Families Belong Together Marches Against Trump Immigration Policy

Thousands protested President Trump's policy of separating immigrant families on Saturday in hundreds of cities and towns across the country. About 2,300 children have been separated from their families after crossing into the United States from the southwestern border because of the administration's zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration.

Protesters flooded more than 700 marches, from immigrant-friendly cities like New York and Los Angeles to conservative Appalachia and Wyoming. They gathered on the front lawn of a Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas, near a detention center where migrant children were being held in cages, and on a street corner near Trump's golf resort at Bedminster, New Jersey, where the president is spending the weekend.

In New York City, thousands of activists marched across the Brooklyn Bridge.

"When someone's first memory of the United States is being locked up at the border, that doesn't help the American dream," Chris Perez, an adjunct political science professor at the New York rally, told Patch.

In Chicago, activists gathered at the Richard J. Daley Center. Holding signs that read "we care" and "parents not prisons," thousands gathered in the scorching heat.

Similarly, thousands gathered at the Families Belong Together rally in Austin. In Seattle, demonstrators gathered at a federal detention center, which was used as a holding facility for mothers separated from their chidlren at the U.S.-Mexico border. The center is a short distance away from a street home to dozens of small businesses owned and operated by migrants from around the world.

At the Boston rally, a Brazilian mother separated from her 10-year-old son more than a month ago approached the microphone.

"We came to the United States seeking help, and we never imagined that this could happen. So I beg everyone, please release these children, give my son back to me," she said through an interpreter, weeping.

"Please fight and continue fighting, because we will win," she said.

In Washington D.C., thousands packed Lafayette Square, across from the White House.

After intense and pressure and criticism of the policy, President Trump signed an executive order that would keep immigrant families crossing the border together but there remains confusion after the order was signed on how to implement it. Homeland security officials say more than 500 children have been reunited with their families so far. The children that remain separated from their families have no clear path to reunification and the government has come under intense scrutiny about whether there is a plan at all to reunite these families.

According to The Washington Post, the administration might seek to detain migrant families together for longer than 20 days. An old court settlement requires immigration agencies to release minors held by them if they are detained for longer than 20 days. Some immigrant children have been reunited with their parents after cases that made their way through the courts and a ruling by a judge in San Diego on Tuesday set a 30-day deadline for all families to be reunited.

The Trump administration has said the ruling means authorities can legally keep families detained until their cases are complete, according to The Associated Press.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Patch editors Noah Manskar, Amber Fisher, Neal McNamara and Tony Cantu contributed.

Photo: Thousands of people march in support of families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border on June 30, 2018 in New York, New York. Across the country marches under the banner 'Families Belong Together' are being held to demand that the Trump administration reunite thousands of immigrant children who have been separated from their families after crossing into the United States. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images