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Thousands march against US immigration policy
WASHINGTON, July 1, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Thousands of demonstrators marched
in cities across the United States on Saturday against President Donald
Trump’s hardline immigration policy and to demand the immediate reunification
of families separated at the border with Mexico.
Directly across from the White House, demonstrators filled Lafayette Square
park in an atmosphere of both indignation and sadness, before marching toward
the Capitol.
Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Portland also saw crowds of
protesters turn out, with celebrities including Alicia Keys and Lin-Manuel
Miranda present in Washington and John Legend in Los Angeles.
“We don’t believe in borders, we don’t believe in walls,” Sebastian Medina-
Tayac, of the Piscataway Indian Nation, declared in English and Spanish at
the start of the rally dubbed “Families Belong Together.”
Loudspeakers broadcast the cries of a child split from relatives, as a
Brazilian mother told of being separated from her own son.
“I missed nine months of his life and it should never have happened,” said
the woman, who only gave her name as Jocelyn. Her case dates from before the
practice of separating families intensified in May.
“Shame! Shame!” the crowd responded in temperatures above 90 degrees
Fahrenheit (33 Celsius).
The president could not hear the protesters’ shouts, as he spent the day in
Bedminster, New Jersey at the Trump National Golf Club.
There, too, protesters gathered on his motorcade route, many of them with
signs about immigration policy.
“Asylum seekers are not criminals,” said one.
Trump took to Twitter to defend his stance on immigration.
“When people come into our Country illegally, we must IMMEDIATELY escort
them back out without going through years of legal maneuvering,” he wrote.
“Our laws are the dumbest anywhere in the world. Republicans want Strong
Borders and no Crime. Dems want Open Borders and are weak on Crime!”
Starting in early May, in an attempt to staunch the flow of tens of
thousands of migrants to the southern US border every month, Trump ordered
the arrest of adults crossing the boundary illegally, including those seeking
asylum.
Many trying to cross the US-Mexico frontier are destitute, fleeing gang
violence and other turmoil in Central America.
As a result of Trump’s crackdown, distraught children were separated from
their families and, according to widely broadcast pictures, held in chain-
link enclosures, a practice that sparked domestic and global outrage.
Trump later signed an order ending the separation of families, but
immigration lawyers say the process of reuniting children and their parents
will be long and chaotic.
About 2,000 children remained split from their parents, according to
official figures released last weekend.
– ‘Not what we stand for’ –
“It’s thinly-veiled racism,” Dorothy Carney, a 59-year-old middle school
French and Latin teacher, told AFP at the Washington rally.
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“The way for evil to win is for good people to do nothing. This is doing at
least something.”
Rita Montoya, 36, a Washington lawyer, was born in California but has
Mexican origins and arrived at the protest with her two sons, aged two and
four.
“We’re children of immigrants,” she said. “We’ve been putting in our dues
in this country for a long time, and this country needs to start paying us
some respect.”
The mood was similar in New York, where Julia Lam, 58, joined the protest
with two friends and their young children in strollers.
Lam is a mother and retired fashion designer who emigrated from Hong Kong
in the 1980s.
“I think it’s really cruel to separate kids,” she said.
“I am angry. I’m very sad already with what is going on with our country. I
just don’t see how a human being would do such a thing.”
Lawyer Courtney Malloy, 34, said it was important to show support for
immigrants and that administration policies are “not America.”
“This is not what we stand for and this is not okay, and we will not stand
here and watch our country be torn apart and watch babies be torn from their
mothers,” she told AFP.
Malloy held up a sign that read: “The Only Baby Who Belongs in a Cage is
Donald Trump.”
Families, young people, children and the elderly — both recent arrivals
and long-time citizens — all stood under a burning sun as part of a protest
that a New York police officer said numbered “a couple of thousand.”
“Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here,” they chanted, also
declaring a welcome for Muslims.
A band of drummers whipped up the fervor of a crowd, carrying signs such as
“Our New York is Immigrant New York.”
“Abolish ICE,” read another sign, reflecting growing calls by activists for
disbanding the country’s frontline immigration enforcement agency.
In the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, about 50 activists marched
through downtown and traveled on to an international bridge, holding banners
against the border wall Trump wants to build and militarization of the areas
alongside it.
“Parents do not know what is happening with their children, and they are
housed in unhealthy areas, in cages like dogs,” said protester Jose Luis
Castillo.
The protests come after the US Supreme Court on Tuesday handed Trump a
major victory by upholding his ban on travelers from five primarily Muslim
nations.
More than 500 women, including a member of Congress, were arrested Thursday
in the US Capitol complex protesting Trump’s immigration policy.
Trump has made fighting immigration — both illegal and legal — a major
plank of his “America First” policy agenda.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency makes arrests and otherwise
enforces the administration’s immigration crackdown, but an emerging
coalition of politicians, activists and pro-immigrant protesters has begun
calling for the agency to be dismantled.
“Occupy ICE” camps have been set up in several US states.
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