to get out and vote like we never voted before,” he said, prompting chants from the crowd, “Vote! Vote! Vote!”
He roused the crowd by imploring them: “Don’t give up, don’t give in — keep marching.”
In Dallas, where hundreds turned out downtown to call for a clear plan to reunify families separated by the administration policy, one sign said simply: “November is coming.”
In the nation’s capital, thousands poured into Lafayette Square, across from the White House, to chant “We care” and “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA.”
Protesters waved signs in English and Spanish.
While President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump avoided the chants in Washington, the protests followed them to their weekend retreat in Bedminster, N.J.
Only a few miles from Trump National Golf Course, more than 100 protesters lined the side of a major New Jersey highway waving anti-Trump signs and chanting, “Where are the children!”
“Kids don’t belong in cages. Families don’t belong in cages, and kids absolutely don’t belong being removed from their families,” said Shelley Kohl, a retired business owner from Johnson City, Tennessee, who attended the Washington rally.
In New York City, protesters at a Manhattan park chanted “shame!” and “shut detention down” as they geared up to march across the Brooklyn bridge to Cadman Plaza, near the federal courthouse.
Organizers in the Families Belong Together Coalition included the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the ACLU, Leadership Conference and Move On.org.
“(The) family separation crisis is not over. We have a situation where the Trump administration seems to be aiming to detain families,” said Karthik Ganapathy, a MoveOn.org spokesman.
Each state is hosting at least one event. California was on track to host at least 80 on Saturday, according to the Families Belong Together website.
Some 700 rallies were mounted in all.