The Families Belong Together rally at the Atlanta City Detention Center drew in more than 4,000 people according to officials after nationwide criticism of the Trump administration’s ‘zero-tolerance’ policy.
The nationwide protest demands that families are unified and immigration policies are reformed.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. government separated at least 2,000 children from their families from April 19 through May 31.
The demonstration was one of more than 700 held across the United States. Janel Green, executive director of the Georgia Alliance for Social Justice, led the action with immigrant communities.
“As soon as we heard the national call to action, we immediately reached out to organizations that are led by immigrant communities and serve immigrant communities, and invited them to form a leadership collaborative to lead this effort,” Green said.
Before the march, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials used the opportunity for on-site voter registration. Harvey Soto, a civic engagement coordinator, says their hope is to empower Latino voices in Georgia.
“We’re going to be passing out water, and helping out, and also doing people power. But, we’re also doing voter registration of the Latino community and other allies,” Soto said. “Cause that’s what GALEO does. We believe in voter registration. We believe in the power of the Latino vote in Georgia, but we also believe that we need to speak up when the community needs us most.”
Representative Hank Johnson was among the elected officials at the march, describing the Trump administration’s policy as ‘inhumane, and barbaric’ before speaking at the start of the march.
“It’s just a totally inhumane, barbaric policy that the people of the state of Georgia come to Atlanta to protest,” Representative Johnson said.
Marchers arrived at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building just before 11 a.m. for a diverse set of speakers.
Even though the issue has recently garnered a lot of attention, Carlos Medina, a member of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, says family separations has always been an issue.
“Because throughout the years, millions of parents have been separated from their children. And for years, our families are being separated, and our children suffer from the family separations” Medina said.
Civil rights icon and Representative John Lewis also appeared at the rally telling voters to make their voices heard during election day.
“And I say to each and every one of you. When election day comes around, we got to go out and vote like we never voted before,” Lewis said.
Lewis also told protesters, “There is no such thing as an illegal human being. We all are human.”
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms recently enacted an executive order preventing the jail from accepting detainees from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director for Project South, calls for the City of Atlanta to go further and close it.
“This is not enough. We need the city to shut down the Atlanta City Detention Center. Shut it down,” Shahshahani said.
Nury Crawford, a mother, was in attendance to march in solidarity with those affected.
“Well, first of all, I am a mom, and I totally was heartbroken when I heard all the separation of the children at the border with their parents what going on,” Crawford said.
More than 100 protesters also met President Trump while at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Note: This story was written for PRN, the student-led news station at Georgia State University.
