Protesters block entrance to prison company that runs migrant detention facilities

Police in Nashville, Tenn., arrested 19 people on Monday after they blocked the entrance of the headquarters of a private prison company that operates migrant detention centers.

Demonstrators from the No Exceptions Prison Collective arrived around 5 a.m. to protest at the headquarters of CoreCivic, which operates eight detention centers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), The Associated Press reported. 

The activists linked their arms through heavy barrels, and one protester suspended themselves 25 feet in the air on a swing-like seat using a large stand.

{mosads}CoreCivic said in a statement to AP that the activists were pushing “wrong and politically motivated” information shared by special interest groups, misinterpreting their ties to ICE.

The protest comes amid backlash from the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which previously separated more than 2,000 migrant children from their parents after the families illegally crossed the southern border.

CoreCivic told AP that all of the children in their facilities are supervised by a parent.