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Gerson Quinteros, a "dreamer" from El Salvador who lives in the District, leads the protesters in front of the White House on Lafayette Square. (Andre Chung / for the Washington Post)
Ellen Sullivan, 63, took a cigarette shot and crushed it under her heels while she was sitting on a park bench Saturday morning on Lafayette Square. Her white shirt read "Crazy as Hell" and she was holding a handmade sign that read "For the least of us."
"It was a tipping point" says Sullivan, a professor who divides her time between McLean, Virginia. and Miami. "It's been frustrating for two years – but there are baby concentration camps in our country right now, and it's terrifying."
Sullivan was among the hundreds who were beginning to gather before the protest "Families Belong Together" to end the "zero tolerance" immigration policy of President Trump, who separated children from their parents and detained whole families crossing the southern border of the United States.
The organizers are waiting around 50,000 spectators in front of the White House and in the surrounding streets. About 750 similar events have been planned nationwide in all states, from large cities like New York and Los Angeles to tiny like Antler, ND, population 28.
The rally will close a week of events in Washington that included a Wednesday march at the headquarters of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the arrests of 575 people Thursday at the Hart Office Building during a sit-in led by women. These two demonstrations demanded the dismantling of ICE as well as the return of the children to their families and the end of the Trump immigration crackdown.
Saturday's march would take a slightly different turn, according to organizers.
request, "said Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn.org, who co-sponsored the event. "Reuniting families now, ending family internment camps and ending the zero-humanity policy that has created this humanitarian crisis and chaos."
Several speakers, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the musical Hamilton, "And actors America Ferrera and Diane Guerrero, will take place on Lafayette Square to launch the protest, which began at 11 am The people who lived the Holocaust, the camps of Japanese internment and Trump's family separation policy should speak at 9:30 am, an hour and a half before the rally began, the protesters had already begun to gather in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House. 19659010] Saturday's rally organizers encouraged attendees to wear white clothing, a show of unity and public transit due to the size of the crowd expected and the lack of The overflow areas will be cordoned off along 16th Street NW and at Farragut Square, where organizers will install large screens.
Florencia Fuensalida and John Van Zandt, both of whom have worked with immigrants for years, confessed that they did not have Bastian, the 3-year-old son, why they walk today, but they performed songs with them. him: We respect everyone. We love our friends.
While the family was boarding a bus, the boy seemed to have friends everywhere.
A girl holding a sign saying, "I respect children. I'm 4 years old, "Bastian smiled, wearing a bright red shirt and reading," Our dreams are not illegal. A woman from Athens, Georgia, with a bag of 50 posters handed her family to three. Another pair of women handed them the "Return the Children" bracelets, one for Bastian's size and one for his mother.
"Immigrants come here to survive," said Fuensalida. "So they come here and they are ripped off the only thing they have, their families."
Although the rally begins right in front of the White House, President Trump will not be here. He spends the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
Julie Zauzmer contributed to this report.
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