‘No Kings’ anti-Trump protests draw tens of thousands from Fort Worth to Dallas
Thousands of North Texans on Saturday filled courthouse squares and parks, marched on downtown streets or held up signs along sweltering highways as part of the nationwide “No Kings” rallies in protest of Trump administration policies.
On a day of celebration in Washington for the Army’s 250th birthday, including the largest military parade in the nation’s capital since 1991, the No Kings demonstrations were billed as peaceful displays of dissent across America. The “no kings” theme accused the president of acting like a tyrant, on what happens to also be Trump’s birthday.
Many who attended the roughly 2,000 protests in all 50 states — including Fort Worth, Arlington and Dallas — were motivated by the government’s immigration crackdown, raids and deportations. The Fort Worth protest filled Burk Burnett Park in downtown for more than three hours with boisterous chants of “this is what democracy looks like” and T-shirts slogans like “Mexicans make America great.”
Across North Texas, the visible presence of police was minimal, as were the number of counter-protesters. While some demonstrators were treated for heat-related illness, there were no immediate reports of injuries, violence or arrests by late afternoon.
More than 1,300 people in Arlington lined Abram Street outside the Tarrant County Subcourthouse with signs and chants like “immigrants are welcome here” and “justice now.” And in Dallas, an estimated 10,000 marched through downtown.
“Fort Worth remained peaceful as protesters exercised their First Amendment rights today,” the Fort Worth Police Department posted on social media. “We appreciated those who remained respectful, lawful, and peaceful as you made your voices heard.”
Caitlin Milligan and her family were among the attendees in Fort Worth.
“We want our kids to look back at this time, wherever this goes in the future, and know that we were standing up for what was right. We don’t want them to think, ‘What were you guys doing when we slowly went down the path of autocracy?’” Milligan said. “So we want them to participate. ... They’ve been seeing protests on TV, and they’ve been asking us what people are protesting about, and they’ve said that they wanted to show up, so we wanted to include them.”
Fort Worth sisters return to protest 10 years later
Katty and Ruth Arreola’s mom took them out of school in September 2015 to protest then presidential candidate Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. Ten years later, they’re back on the street to express opposition to his mass deportation agenda.
“She lived so that I could be the change,” read a sign in Spanish that Katty Arreola, 25, held at Saturday’s No Kings protest in Fort Worth.
Their mother, who was originally from Zacatecas, Mexico, died in October while still in the years-long process of becoming a US citizen, but they came out to carry on her legacy of standing up for her rights
“It’s what she would have wanted,” she said. “I was angry then. I’m angry now. And I’ve come to continue being a voice for those who can’t say anything.”
Both sisters were born in North Texas. Ruth Arreola, 22, said she had to come back out to exercise her right to free assembly. “It’s about human rights,” she said.
‘Mexicans make this country great’
Wearing T-shirts reading “Mexicans make America great,” John and Dolores Rangel came to Saturday’s No Kings protest to express their discontent with the Trump administration. Among their top complaints: his immigration agenda.
“We have friends that are scared to go to work now,” said Dolores Rangel, 79. “They’re scared to leave their homes. They’re scared to go grocery shopping, scared to go to the doctor, and we can understand that. It hurts us, because they do a lot for our country.“
The Fort Worth couple whose families have lived in the United States for generations said they don’t think indiscriminate arrests and deportations are the way to control illegal immigration.
“I think if they’re going to go ahead and arrest people at the restaurants and places where they know that they hire, they should go ahead and penalize the people that hire them,” John Rangel, 75, said. “You don’t have to build a wall if nobody would hire you.”
He highlighted how dependent various industries have become on undocumented labor, from hotels to restaurants to construction.
But immigration isn’t the only issue for them. John said Trump’s foreign policy is also a top concern for him.
“He just takes people from Fox News and other places that have no experience whatsoever, none, and they just go in there and start firing everybody, reorganizing and putting their worst people in there,” he said.
Fort Worth police monitor online threats
Fort Worth police were monitoring threatening online language after organizers said they alerted them to comments made by a local politician and replies to his posts ahead of the Saturday rallies.
The protest organizers said in a press release that they had alerted police to threatening comments on a recent post on X by Tarrant County GOP chair Bo French.
“I’m gonna crack some skulls and break some orbital bones,” the comment said.
The comment was on a post by French on Tuesday that read: “The radical violent Marxists are planning to riot this Saturday. Stay far away from them. They are bussing in paid agitators from outside of Fort Worth. I am sure there will be pallets of bricks and premade shields, just like we have seen in L.A. Stay Frosty.”
On Monday, in reference to the unrest during the weekend’s protests in Los Angeles, French posted, “A few well placed snipers would end violent protests in two seconds.”
