NEW YORK (AP) – The Latest on nationwide protests over a Trump administration immigration policy (all times local): 3:40 p.m. Crowds faced down a…
NEW YORK (AP) – The Latest on nationwide protests over a Trump administration immigration policy (all times local):
3:40 p.m.
Crowds faced down a heat index of as high as 110 degrees in downtown Chicago to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policy, surrounding a stage in Daley Plaza and shouting “Si se puede!” (“Yes, you can!”).
Margo Chavez-Easley, a 39-year-old Chicago resident who emigrated to the U. S. from Guatemala when she was 9, carried a sign that read, “What lengths would you go for your children?”
Chavez-Easley told the Chicago Tribune that as an immigrant and an American, she feels a mix of pride and shame.
Democratic U. S. Sen. Dick Durbin was in attendance, saying it was “a place I had to be.”
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3:40 p.m.
Hundreds of people gathered in Detroit and 22 other Michigan cities to add their voices to nationwide protests over the detention of immigrant families.
Detroit police estimated that more than 250 people marched Saturday through the city’s downtown before holding a rally at Hart Plaza in sweltering, 95-degree heat.
The Detroit News reports that Democratic U. S. Rep. Sander Levin told the gathering that the detention of young immigrant children and the Trump administration’s other immigration policies “are a danger to American society.”
Saturday’s rally was among hundreds across the U. S. urging the Trump administration to reunite families separated at the U. S.-Mexico border.
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3:20 p.m.
A central Iowa father says he was inspired to organize a rally in support of immigrant families after seeing news on Father’s Day of children separated from their parents who had recently crossed the U. S. border.
About 125 people turned out Saturday for the rally in Marshalltown organized by Steve Adelmund. Adelmund recalled being brought to tears when seeing the news on June 17 of immigrant children being separated from parents and held in cage-like structures at the border.
Adelmund, who says he identifies as a Democrat but sometimes votes Republican, said he believes the country is at a dangerous ideological turning point and that the time to speak out is now.
Adelmund said part of his motivation in organizing the rally was to show his 10-year-old daughter what democracy looks like and that one person can make a difference.
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2:45 p.m.
Neela Jayaraman was among thousands of people gathered for a second rally protesting family separation in Boston.
The 39-year-old says that as an Indian immigrant, and a social worker, President Donald Trump’s family separation and detention policies devastate her. She says as a mother, she can’t look at the cages, referring to where some children have been detained.
Cradling her 8-month-old baby Akira, Jayaraman says she has hope looking around the Boston Common. She says she hopes to keep public officials accountable.
Thousands of people marched from the Boston City Hall “Rally against Family Separation” where several elected officials, including Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, spoke out against Trump’s immigrant detention policies. Organizers are demanding local government agencies stop cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
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2:10 p.m.
A protest over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies has converged near the golf course where he is spending the weekend.
Demonstrators have gathered Saturday on a street corner near Trump’s golf resort at Bedminster, New Jersey.
They are waving signs with the messages, “Do you know where our children are?” and “Even the Trump family belongs together.”
It’s not known if Trump saw the protest. It was among hundreds of rallies around the country urging the Trump administration to reunite families separated at the U. S.-Mexico border.
In Washington, many thousand protesters have begun marching to the U. S. Department of Justice.
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2:10 p.m.
At least one person has been arrested when protesters blocked a downtown Columbus, Ohio, street after about 2,000 people attended a two-hour rally outside the Statehouse.
The Columbus Dispatcher reports that police initially tried to shepherd the protesters from the intersection Saturday. A woman was taken away by police after a scuffle.
Melissa Myers, a nurse, told those gathered for the rally, “You don’t have to be a parent to be outraged. You just have to be a decent human being.” She said she’s never attended a rally before, much less organized one.
The protest is among hundreds across the U. S. urging the Trump administration to reunite families separated at the U. S.-Mexico border.
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1:55 p.m.
Hundreds of people gathered near the Indiana Statehouse in downtown Indianapolis to protest the detention of immigrant families.
Protesters carried signs saying, “Try to walk in their shoes,” ”We are all immigrants” and “Families belong together.” The rally Saturday is among hundreds across the U. S. urging the Trump administration to reunite families separated at the U. S.-Mexico border.
Patricia Carlin, a grandmother of nine from Danville, Indiana, said she was protesting to show her solidarity with immigrant families and that their detention has made her angry and afraid.
She says her “heart breaks for them” and that the U. S. “is going to be paying for this injustice.”
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1:55 p.m.
Hundreds of demonstrators slowly streamed through downtown Dallas streets, reciting chants and carrying a sea of protest signs criticizing an immigration policy from President Donald Trump.
Protesters on Saturday chanted, “Vote them out” and “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here” along the march route, which began outside Dallas City Hall.
The rally is among hundreds across the U. S. urging the Trump administration to reunite families separated at the U. S.-Mexico border.
Ratisha Smith, 35, walked with her 6-year-old son. Smith said she was protesting the separations and wants to see families back together.
She says hearing reports of young immigrant children taken from their family pushed her to protest, calling it was the last straw.
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1:45 p.m.
People symbolically wearing foil blankets are among over 4,000 people at a boisterous rally in downtown Denver.
U. S. authorities gave similar blankets to children they separated from their parents at the U. S.-Mexico border. The rally Saturday is one of hundreds across the U. S. urging the Trump administration to reunite families.
Brenda Villa of Commerce City, Colorado, says “you want to have faith” that President Donald Trump’s administration will do so as promised.
Protesters held signs saying, “Keep the kids, deport the racists,” and “Break walls, build families.”
Joan Culwell of the city of Littleton says she had never been to a protest but decided to go after first lady Melania Trump recently wore a coat that read, “I really don’t care, do u?” while traveling to visit migrant children.
Culwell wore a T-shirt saying, “I care!! Do you?”
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1:05 p.m.
Thousands of protesters have gathered in the West Texas city of El Paso to condemn what speakers describe as unconstitutional overreach by the Trump administration and heavy-handed tactics by immigration agents.
Many of the protesters, monitored by several law enforcement personnel, converged Saturday on the international bridge that carries traffic between El Paso and Juarez, Mexico.
They carried signs with slogans like “We are all immigrants” as they chanted “Love, not hate, makes America great!” and other sayings.
The rally was one of several being held in Texas cities that included Dallas, Houston and McAllen.
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12:55 p.m.
Several dozen protesters gathered in front of the Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas, near a detention center where migrant children were being held in cages.
People held American and Texas flags and signs Saturday depicting a migrant father, mother and child as the Holy Family with haloed heads traveling through the desert.
Rio Grande Valley-based attorney Jennifer Harbury says parents separated from their children are being held in “prison-like” conditions in nearby Port Isabel.
She says children separated at the border should have alien registration numbers linked to their parents, but attorneys are “having terrible trouble finding these kids.”
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12:40 p.m.
Democratic U. S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling for swift reunification of children and parents at a Massachusetts immigration rally.
Warren says Saturday, “This is about children held in cages.
