SAN ANTONIO – Protestors gathered near Downtown San Antonio to call for reforms and accountability amid an increase in ICE activity nationwide.
At 2 p.m. non Friday, local activists gathered at Travis Park to vocalize their frustration with the Trump presidential administration, as well as share their concerns surrounding increased immigration enforcement, as well as the tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) federal agents.
Protests popped up across San Antonio Friday as groups raised their voices against the on-going immigration crackdown in the United States.
They filled Travis Park on what they call a ‘National Day of Action’; saying they won’t stop until national leaders pay attention.
More than a hundred protesters called for the end of on-going ICE operations across the country.
Children, teens and adults walked together, saying they want ICE shut down.
“What you see in your halls and what you see on your streets week after week, that is the power of the people,” one organizer said to the crowd.
We walked along demonstrators, hearing their stories as they marched the streets of downtown.
One group said they were in Dilley on Wednesday. They were tear gassed just outside of the detention center where 5-year-old Liam Ramos and his father are being held.
“It was pretty traumatic I’m not gonna lie,” one protestor said.
But he said it’s not enough to stop his fight.
“I feel like they wanted to do that to discourage me from coming back and it really only ignited the fire even more,” he said.
“It’s just not fair,” one couple said. “It doesn’t make any sense what’s happening and we have to do something about it.”
This national day of action all stems from what’s happening in Minneapolis, as protests against ICE operations continue.
“It’s what’s necessary,” said Corrie Rosen, an organizer with the San Antonio Chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). “The only way the people can win against these injustices is by joining together. So we love being able to stand in community and be with the working class people who oppose ICE terror.”
Organizers also said these continued protests are about more than just making noise throughout the streets of San Antonio. They say their goal is the end of ICE operations and fair treatments for immigrants in the country.
Protest organizers with 50501 allege that as part of the Trump Administration agenda, ICE has begun sweeping raids across many major cities across the US, and that ICE has used aggressive and illegal tactics to kidnap many people across the country including arresting legal US citizens.
RELATED | Trump brands Alex Pretti ‘agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist’
This protests comes after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, both who were fatally shot in separate instances by ICE Agents conducting immigration enforcement operations in the Minneapolis area earlier this month.
After Pretti’s death on Jan. 24, the Trump administration portrayed Pretti as approaching CBP officers while carrying a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and two magazines.
His family released a statement after the shooting condemning the “sickening lies told about our son by the administration,” calling them “reprehensible and disgusting.”
RELATED | Border czar Homan vows to stay in Minneapolis until immigration issues resolved
Despite ongoing protests both in Minneapolis, and across the country, federal immigration officials, including Border Czar Tom Homan, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino, have affirmed their stance that operations in Minneapolis, and nationally, will continue until immigration issues are resolved.