Chanting “Stop taking the children,” immigrants, activists and tech workers on Tuesday protested the Trump Administration’s hard-line immigration policies that are separating children from their parents at the Southwest border and causing outrage and debate on Capitol Hill and around the world.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ new zero-tolerance policy has been blamed for separating families. Under the new rules, all cases of illegal entry are referred for criminal prosecution.
Around 2,000 migrant children have been separated from their parents between mid-April and May, because, unlike their parents, they are not charged with a crime.
The rally in front of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in downtown San Francisco drew several hundred protesters, blocking off a stretch of Sansome Street. It came as the Trump Administration doubled down this week on its “zero-tolerance” policy for illegal border crossers, arresting parents and taking more than 2,300 children to shelters over a recent six-week stretch.