Last weekend, we covered the “Families Belong Together . . . and FREE!” rallies scheduled for today. Thousands showed up in DC and in various cities across the country.
The voices of thousands of people rang nationwide on Saturday calling for the reunification of hundreds of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.Protesters chanted “shut detention down!” as they marched in New York City’s Foley Square while in El Paso, Texas, hundreds marched toward the Paso Del Norte (Santa Fe) Bridge that crosses into Juarez, Mexico. More than 600 events were planned across the country.. . . . From immigrant-friendly cities like New York City and Los Angeles to conservative Appalachia and Wyoming, protesters are rallying under the Families Belong Together banner, pushing against Trump’s controversial “zero tolerance” policy that has seen some 2,000 families separated after crossing into the U.S. illegally from Mexico.”I’m hoping that decent human beings come together, and enough is enough, we’re taking out country back over, that evil is not going to prevail,” said Patricia Carlan, a grandmother of nine from Danville, Indiana, among hundreds who gathered at her state’s capital.
Here’s a video that includes footage from San Francisco, Oakland, Concord, and San Jose.
While the normal people who are out protesting are indeed rallying for illegal alien families and children, it’s clear that this is not the intent of organizers.
For example, in the video above, Ankush Ganapathy from Unite Here states they are at a “kids event.” The kids, he continues, have a platform to “fight against ICE and to fight against the U. S., too. [my emphasis]” He further explains that the Trump pinata gives the kids a chance to “beat up the target.”
You may recall that the premise for this rally was made moot when President Trump responded to misplaced outrage, so they had to come up with another reason to hold the rallies: #FamiliesBelongTogether & FREE!
Activist actress Susan Sarandon got herself arrested, as did more than 500 protesters in DC.
Susan Sarandon was one of the roughly 575 people arrested during a Capitol Hill protest of President Trump’s immigration policies and family separations at the southern border on Thursday. The group, including Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state, were charged with unlawfully demonstrating.Sarandon tweeted from the rally, where she and other women carried banners that said, “We demand … end all detention camps.” They also declared, “We care,” in response to the jacket first lady Melania Trump wore last week.The protest took place in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building. According to U.S. Capitol Police, the individuals were processed on the scene and released. The demonstrators were there to protest the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy that treats all illegal border crossings as criminal offenses. Mr. Trump signed an executive order last week ending family separations, but up some 2,000 children remained separated. A federal judge has ordered that families separated at the border be reunited within 30 days.
Other high profile people, including the creator of the musical “Hamilton” and Representative John Lewis (D-GA), were involved in various rallies across the country.
The protests, marching under the banner “Families Belong Together,” are hoping to push the Trump administration to reunite thousands of immigrant children separated from their families after crossing into the United States.. . . . Thousands watched the Facebook livestream of the “Families Belong Together” rally in Washington where parents, children and faith leaders took turns to speak out against the Trump administration policy. Lin-Manuel Miranda took the stage and sang a song from his celebrated musical “Hamilton” to the protesters.. . . . Meanwhile, civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., reminded demonstrators in Atlanta of how effective the rallies he organized in the 1960s were in combating segregation and inequality. This was another moment in which to fight back, he said.”As a nation and a people we can do better,” Lewis said. “Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Keep marching.”
Here’s a little tidbit from NBC that I found particularly amusing: ” A New Yorker raised a sign that said ‘Amerikkka: separating families since 1619’.”
Watch Reps Lewis and Hank Johnson (D-GA) speak at Atlanta’s rally (and no, the subject of Guam tipping over does not come up):
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