The recorded cries of immigrant children separated from their parents mingled with chanted cries and shouts of more than 200 people at a public rally over the nation’s immigration policy.
“We are immigrants,” chanted a crowd Wednesday in unison with urging from the Rev. Felipe Martinez, a native of Mexico, an American citizen and Columbus religious leader. “We are not the problem.”
Bartholomew County Indivisible, a social activist group, planned the gathering on the City Hall steps only a few days beforehand, organizer Kari Tyree said. She and other members of the group were angered by the Trump administration’s practice that separated more than 2,300 children from their parents when they attempted to enter the United States illegally this in the past few months at the Mexico border.
Sparking worldwide outrage, President Trump reversed course at the White House hours before Wednesday’s local event, signing an executive order stating that families entering at the border would not be separated.
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
