More than 50,000 people gathered at Daley Plaza in sweltering heat June 30 to protest a controversial immigration policy that allows separating families at the southern border.The Families Belong Together march was hosted by 15 organizations, including Indivisible Chicago, Amnesty International and the National Immigrant Justice Center.Protestors that rallied in Daley Plaza were joined by more than 710 events nationwide, including protests in New York City, Washington D.C. and Granbury, Texas.Speakers included Father Michael Pfleger, a social activist, Colleen Connell, executive director of the ACLU of Illinois, Oscar Chacon, co-founder and executive director of Alianza America—a Latino immigrant advocacy group—and Jean Mishima, president of the Chicago Japanese American Historical Society, among others. “When we turned ourselves into immigration, I was told my 18-year-old daughter was too old. In that moment [we were] separated, in that moment I began to cry,” said a Salvadoran asylum seeker to her translator as she spoke on stage. Her name was withheld from the public for privacy reasons. “My daughter is still in there, and I am here.” Virginia Martinez, a speaker at the event who visited a detention center in Dilley, Texas, described the conditions of the detention center as having “inadequate medical and psychiatric services.”Martinez recounted stories of women awakened by border agents kicking them, and mothers wrapping their children in blouses and placing them between their legs to keep warm in the frigid holding cells.“We are completely outraged at what has happened to this country,” said Neal Spira, 67, a protestor and dean of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. “The acceptance of immigrants in the U.S. is fundamental to having a free and vibrant society and we don’t want it taken away.”Demonstrators marched south on Clark Street to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office,101 W. Congress Parkway.Protestors chanted “stand up, fight back” and “abolish ICE” as they moved through the streets.In response to growing backlash against the policy, President Donald Trump signed an executive order June 20 designed to allow families to stay together, even when detained. The executive order does not end Trump's "zero tolerance" policy of arresting anyone who crosses the border illegally, nor does it address the 2,300 children who have already been separated.U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw issued a nationwide injunction June 26 that blocked ICE from separating families and ordered those separated be reunited within 30 days. It also requires the government to reunite children under the age of five with their parents within 14 days, and let children speak with their parents within 10 days.Some protestors, such as Bilal Mujahid, 42, a security professional and protestor at the event from the west suburbs of Chicago, are unsatisfied with the action because children still remain separated.“The executive order came out to [prevent the separation of children], but there are still thousands of children in [prison]-like conditions,” Mujahid said. “How can we, as Americans let that happen?”
