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‘Families Belong Together’ march brings out thousands across the US protesting against Trump’s immigration policies – 600 protests across the US and internationally protesting the separations

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President Trump simultaneously defends the ‘brave men and women of ICE’ for doing a ‘fantastic job’ –  Thousands marched across the US for mass organized protest against family separations at the border
The policy has been scrapped but there are still thousands of displaced migrant children at the border  – More than 700 protests are taking place across the US and internationally, Saturday, June 29
Democrat Joe Kennedy III spoke at a rally in Boston which drew enormous crowds 
On Saturday, as the first protesters took to city streets, Trump defended ICE agents for their work, insisting that ICE would ‘never’ be dismantled despite growing criticism from Democrats
Trump said the agency had rescued entire US towns from the ‘grasp’ of gang MS-13 and that they were ‘fantastic’  
Immigrant advocacy groups ‘ thrilled’ issue is gaining traction
Stars out in force supporting protests, including Susan Sarandon, Lin Manuel Miranda and Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys and America Ferrerra 1.JPGSongstress Alicia Keys [left], and America Ferrerra [right],address crowds at the event in Washington DC on behalf of migrant mothers who have been separated from their children 

Thousands of protesters across the America and cities acrsss the globe Saturday took to the streets for coordinated protests against family separations at US border.
700 seperate marches are planned in cities across the US including New York, Washington DC and Atlanta. There are also hundreds happening for the same cause in countries around the world.
Organizers branded the events Families Belong Together – the hope, to put pressure on the government to speed up the reunion of migrant children who have been separated from their families as they tried to enter the US illegally.
More than 2,300 remain in detention centers on the border and the Trump administration has not articulated a timetable or program, for when and how, these children will be reunited with their relatives.

In most of America’s major cities and tiny towns today, thousands of marchers gathered , moved by accounts of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, in the latest act of mass resistance against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
“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.
At every one of the more than 700 planned marches,  hundreds of thousands of people across the country, from liberal cosmopolitan areas like New York and Los Angeles to conservative Appalachia and Indiana epicenters like the front lawn of a Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas, near a detention center where migrant children were being held in cages made thier views known.
There, people held American and Texas flags and signs depicting a migrant father, mother and child as the Holy Family with haloed heads traveling through the desert.
In New York City, Trump’s hometown, thousands of marchers poured across the Brooklyn Bridge in sweltering 90-degree heat, chanting “shame!” and “Donald Trump must go!” Drivers honked their horns in support.
“It’s important for this administration to know that these policies that rip apart families,”said the Rev. Julie Hoplamazian.
the Episcopal priest marching in Brooklyn said policies ”that treat people as less than human, like they’re vermin — are not the way of God, they are not the law of love”.
“Jesus was a refuge,” she said.

Protesters  on Civic Plaza in downtown Albuquerque, N.M. during anti-Trump immigration policy rally.jpgProtesters hold up signs on Civic Plaza in downtown Albuquerque, N.M. during the anti-ICE demonstration

In Washington, a massive crowd gathered in Lafayette Park across from the White House in what was expected to be the largest of the day’s protests.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the musical “Hamilton,” sang a lullaby dedicated to parents who are unable to sing to their children. Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys brought her 7-year-old son, and read a letter written by a woman whose child had been taken away from her at the border.
“It’s upsetting. Families being separated, children in cages,” said Emilia Ramos, a cleaner in the district, fighting tears at the rally. “Seeing everyone together for this cause, it’s emotional.”

Protesters in Huston 1.jpgThousands of protesters march in Houston, Texas, on Saturdy

Around her, thousands waved signs: “I care, do you?” some read, 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 U?” 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’ signs read “Compassion not cruelty” and “November is coming.”

Man holds placard of Trump's face superimposed on a baby 1.JPGAngry protester in New York Man holds up placard of Trump’s face superimposed on the body of a baby

The detention centers are designated for children and adults meaning babies have been taken from their parents
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, 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.”

Make America Humane Again.JPGAnother dig at the president at the Manhattan protest: Female protester holds a sign up reading ‘Make America Humane Again’.  There is a push to see the re-uniting of more than 2,000 children are still in detention centers with their families 

Though many who show up to the rallies across the country were seasoned anti-Trump demonstrators, others were new to immigration activism, including parents who say they feel compelled to show up after heart-wrenching accounts of children forcibly taken from their families as they crossed the border illegally. In Portland, Oregon, for example, several stay-at-home moms have organized their first rally while caring for young kids.
“I’m not a radical, and I’m not an activist,” said Kate Sharaf, a Portland co-organizer. “I just reached a point where I felt I had to do more.”
Immigrant advocacy groups say they’re thrilled to see the issue gaining traction.

Brooklyn Bridge during anti-Trump immigration policy rally.jpgIn New York activists carry signs across the Brooklyn Bridge during a rally to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies

“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. ”
All across the country, groups came together in city parks and downtown squares, and photos quickly organized around social media.

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