United States rallies held against immigration policies

Protests were also held elsewhere in ME, including Brunswick, Augusta, Farmington, Bangor and Bar Harbor.

“Who’s ready to resist?”

Liliana, his 7-year-old daughter, held a sign she made that read, “Stop the separation”. But the White House has yet to announce how it plans to handle the thousands of infants and children who were already placed in federal custody.

“Separating a child from a parent – as a parent – is the most inhumane thing ever”, the mother of two said. “I’m here to fight to keep the door opened for them so that they might find refuge, too”.

The crowd was attentive and enthusiastic during the rally, and respectful of one another in the hot and sticky conditions.

“Abolish ICE”, said another sign, reflecting growing calls by activists for abolition of the country’s frontline immigration enforcement agency. Alvarez, who is Cuban-American, said: “We are protesting today because like our family, immigrants who come here seeking asylum are not criminals”.

“I’m proud to have been arrested with them, to put myself in the camp of people who believe that the United States of America is better”, Jayapal said in a Twitter video following her arrest.

But the Trump administration points out that most of those migrants never showed up for court. “Taking children from their parents is another example of something we can’t tolerate”.

Protestors came to the rally donning white shirts and carrying signs with messages such as “Immigrants Make America Great” and “Families Belong Together”.

Thousands of people are expected to turn out for protests across the United States on Saturday in opposition to Trump administration policies that resulted in thousands of immigrant children being ripped from their families at the southern USA border and detained in makeshift prison camps.

The protesters, mostly women dressed in white, sat on the Hart Senate Office Building’s marbled floors and wrapped themselves in metallic silver blankets similar to those given to migrant children separated from their families by U.S. immigration officials.

Although Trump has signed an executive order ending the practice, the path to reunification for the more than 2,000 children who were separated remains cloudy.

Casey, whose re-election campaign has accused Barletta for flip-flopping on the issue, said in a statement, “The policy of separating children from their families and housing them in cages is straight from the pit of hell”.

“The current crisis will not end until every child that has been separated is reunited with their parents, every family is treated with dignity and due process, and our immigration policies reflect our values”, Ms. Lieberman said. “What if it was your child?” was written on one.

Event organisers said Saturday’s protests were about addressing an ethical issue. We stand to this.

Lead organisers of the march include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Representatives of the immigrant rights, labor and faith communities were slated to speak.

“Unfortunately, our nation’s broken immigration system encourages people to come to the USA illegally, putting their families at risk”.

In Farmington, about 200 people gathered on Main Street for a protest.

Some 700 demonstrations were planned across the US Saturday. Angus King addressed the 250 or so people gathered for a protest on the Brunswick Town Mall.

“It’s important for this administration to know that these policies that rip apart families – that treat people as less than human, like they’re vermin – are not the way of God”, said the Rev. Julie Hoplamazian, the rector of the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew in Brooklyn.