Protesters across US to march against immigration policy

WASHINGTON: Demonstrations were expected across the United States Saturday against President Donald Trump´s hardline immigration policy, as calls grow by activists for abolition of the country´s frontline immigration enforcement agency.

“We´re rallying in Washington DC, and around the country,” organizers of the “Families Belong Together” protest said on their website.

The Washington protest was to begin in Lafayette Square — directly across from the White House — before a march toward the Capitol. Starting in early May, in an attempt to staunch the flow of tens of thousands of migrants to the southern US border every month, Trump ordered the arrest of adults crossing the boundary illegally, including those seeking asylum.

Many trying to cross the US-Mexico border are destitute people fleeing gang violence and other turmoil in Central America.

As a result of Trump´s crackdown, distraught children were separated from their families and, according to widely broadcast pictures, held in chain-link enclosures, a practice that sparked domestic and global outrage. Last week, Trump signed an order ending the separation of families but immigration lawyers say the process of doing so will be long and chaotic. About 2,000 children remained split from their parents, according to official figures released last weekend.

More than 500 women, including a member of Congress, were arrested Thursday in the US Capitol complex protesting Trump´s immigration policy.

There have been protests elsewhere in the country but Saturday´s demonstrations are expected to be far larger, with 50,000 or more expected in Washington. Trump has made fighting immigration — both illegal and legal — a major plank of his “America First” policy agenda.