French said in an email Saturday that his comments were “specifically about foreign invaders trying to murder cops.”
Said the protest organizers: “While normally we would just brush off what French has to say, we did invest some time in reviewing comments. Most were just trash talk. However, we took note of one individual in particular who made specific threats of physical violence.”
A police spokesperson said the department “is working closely with our community and our Intelligence Fusion Center to monitor ALL activity during any peaceful protests that may take place in the City of Fort Worth.”
Arlington’s No Kings protest: ‘Immigrants are welcome here’
Jesse Silva, a son of immigrants, said he’s concerned about how the Trump administration has characterized immigrants as criminals and rapists and how history is being removed from books. “Immigrants are what made America,” he said. He said he was hoping for a peaceful protest and for people to respect each other’s differences.
The mood at the protest seemed more like a block party than a demonstration, but the participants were dead serious when it came to expressing their concerns for the direction they feel the United States is moving in.
Patti Coggins, a retired Army combat medic, said she worries about the wealthy getting tax breaks while things like Social Security are in jeopardy. She’s also concerned about what she sees as a lack of decency in the Trump administration.
“I’m hoping people will come together for our nation or our country before we lose it,” she said. “Before it’s too late.”
Carol Rayburn, the president of Progressive Women of Arlington and the organizer for the local protest, said she thinks people are scared because of what’s been happening in Los Angeles, and more came to the event as a result. “It’s wonderful,” she said of the turnout.
Rayburn said some people were concerned about the National Guard showing up at the Arlington protest, but police assured her that neither soldiers nor Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would be there.
In spite of the large crowd, there was a comparatively small police presence. Around six Tarrant County Constable vehicles were seen in the courthouse parking lot, and no officers could be seen walking around.
More people kept arriving, and the crowd soon stretched beyond the front of the courthouse from the corner of Mary Street to the corner of Weeks Avenue. A woman passed out water bottles, and volunteers with the Fort Worth chapter of Food Not Bombs ladled out beans and rice.
Sharon Marcus and her husband, Marvin Porter, live in Oak Cliff in Dallas. The couple carried signs that said “Migration is a human right” in English and Spanish. Marcus said she was thrilled by the turnout and the wide range of ages represented at the Arlington rally. She came because she believes it’s wrong that immigrants who’ve lived and worked in the U.S. for several years and have paid their taxes are being deported.
“I would hate to think my neighbors would be detained and deported, because we love them,” she said.
Porter said his reason for coming was simple: “It’s justice,” he said. “Fighting for democracy.” He also wants the immigrant community to know they’re not alone.
Jack Buch and a friend displayed a hybrid U.S./Mexican flag to passing cars. He said they’d come to protest “overreach of government.”
“They told us they were coming for criminals,” he said of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Instead, they are separating families, he said.
Brian Loveland carried a Trump pinata on his back and a half Pride half American flag. “No thrones, no crowns, no kings,” his sign stated. Loveland said the things happening in the U.S. under the Trump administration are “unprecedented,” and the fabric of society is being torn apart. He wonders how the nation got to this point.
“I simply don’t understand,” he said.
Ann M., who asked to be identified by her last initial, told the Star-Telegram that she’s a lifetime Republican voter. Her father was a Vietnam War veteran, and Ann remembers marching down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. in the 1980s to raise awareness for veterans’ benefits. She’s concerned about the future of those benefits now, she said.
Recent government cuts have affected Ann’s family personally. Her brother works for the U.S. National Park Service and has been furloughed. She also questions why immigrants who show up at court because they are following the rules are being deported.
“People don’t know what truth is anymore,” she said.
Fort Worth: Abortion rights protesters ahead of No Kings
On Saturday morning, protesters dressed in Handmaids outfits marched around Burnett Park to “amplify the consequences of the abortion ban in Texas.”
Indivisible 12 organizer Sabrina Ball told marchers that they were adding to the movement.
“In this way, you are fighting for our country and its people, and for that, we thank you,” Ball said. “We will be silent, but you are creating startling images to share around the world and inform people about what is happening here in Texas and America. As far as I know, this is one of the largest gatherings of handmaids in one spot. And for that to happen in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the seat of Christian nationalism in the state of Texas, is truly remarkable.”
Suspect arrested after threats against Texas lawmakers
The Texas Department of Public Safety said that a suspect was taken into custody Saturday afternoon in connection with threats against state lawmakers who planned to attend the protest on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol in Austin.
A state trooper arrested the suspect, whose name has not been released, during a traffic stop in La Grange.
The Capitol building and grounds were evacuated during the investigation, but the grounds reopened in time for the protest to begin at 5 p.m. as scheduled.
