A total of 10 individuals were arrested Tuesday during a protest near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in Washington, D.C. aiming to bring attention to the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The demonstrators staged a sit-in, while barring entry to the ICE premises, following a march from the National Mall. Some of the protesters were seen holding signs that called for the abolition of ICE and the closure of “concentration camps.”
We are shutting down every entry point to the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that is responsible for this terror against the immigrant community. We are shutting down business as usual #ShutDownICE
Watch live: https://t.co/UDvJrtRmbM
Join us: https://t.co/VbjiBm4vhr pic.twitter.com/X1wtZPW955— ✡️ Never Again Action ✡️ (@NeverAgainActn) July 16, 2019
Those arrested are reportedly charged with “unlawful entry.”
Among the participants of the action were the illegal immigrant protest group Movimiento Cosecha and far-left groups such as the Jewish organization Never Again Action.
https://twitter.com/abena_frimpomah/status/1151442568720334848
Never Again Action, that features the motto “When Jews Say Never Again, We Mean It,” is calling for people’s involvement in their cause over their website, where they say:
“We’re showing that it’s possible to meaningfully resist ICE’s reign of terror. Now it’s your turn! Our 11 million undocumented neighbors and the thousands of families in detention centers and prison camps need us right now. They need us to come together and stop business as usual, until the politicians that claim to represent us have no choice but to shut ICE down, close the camps, and stop the roundups and the deportations.”
“The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Lev. 19:34). Or as one of my favorite signs from yesterday’s #NeverAgainIsNow protest said: “This shit ain’t kosher.” #JewsAgainstICE pic.twitter.com/a2wyBt0FvK
— Hannah Finnie (@hfinz) July 17, 2019
Movimiento Cosecha, calling itself a “nonviolent movement fighting for permanent protection, dignity, and respect for all immigrants,” believe that all immigrants are entitled to “permanent protection, dignity, and respect.” “We all deserve the right to live without fear,” they say on their website.
Many other demonstrations took place recently in various U.S. cities protesting against the poor conditions, under which illegal immigrants are being held by the Border Patrol.