A coalition of advocacy groups plan to hold a march and rally in downtown Los Angeles Saturday to decry the separation and detention of immigrant families.
The “Families Belong Together – Freedom for Immigrants March,” which is set to start at Los Angeles City Hall at 11 a.m. and end in front of the immigration holding facility on Aliso and Alameda streets, is among more than 700 protests planned nationwide.
Other #FamiliesBelongTogether Southern California rally locations include Pasadena, Irvine, Malibu, Laguna Beach, Carlsbad, National City, Ramona, San Diego, Palm Springs, Moreno Valley, Riverside and Temecula.
The Los Angeles march will be the second major demonstration focused on the Trump administration’s immigration policy to be held within a week downtown, following a series of protests and rallies that occurred Tuesday when Attorney General Jeff Sessions came to town for a speech. About a dozen clergy members were arrested that day outside the federal courthouse at 312 N. Spring St. after refusing to move out of the street when the Los Angeles Police Department declared an unlawful assembly.
The attorney general’s visit came on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Donald Trump’s ban on foreign visitors and immigrants from seven nations. For the past several weeks, the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on undocumented immigrants — including the now-rescinded policy of separating children from their parents when they are apprehended at the Mexican border — has sparked an international outcry.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Sen. Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Alex Padilla, county Supervisor Hilda Solis, gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, and Sen. Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, are among the scheduled speakers, with MoveOn, CHIRLA, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, the Women’s March LA Foundation and the Council on American-Islamic Relations among the many groups set to participate in the Los Angeles march.
Singer John Legend, actors Laverne Cox and Eugenio Derbez and cast members and writers from “Jane the Virgin,” “One Day at a Time” and “Vida” are also expected to take part.
Organizers nationwide are urging attendees to wear white in a show of unity.