Nearly 600 activists, protesting Donald Trump’s ‘zero-tolerance’ policy against illegal immigrants, have been arrested after staging an occupy sit-in at the Hart Senate Office building in the nation’s capital.
Hundreds of women, wrapped in metallic silver blankets, referencing the duvets given to migrant children in detention centers, occupied the Senate office building in Washington DC after marching down the streets of the city chanting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “This is what democracy looks like.”
Demanding the closure of the detention centers for illegal immigrants, the activists made a brief stop in front of the Department of Justice, urging the government to “abolish ICE,” the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
#WomenDisobey have 10th Street shut down outside the gates to the DOJ, all shouting WE CARE on this march’s first sit-in demanding a stop to family detention. pic.twitter.com/5PAIHWISWH
— Alejandro Alvarez 🫡 (@aletweetsnews) June 28, 2018
https://twitter.com/aletweetsnews/status/1012383503835697154
Arrests continuing in the Hart Senate office building.
Look at that pile of mylar blankets.#WomenDisobey pic.twitter.com/9jfj8vIMbt
— Ted Corcoran (RedTRaccoon) (@RedTRaccoon) June 28, 2018
After Donald Trump announced his zero-tolerance policy on illegal border crossing in April, around 2,300 children were separated from their families. Facing a massive public backlash, last week Trump issued an order allowing families to stay together after being detained at the border. On Monday, US Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services reported that 538 kids had been reunited with their parents. The next day, a judge in California granted a preliminary injunction giving the government 30 days to reunify minors with their families, 14 days if the child is younger than five.