NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on nationwide protests over Trump immigration policy (all times local):
12:25 p.m.
Thousands of people gathered in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies, calling for an end to the detention of immigrant families.
The crowd also included many who’ve been protesting Trump since his election in 2016. They voiced concerns about everything from abortion rights and the future makeup of the Supreme Court to what if any influence Russia might have on American politics.
Margarita Perez of Albuquerque held up a small Mexican flag as speakers addressed the crowd. Accompanied by her daughter, she said she was concerned about the children who were being detained and for those parents who did not know where their children were taken.
Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, a Democrat, told the crowd of his trip to the US-Mexico border, where he and other mayors were denied a tour of a shelter at the Tornillo port of entry outside of El Paso, Texas. He elicited a roar from the crowd when he said “We are here to push back, to resist.”
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12:05 p.m.
Thousands have gathering on a square across from the White House to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
The crowds on Lafayette Square chanted “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as speakers denounced the separation of children from parents after they entered the U.S. illegally.
Protesters waved signs in English and Spanish. The slogan on one English sign demanded, “Where are the children?”
“Melania & Ivanka, stop the child abuse,” another slogan declared.
Protesters were due to march on the Justice Department later, in one of scores of immigration demonstrations around the country.
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11:20 a.m.
Hundreds of protesters in downtown Dallas are calling for a clear plan to reunify families separated under President Donald Trump’s policy of separating immigrant families.
The protesters, many donning white T-shirts and clothing, carried protest signs and gathered in mass outside Dallas city hall.
One protest sign read, “Compassion not cruelty” while another said simply: “Vote”
Another sign said, “November is coming.”
Protest organizer Michelle Wentz says opposition to the policy has seemed to cross political party lines. She called it a “barbaric and inhumane” policy.
Protesters continued to stream in to the area as people registered demonstrators to vote.
The hum of side conversations gave way to chants of “We care!” outside city hall.
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10:30 a.m.
Protesters are chanting “shame!” and singing “shut detention down!” at the kickoff of a New York City march denouncing the Trump administration’s policy of separating families of people caught crossing the border illegally.
Crowds gathered in sweltering 86-degree morning heat on Saturday at a Manhattan park before a planned march across the Brooklyn Bridge to Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn, near the federal courthouse. The crowd provided a refrain of “shame” as an organizer ran down a list of people marchers are blaming for the family separations.
Among their targets: President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the agencies Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
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9:40 a.m.
Thousands of people opposed to President Donald Trump’s controversial policy of separating migrant families are descending on Boston for two planned protests.
Saturday’s “Rally against Family Separation” begins with a morning march from City Hall to Boston Common, where a large rally will take place. The protest is timed with other protests nationwide and is also meant to oppose Trump’s ban on travelers from certain Muslim-majority nations.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Joe Kennedy III, both Democrats, will be among the attendees.
The second demonstration starts Saturday afternoon with a march from Wellington Common Park to the South Bay House of Correction, a county jail in Boston which houses immigrants apprehended by federal officials.
Organizers are demanding local government agencies stop cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
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1:10 a.m.
Liberal activists, parents and first-time protesters motivated by accounts of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border plan to rally in hundreds of cities nationwide to press President Donald Trump’s administration to reunite the families quickly.
More than 600 marches on Saturday could draw hundreds of thousands of people across the country, from immigrant-friendly cities like Los Angeles and New York City to conservative Appalachia and Wyoming under the banner Families Belong Together.
Though many who show up will be seasoned anti-Trump demonstrators, others will be new to immigration activism, including parents who say they feel compelled to show up after heart-wrenching accounts of children forcibly taken from their families as they crossed the border illegally.
In Portland, Oregon, for example, several stay-at-home moms have organized their first rally while caring for young kids.
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