Family Separation Protest in Wenatchee

A rally in Wenatchee at Memorial Park was one of several in Washington State on Saturday protesting the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" policy on unauthorized immigration. The "Families Belong Together" protest focused on the separation of children from parents who had been detained after crossing the border prior to President Trump's executive order halting the practice. Vanessa Gutierrez with Northwest Immigrant Rights Project said "the executive order is not enough.  It calls for the unification of families and that's great but it also calls for the incarceration of families and that can be just as traumatizing"

Gutierrez said similar events were held in Ellensburg, Yakima, Sea-Tac and Olympia.

Among the protestors was a Wenatchee resident of 13 years who came from Columbia who said she disagreed with the way border security was being enforced  "because this is inhuman what they are doing at the border, separation, take the mother from the children.  They have more than two thousand children in the south, Texas, Arizona"

Jorge Chacon a longtime Wenatchee community organizer with the group CAFE, said he was pleased at the turnout of several hundred and thinks Wenatchee's views are changing, "there is perhaps more tolerance , a little bit more acceptance and that's America, that's democracy" Chacon said.  He add a similar protest or turnout five years ago would not have been likely in Wenatchee.

Thousands marched in about 700 cities cities across the country from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Anchorage, Alaska.... some with handmade signs with messages such as "Cruelty = Kids in cages" and "Deport Racism."