Crowd on Dallas streets peaks at 10,000
In Dallas, the protest began at noon at City Hall and by 2 p.m. had grown to an estimated 10,000 people marching through the streets downtown, police told KDFW-TV.
Desiree Sezer, a 22-year-old Arlington resident who attended the Dallas protest, told the Dallas Morning News, “It’s been so heartbreaking to see so many people in my church who are in support of [Trump] continue to be in support of him regardless of what he does. Normally, I would never do something like this, especially without my husband, but I just know how important it is.”
In a statement on social media about 3 p.m., Dallas police said, “Thank you to everyone who kept today’s protests peaceful and safe.”
One man was arrested during a previous protest in Dallas on Monday night when some demonstrators blocked the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.
Frisco protest remains peaceful
In Frisco, hundreds of people of all ages lined up along FM 423 for a protest that remained peaceful on Saturday morning, according to social media posts.
“There are no kings in America,” Collin County Democratic Party Chairman Jeremy Sutka told TX3DNews.com. “We protest not out of anger, but out of deep respect for the American ideal — one the Trump Administration has repeatedly tried to subvert. On June 14th, we stand together to say: This country belongs to the people, not to a king.”
Officers watch crowd in downtown Denton
Video from WFAA-TV’s crews at the courthouse square in downtown Denton showed officers at the periphery of the crowd of peaceful protesters. WFAA reported spotting one counter protester. The crowd dispersed about 1:30 p.m.
In a Facebook post on June 12, Denton County Sheriff Tracy Murphree wrote in part, “The right to peaceful assembly is a sacred right guaranteed to all Americans. Let me be clear, this is not California. We will not tolerate destruction of property nor will we stand idly by and allow it to take place. Any violence towards any of my officers will be met with force. If my officers feel they are in imminent danger of death or injury the violence will be met with deadly force.”
Texas prepares for No Kings protests with cities on edge
After days of civil unrest in Los Angeles and other major cities, sparked by ICE conducting workplace raids, cities across the U.S. are preparing to deal with any potential for violence that arises. That includes Texas Gov. Greg Abbott deploying 5,000 National Guard troops to keep events peaceful. Earlier this week there were brief skirmishes with police in Austin and Dallas, but no widespread disorder.
Abbott has not said where the 5,000 guardsmen would be stationed. Another 2,000 state police will also help local law enforcement manage protests, the AP reported.
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said Friday she had “full confidence in the Fort Worth Police Department to work alongside our community members to ensure all protests in our city are safe and lawful.”
Still, Saturday’s protests come at a time when many communities are on edge as ICE further ramps up efforts to find and deport people who are not in the country legally. Immigration enforcement actions, particularly since the raids in Los Angeles in early June, have led to speculation of raids in North Texas.
In Fort Worth, false reports of ICE operations have spread rapidly through social media, prompting City Council member Carlos Flores to urge residents to not believe everything they read.
“While some social media posts about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may be well-intended, they often lack understanding and responsibility,” Flores wrote in an open letter. He went on to say these posts often stoke fear, while some are used to call for resistance to law enforcement, which ultimately ends up with people getting into trouble with the law.
Trump on protests: ‘I don’t feel like a king’
President Donald Trump earlier this week said he doesn’t “feel like a king” when asked about Saturday’s nationwide “No King” protests that rally against his administration’s policies.
“I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved,” Trump told a crowd of reporters at the White House Thursday while signing a resolution to block California’s efforts to phase out the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035. “No, no, we’re not a king. We’re not a king at all,” he said.
— Michelle Marchante, Miami Herald
What’s happening in DC on Saturday
The events on the National Mall in Washington D.C. include an Army birthday festival that started at 10 a.m. Central and a military parade at 5:30 p.m. Central, along Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House. It is expected to be the largest military parade in the nation’s capital since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. Fireworks on the National Mall begin at 8:45 p.m.
The Washington Post reported that the parade will include about 150 ground vehicles, 6,600 soldiers and 50 aircraft, grouped to represent each major era of the Army’s history.
The parade is expected to cost $25 million to $45 million, including costs to repair District streets damaged by heavy military equipment.
There are purposely not any No Kings Day protests planned in Washington, as the organizers say their intent is to “draw a clear contrast between our people-powered movement and the costly, wasteful, and un-American birthday parade in Washington.”
Trump warned earlier this week that any protesters at the military parade would face a “very big force.”
Star-Telegram journalists contributing to this story: Cody Copeland, Harriet Ramos, Lillie Davidson, Jaime Moore-Carrillo, Fousia Abdullahi, Chris Torres, Candi Bolden
This story was originally published June 13, 2025 at 11:00 PM.