Thousands of protesters across America, moved by accounts of children separated from their
parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, marched Saturday -- in major cities and tiny towns
-- to demand President Donald Trump's administration reunite the divided families.
More than 700 planned marches are expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people across
the country, from immigrant-friendly cities like Los Angeles and New York to conservative
Appalachia and Wyoming under the banner Families Belong Together.
Thousands dressed in white and gathered early Saturday morning in sweltering 90-degree heat
in Lafayette Park across from the White House in what was expected to be the largest of
the day's protests.
"What's next?
Concentration Camps?" one marcher's sign read.
"I care, do you?"
read another, referencing a jacket the first lady wore when visiting child migrants amid
the global furor over the administration's zero-tolerance policy that forced the separation
of more than 2,000 children from their parents.
Her jacket had "I really don't care.
Do you?"
scrawled across the back, and that message has become a rallying cry for Saturday's protesters.
"We care!" marchers shouted outside city hall in Dallas.
Organizer Michelle Wentz says opposition to the administration's "barbaric and inhumane"
policy has seemed to cross political party lines.
Marchers carried signs that read "Compassion not cruelty" and "November is coming."
In New York City, thousands began chanting "shame!" and singing "shut detention down!"
before their planned march across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Smaller groups came together in city parks and downtown squares in every state, a total
of 703 places across the country, and photos quickly started ricocheting around social
media.
Some carried tiny white onesies.
"What if it was your child?" was written on one.
"No family jails," said another.
Children joined in.
A little girl in Washington, D.C., carried a handwritten sign: "Honestly, I am blown
away.
I have literally never seen Americans show up for immigrants like this," said Jess Morales
Rocketto, political director at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, which represents
nannies, housekeepers and caregivers, many of whom are immigrants.
"We just kept hearing over and over again, if it was my child, I would want someone to
do something."
Saturday's rallies are getting funding and support from the American Civil Liberties
Union, MoveOn.org, the National Domestic Workers Alliance and The Leadership Conference.
But local organizers are shouldering on-the-ground planning, many of them women relying on informal
networks established during worldwide women's marches on Trump's inauguration and its anniversary.
Tyler Houlton, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, welcomed interest in
the immigration system and said only Congress has the power to change the law.
"We appreciate that these individuals have expressed an interest in and concern with
the critical issue of securing our nation's borders and enforcing our immigration laws,"
Houlton said.
"As we have indicated before, the department is disappointed and frustrated by our nation's
disastrous immigration laws and supports action."
Trump took to Twitter on Saturday morning to show his support for Immigration and Customs
Enforcement amid calls from some Democrats for major changes to immigration enforcement.
Tweeting from New Jersey, Mr. Trump said that Democrats "are making a strong push to abolish
ICE, one of the smartest, toughest and most spirited law enforcement groups of men and
women that I have ever seen."
He urged ICE agents to "not worry or lose your spirit."
In Portland, Sharaf and other mothers who organized the rally hope to attract 5,000
people.
Right-wing activists with the group Patriot Prayer also have a permit to march later in
the day Saturday and the Portland Police Bureau said Friday they planned to have a heavy police
presence.
Sharaf and co-organizer Erin Conroy have coordinated with immigrant advocacy groups.
"This is not my wheelhouse," Conroy said.
"As far as I'm concerned, this is a national emergency that we all need to be focused on
right now."
Immigration attorney Linda Rivas said groups have met with U.S. authorities, congressional
representatives and other leaders to discuss an escalating immigration crackdown that they
say began decades ago.
But the family separation policy has been a watershed for attracting a broader spectrum
of demonstrators, she said.
"To finally have people on board wanting to take action, marching, taking to the streets,"
Rivas said.
"It's been motivating for us as advocates because we have to keep going."
On Thursday, more than a thousand people and organizations including the ACLU, the ACLU
of Texas and United We Dream gathered in Texas to demand that separated families be immediately
reunited, the ACLU said in a news release.
They gathered in Brownsville, which according to the ACLU is one of the "hardest hit" areas
under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy.
"The administration doesn't have a plan to reunite families.
But we have a plan," said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas.
"We are going to keep fighting.
Refugees are welcome here, immigrants are welcome here.
We won't stop until every single child is reunited."
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