Americans March With U.S. Flags In Their Hands And Hope In Their Hearts To Demand Better For Immigrant Neighbors

Immigrant rights as well as individual freedoms were top of mind for millions at the unprecedented “No Kings” rallies across the country this past weekend.

If June’s “No Kings” rallies were described as historic (and they were!), then last weekend’s No Kings sequel – which saw millions of people turnout at 2,500 events in major metropolitan areas and small towns alike across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands – can only be described as unprecedented.

National turnout for the second round of “No Kings” events makes it the largest single-day political protest in U.S. history, said data-driven journalist G. Elliot Morris, estimating “that 5.2 million people participated in a No Kings Day demonstration somewhere in the country on Saturday, with an upper bound of 8.2 million people. We provide an ‘estimate’ and not a ‘count’ because we are making predictions of turnout in protest sites where official records are still missing … Saturday’s events are very likely the biggest single-day protest event since 1970, surpassing even the 2017 Women’s March demonstrations against Trump.”

“This weekend Americans from every city and small town presented a positive, confident, and optimistic embrace of what America stands for,” responded America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas on Monday. “In speech after speech, and sign after sign, the message from everyday Americans was clear: stop the cruelty and chaos and the authoritarian takeover and restore our democracy and the rule of law.”

For many “No Kings” rally attendees over the weekend, the administration’s rapid encroaching on the fundamental rights of Americans – including due process, the freedoms of speech and assembly, and the freedom to simply be able to live in peace in their own communities – were top of mind. “It’s horrifying,” one Washington, D.C. rally attendee said about the administration’s military invasion of the district. “We have friends who are in it [the D.C. National Guard]. It’s a waste of time and resources.”

“But it was Trump’s mass-deportation crusade,” columnist Will Bunch wrote at The Philadelphia Inquirer, “and the brutal tactics by those masked and unbadged goons for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies — grabbing migrants (and, in at least 170 documented cases, U.S. citizens) off the street and lobbing tear gas at anyone who protests — that was cited again and again by the marchers when I asked them why they are in the streets.” The images from the weekend certainly back that up.

CALIFORNIA:

FLORIDA:

IDAHO:

ILLINOIS:

While the rally in KANSAS’ COTTONWOOD FALLS, population 800, was one of the smallest in the state, it’s an example of how every single voice matters and can make a difference. Rally host Kay Krause told the Kansas Reflector that she’s been raising funds to help immigrants jailed at the nearby Chase County Detention Center, which processes individuals before they’re moved to other ICE facilities across the nation. “Without the postcards and stamps, their families wouldn’t know where they are or where they are going, Krause said.”

“At some point, this whole mess is going to be over, and then what are we going to do?” Krause told the outlet. “We’ve got to start building bridges. We’ve got to start seeing our neighbors as neighbors and not enemies. We’ve just got to start reaching out and looking for the good in each other, because it’s there. It’s just covered up with all this craziness.”

MONTANA:

NEW JERSEY:

In NEW YORK, dozens of faith leaders and community members in New York City held an interfaith vigil before joining the massive demonstration at Time Square later Saturday, Religion News Service reports.

“As a Hindu of conscience, as an American and as an Indian, with my eyes open and my heart awake, I say a resounding ‘no’ to the growing tide of authoritarianism here, there and everywhere, from Delhi to Washington,” Sunita Viswanath, executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, told the outlet. “Varghese later told Religion News Service that New York’s diverse faith community needed to ‘claim our moral voice in this moment.’”

The Rev. Chloe Breyer, an Episcopal priest and executive director of the Interfaith Center of New York, added “that followers of Jesus’ teachings were called to oppose the administration’s methods, which she said weaponized the Christian faith and desacralized houses of worship by allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pursue and arrest people in or near their churches and other sacred spaces.”

intrfthalliance

A post shared by @intrfthalliance

OREGON:

VIRGINIA:

WASHINGTON, D.C.

“We’re here representing normal people — regular, peaceful Americans — who are against what this administration is doing, who are against the occupation of our cities and the disappearing of our neighbors off the streets,” Afghanistan war veteran Jermaine Collins told Rolling Stone from the D.C. rally.

Just last week, ProPublica issued a shocking report finding that more than 170 American citizens have been detained by ICE. While Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh has insisted that any wrongful targeting of U.S. citizens by ICE would prove nothing more than a mild inconvenience, “that is far from the reality many citizens have experienced,” the outlet said.

“Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched.”

“This movement may turn into more than No Kings,” rally attendee Mary Phillips toldThe Guardian. “It may turn into saving lives, period – saving our life, saving our freedom to be United States citizens because anybody right now can be told you’re not a citizen any more.”

intrfthalliance

A post shared by @intrfthalliance

intrfthalliance

A post shared by @intrfthalliance

Of course, the work is not over just because the rallies are over. On Sunday, Sister Susan Rose Francois of the order of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace shared a photo of faith leaders and community members gathering for an ecumenical prayer service outside of Newark’s Delaney Hall. Religion News Service previously reported that following the private immigration detention facility’s contentious reopening in May, the group has been camping out in the parking lot weekly in order to support visiting families, including distributing coffee, water, and coloring books, as well as holding a “Let Us Pray” service seeking the protection of immigrant families.

“We’re going to come out here, as long as we need to be out here, as long as we can be out here,” Pax Christi New Jersey‘s Kathy O’Leary, told Religion News Service. “We kind of expect that eventually we’re going to irritate people, someone in power too much, and get shut down, but we’ll figure out another way then to support our neighbors. We hope that this is the beginning.”

As The Bulwark and others observed, the administration and its allies have spent weeks demonizing Americans’ right to protest, saying a whole bunch of junk that isn’t worth repeating here simply because it’s just so ridiculous. What they hoped for, we can say, was to scare people away from even just the thought of attending. That effort failed, and as The New Republic’s Greg Sargent noted last week, may have actually spurred even more people into attending.

What we actually saw last weekend were instead peaceful images of Americans marching with U.S. flags in their hands and hope in their hearts in order to demand better for their immigrant neighbors, and themselves. “Mike Johnson and all his fellow pro-Kings propagandists hoped for violence, extremism, and evidence of hate for America,” The Bulwarksaid. “But instead they saw peace, patriotism, and loyalty to America.”