On June 30, a blazing hot 102 degree day in Columbia, South Carolina, hundreds of people gathered outside the state house to raise their voices in opposition to the horrendous caging of undocumented immigrants and the tearing apart of families fleeing oppressive conditions manufactured by U.S. imperialism.
The demonstration was organized by Indivisible Midlands, Simple Justice #BlackLivesMatter, Grassroots Alliance for Immigrant Rights, South Carolina Indian Affairs Commission, OFA Central Midlands and Showing Up for Racial Justice.
All across the country tens of thousands of people took to the streets to stand against the policies that have tormented the undocumented community for far too long. From Boston to Los Angeles people took to the streets, questioning the legitimacy of ICE, demanding specifically, that the Trump Administration:
1. Reunite families now. Permanently end family separation and immediately reunify those that have been separated. ICE must release parents immediately so that ORR can reunify them with their children.
2. End family detention. Children and families deserve due process, not indefinite imprisonment. Children do not belong in baby cages and internment-like camps. Family incarceration is not the solution to family separation.
3. Abolish ICE. ICE is a rogue agency with no oversight that is terrorizing immigrant communities nationwide with indiscriminate raids that separate immigrant families here in SC.
4. #ShutDownSessions. AG Jeff Sessions, once deemed too racist to become a federal judge, has enacted bigoted policies targeting immigrants, ignoring Constitutional protections and changing DOJ policies in order to cruelly punish immigrant families. He is not fit to serve as the U.S. Attorney General.
5. End ‘Zero Humanity.’ Reverse the Trump administration’s policy that created this crisis and chaos to begin with. Parents should not be criminally prosecuted for doing what all parents do, which is bring their children to safety. This horrible nightmare for families will only end when Trump permanently stops his 100% prosecution policy.
6. #FreeOurFuture. The immigrant community is under siege. The DOJ and AG Sessions are seeking to criminalize migration—we must do all we can to stop them. Immigrants and refugees deserve to enjoy liberated and equitable lives and we won’t stop fighting until that goal is realized.
7. #NoMuslimBan. EVER. We stand in solidarity with the Muslim community in these distressing times. We condemn the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the 3rd travel ban. We gather today to say enough of anti-family immigration and anti-refugee practices. We will shut it down! We will keep families together and we will stand up and fight back.
Trump and McMaster: Partners in crime
President Donald Trump was in the state of South Carolina five days prior to the rally, on June 25, shilling for far right politician Governor Henry McMaster (R-SC) as he seeks re-election. This was only one day after Trump called for depriving due process rights to undocumented immigrants.
McMaster has the full backing of Trump and voiced his support for Trump’s inhumane policies of separating children from their families at the border. Evoking a tough-guy “law and order” stance, McMaster rebuffed criticisms from church groups, activists, other politicians, and child advocates who highlighted the inhumanity of the policy stating that “Now, these are situations where you have young children, of course, those situations existed throughout the law, but again the law needs to be enforced,” McMaster said, according to goupstate.com.
