Over 700 rallies have been planned in cities across the US on Saturday, as Americans protest US President Donald Trump's ‘zero tolerance' immigration policy, which has resulted in some 2,000 immigrant children being forcibly kept apart from their parents, after crossing the US border without documentation, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) June 28, 2018
"Donald Trump and his administration have cruelly separated thousands of children from their families. Now they're jailing families-and they haven't yet reunified the families already brutally torn apart," the Families Belong Together coalition notes.
"But we won't allow it to continue. On June 30, we're rallying in Washington, DC, and around the country to tell Donald Trump and his administration to permanently end the separation of kids from their parents. End family internment camps. End the 'zero-humanity' policy that created this crisis. And reunify the children with their parents."
Tens of thousands of marchers are expected to appear for the main event in Washington DC, taking place just a few days after Capitol Hill police detained hundreds in the nation's capital for voicing their displeasure with policies enforced by the federal government.
— Win Without War (@WinWithoutWar) June 29, 2018
Among those detained was Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). "I just got arrested," she said Thursday afternoon, with at least 500 women "who took over the Hart Senate Building, protesting the inhumane, cruel 'zero-tolerance' policy of Donald Trump and this administration."
On Saturday, protesters in all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, are expected to wear white to symbolize unity and solidarity. A protest is also planned in front of the US embassy in Lisbon, Portugal, cited by Common Dreams.
In April, the Trump White House announced its ‘zero-tolerance' policy, promising to pursue criminal charges to the fullest extent of the law against those who cross the US-Mexico border without correct documentation.
— Bonnie Castillo (@NNUBonnie) June 29, 2018
"Attorney General Jeff Sessions today notified all US Attorney's Offices along the southwest border of a new ‘zero-tolerance policy' for offenses under 8 USC § 1325(a), which prohibits both attempted illegal entry and illegal entry into the United States by an alien," the US Department of Justice said in a news release last month.
Since that time, almost 2,000 immigrant children have been forcibly separated from their parents between April 19 and May 31, prompting harsh criticism from rights groups, and lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Last Wednesday, Trump — following significant political blowback from the wildly unpopular practice of separating children, including infants, from their parents — signed an executive order that purportedly stop the separations. The White House move followed leaked videos and images of weeping children locked in cages, which sparked outrage across every facet of the political spectrum and drew international horror.
— Jamil Dakwar (@jdakwar) June 22, 2018
But the Saturday protests appear to be in response to the fact that the Trump zero-tolerance policy remains in place. The Wednesday Trump order directed Sessions to seek changes in what is referred to as the ‘Flores' settlement agreement in order to detain children longer.
Flores v. Reno was a 1997 federal court ruling that sharply limited the amount of time immigrant children can be placed in detention, a limitation that forms the basis for the government's present policy of separating them from their parents, categorizing them as "unaccompanied immigrant children."
On Sunday, Trump reaffirmed his hardline stance on immigration policy in the US amid a row over the separation of families.
"We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country," Trump tweeted, adding that if an illegal migrant enters the US, authorities must "immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came."
Many noted that the president's tweet was in direct contravention to the United States Constitution, which guarantees all — regardless of citizenship — the right of redress.
Trump went so far as to take a distinctly authoritarian stance by slamming US immigration policy as a "mockery."
