Dem lawmakers join nationwide protests against Trump immigration policies

Various Democratic lawmakers joined tens of thousands of protesters at rallies across the country on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s separation of migrant children from their parents for detention.

Immigration and civil rights activists descended on downtown Washington, D.C., for a main rally on Saturday while more than 700 “sister” rallies occurred in cities and towns around the U.S. and in several cities around the world, according to organizers and social media posts.

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Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin (D) attended a rally in Baltimore, tweeting photos from the march showing dozens of protesters holding signs aimed at the president and others assembled to hear featured speakers from the American Civil Liberties Union ACLU and other organizations.

We’re gathered here in #Baltimore to say that #FamiliesBelongTogether… and we need to reunite children with their parents now. pic.twitter.com/FXfwtmFzhK

— Senator Ben Cardin (@SenatorCardin) June 30, 2018

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) joined a rally in Boston where she ripped the administration’s “ugly” immigration practices and called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be replaced.

NEW —> Sen. Elizabeth Warren Joins The Abolish ICE Movement https://t.co/oOrvKonWCW

— Alex Smith (@AlexandraCSmith) June 30, 2018

Also spotted at the Boston rally were fellow Massachusetts lawmakers Sen. Ed Markey (D) and Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D), who also addressed the crowd.

Ed Markey and Joe @RepJoeKennedy in Boston….
Wouldn’t it be awesome if these two were POTUS and VP???
We wouldn’t be having a protest against inhumane immigration policies…
I hate Trump and his cronies more than ever right now…. pic.twitter.com/DD0de3Ms4P

— Kim M. ☮️ (@Blacklace40) June 30, 2018

In Atlanta, civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) called on a crowd to commit “good trouble, necessary trouble” to put an end to Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which led to the family separation crisis Trump sought to halt in an executive order last week.

“The world is crying with us,” Lewis told the crowd. “We must show the world that we are better than what is going on in America today.”

“We may have to turn American upside down to turn it right-side up,” Rep. John Lewis says at immigration march in Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/T9FVBotWlU

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 30, 2018

At the main protest in D.C., Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) addressed the crowd and spoke to The Hill about her arrest alongside immigration protesters earlier in the week.

“I was proud to be arrested with them,” she said. “The Trump administration is doing this and I as a Congress member, a representative of the United States government, refused to allow my name to be used in that way.”

A press release from organizers of the D.C. rally said that 30,000 protesters had gathered in the nation’s capital as of 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, with thousands more attending rallies in cities across the U.S.

“When these groups came together for the first time a few weeks ago we set out to not just galvanize the usual suspects, but to recognize that everyone has a role in fighting for the country that we want,” said Ai-Jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and one of the rally’s organizers.

“Today’s event is not the culmination but the start of activating people from all walks of life, in every state to fight for the soul of American values.”