Minneapolis: 4000 march against Trump’s separation of families, concentration camps at the border
Minneapolis, MN – On June 30, 4000 people marched in South Minneapolis to stand with immigrants and Muslims who are under attack by the Trump administration.
The skies cleared from an earlier downpour as marchers went from Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue in the heart of the immigrant community, through Uptown and to the First Universalist Church, where there was an indoor rally. The church sanctuary as well as an overflow room were filled to capacity, with more people continuing to rally outside.
The huge protest came together quickly as word of the horrific conditions in the border concentration camps spread. The protest was organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Minnesota), and endorsed by more than 50 other organizations.
The date of the march coincided with the huge protests last year on June 30 against the Trump administration’s separation of children from their families at the border, and marked one year since the Supreme Court legalized Trump’s Muslim Ban.
Many marchers carried signs and imagery condemning caging children and families in concentration camps near the U.S.-México border. They marched against the anti-Muslim bigotry of the Trump administration and the Muslim Ban, which continues to unjustly separate families from several majority-Muslim countries. The protesters also condemned the Trump administration’s menacing threats to deport millions more people, when millions have already been deported in the past decade.
According to Mari Hernandez of MIRAC, “The Trump administration continues to separate families and to operate concentration camps for children and asylum-seeking families. This is a moral catastrophe. We demand that asylum seekers be let in and that the camps be shut down now.”
Speakers included Jaylani Hussein of CAIR-MN, Kay of the Minnesota Immigrant Movement, Victor Ramirez Juarez of MIRAC, Mixie DBest (whose partner Sota is in ICE detention), Rev. Ruth Mackenzie of First Universalist Church, Daisy Kabaka of MIRAC, U of MN African American and Asian American Studies Professor Yuichiro Onishi, Saria Baker Abdelfatah of the Sudani American Collective and Reverend Rebecca Voelkel.
Miguel Fiol of Frente Acción Latina de Minnesota, closed the event with a poem dedicated to Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria who drowned in the Rio Grande trying to seek asylum in the U.S. and whose photo shook the conscience of the world.