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Tampa Bay Rallies Planned to Send Message: Families Belong Together

Families Belong Together | Rally | Politics

Rallies are scheduled around the Tampa Bay area on Saturday to protest the policies of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. The rallies are part of a national movement.

TAMPA BAY – Groups objecting to the immigration policies of the Trump administration have scheduled rallies around the Tampa Bay area on Saturday (June 30) to protest what organizers call “the administration’s cruel and inhumane treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers.”

The rallies are part of a national movement that is urging activists from around the country to join a local event Saturday to help send a message to the Trump administration.

“As parents, it is unconscionable that the US government is actively tearing apart immigrant families. They are victims of violence, hunger, and poverty and our government’s actions re-violate them, causing untold damage. Children as young as 18 months are torn from their mothers’ arms by our own government,” according to the national Families Belong Together movement.

“This is violent abuse and as concerned citizens and voters we state, unequivocally, that this is not in line with American values. We oppose the inhumane policies of the Trump Administration, Border Patrol, ICE, and other federal immigration agencies. We are disheartened by the lack of leadership in Congress whose job is to be a check on the federal government when it overreaches and abuses its power. We are calling for immediate reforms and an end to this barbarism.”

According to organizers of a Hillsborough event, the executive order signed by President Donald Trump saying that families will not be separated does not mean there is no need for action.

“Despite Trump’s ‘executive order,’ we are still taking action on June 30,” Hillsborough organizers said. “Camps and tent cities where immigrants are detained ‘together as families’ are no better than camps and tent cities where they are detained separately. The administration has indicated zero willingness and zero plan to reunite those children already separated from their families.”

National organizers add, “The executive order that Donald Trump signed … is not a solution to the crisis created by his administration; it keeps kids imprisoned indefinitely, and doesn’t reunite thousands of separated families. But it does show the administration is reacting to public pressure, so we will continue to increase our pressure for justice at hundreds of events on Saturday, June 30, to say that families belong together—and free.”

Among sponsors of the local events are the American Civil Liberties Union and Indivisible FL-13.

Tampa Bay Rallies:

Hillsborough County
10 a.m.
Joe Chillura Courthouse Square
Tampa

Gulfport
1:30 p.m.
Gulfport Casino
5500 Shore Blvd. S

Spring Hill
5 p.m.
Sping Hill Waterfall
Waterfall Drive

For information or to register for the Tampa Bay events, go to moveon.org.

Photo shows Valentina Montoya, 16, speaking at a Families Belong Together rally earlier this month at Williams Park in St. Petersburg. Tampa Bay Reporter photo.

 

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