Tens of thousands gathered this morning for “Together and Free: Rally Against Family Separation,” which began with speeches at on Boston City Hall Plaza then marched to Boston Common for music and more speeches.
“Separating brown and black families is as American as George Washington,” Mahtowin Monroe of United Indians of New England, the first speaker at City Hall, said. She called for “an end to all cooperation with I.C.E.” and “immediate residency” for immigrants. “We need to have solidarity with all those dispossessed” by colonialism and wars, she said.
“The Supreme Court has a racist history of upholding injustice,” Fatema Ahmad of the Muslim Justice League said. National security has been falsely used as reasoning for discriminating against Muslims and immigrants, she said. “These policies do not keep any one safe. They give the illusion of security to some of us at the expense of the rest of us.”
At City Hall Plaza, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren told the crowd about a recent visit to immigration jail in Texas. “I saw cages of human beings,” she said. “I saw women. I talked with women who were facing the terrorism of gangs, women who fled for their lives.”
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Warren said, “I spoke with mothers whose children had been taken from them by the U.S. government, mothers who had been lied to, mothers who had no idea where their children are, mothers who at night say they can still hear their children cry.”
She called for replacing I.C.E. with something more aligned with our values.
“This is about human beings. This is about children in cages. This is about babies scattered all across this country,” Warren said. “…This is ugly. This is wrong. And this is not the way to run our country.”
Six masked counter-protesters attempted to disrupt the rally at City Hall Plaza. “Family separation has ended,” read a sign one of them held. Another used a bullhorn to shout in people’s faces.
“Nazi scum, go home!” angry protesters chanted in response.
Volunteers from the protest Veterans for Peace ringed the counter-protesters to keep the groups separate, and prevent violence, though there was some scuffling. Boston police arrived and ringed the counter-protesters, who later moved to Boston Common, before police helped them leave without violence.
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Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.