Fort Worth protesters head to Rio Grande Valley to rally against family separations
The grassroots coalition United Fort Worth departed early this morning to join the American Civil Liberties Union's Families Belong Together rally at the border.
Along with about 100 local residents from the Metroplex, United Fort Worth members left from St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Richardson at 2:30 a.m. to be able to reach the rally in Brownsville by its start, at 11 a.m.
There, protesters from Laredo, Austin, Houston, San Antonio and other cities will gather at Linear Park across the street from Brownsville Federal Court, where adult immigrants face mass prosecution for crossing the border. Meanwhile, children have been separated from their parents and often sent to shelters across the country.
"My mom and dad brought me to the United States to give me a better life, so those kids are a daily reminder of me," said United Fort Worth and trip organizer Norma Garcia Lopez, 38. "Every day I see those kids in the news or hear about it, it's personal because I was one of those kids."
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in April the Trump administration's "zero tolerance policy," a directive to criminally prosecute all adult migrants who enter the United States without documentation. Many come from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Family separations were taking place in April and May but picked up international attention in mid-June when the Department of Homeland Security announced it has separated at least 2,000 children from their parents since the policy was announced.
On June 20, President Trump reversed his own policy by signing an executive order to detain families together after they cross the border, rather than separating them. It's still unclear how the zero tolerance policy will be carried out.
Two friends, Marwa O'Bailey, 32, and Jasmin Ali, 26, said that although they're not directly affected by the border crisis, it is important to support the separated families and make their voices heard.
"I'm disgusted by what's happening," O'Bailey said. "There are so many things going wrong in the country, but it is important for the administration and everyone else to recognize that there are Americans out there who disagree with what's going on."
On Tuesday, a judge in California ordered border authorities to reunite children and families within the next 30 days; however, the crisis will not end until all families are reunited, the ACLU said on its Facebook event page. The national organization has been advocating for the immediate release of parents and children from detention centers and has already raised $1 million to be able to do so.
In Tarrant County, United Fort Worth has been pressing city and county officials about their stance on the separation of families through policies like Senate Bill 4, a measure that allows police to question people's immigration status, and 287(g), a voluntary partnership between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office.
On June 30, United Fort Worth, RAICES Texas and other community organizations will hold a sister rally in front of the Tarrant County Courthouse as opponents of the zero-tolerance policy around the country protest in various cities.
This story was originally published June 28, 2018 at 5:41 AM.