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Activists protest the Trump administration's approach to illegal border crossings and separation of children from immigrant parents in Lafayette Square across from the White House in Washington DC. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Large crowds across the US protest against Trump's immigration policy

Starting in early May, Trump ordered the arrest of adults crossing the boundary illegally.

THOUSANDS OF DEMONSTRATORS, baking in the heat and boiling mad against US immigration policy, marched across the country today to protest the separation of families under President Donald Trump’s hardline policy.

Dubbed “Families Belong Together”, the demonstration in Washington began at Lafayette Square where crowds gathered directly across from the White House before a planned march toward the Capitol.

In New York, families, young people, children and the elderly – both recent arrivals and long-time citizens – all stood under a burning sun as part of a protest which a police officer said already numbered “a couple of thousand”.

“Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here,” they chanted, also declaring a welcome for Muslims.

A band of drummers whipped up the fervor of a crowd carrying signs including, “Our New York is Immigrant New York,” and “No Cages, No Ban, No Wall.”

“Abolish ICE,” said another sign, reflecting growing calls by activists for abolition of the country’s frontline immigration enforcement agency.

‘It’s really cruel’

Starting in early May, in an attempt to staunch the flow of tens of thousands of migrants to the southern US border every month, Trump ordered the arrest of adults crossing the boundary illegally, including those seeking asylum.

Many trying to cross the US-Mexico frontier are destitute people fleeing gang violence and other turmoil in Central America.

As a result of Trump’s crackdown, distraught children were separated from their families and, according to widely broadcast pictures, held in chain-link enclosures, a practice that sparked domestic and global outrage.

Trump later signed an order ending the separation of families but immigration lawyers say the process of reuniting children and their parents will be long and chaotic.

About 2,000 children remain split from their parents, according to official figures released last weekend.

Today’s protests also come after the US Supreme Court on Tuesday handed Trump a major victory by upholding his ban that mostly applied to travelers from five primarily Muslim nations.

‘Occupy ICE’

More than 500 women, including a member of Congress, were arrested Thursday in the US Capitol complex protesting Trump’s immigration policy.

Today’s demonstrations were expected to be the biggest yet.

Trump has made fighting immigration – both illegal and legal – a major plank of his “America First” policy agenda.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) makes arrests and otherwise enforces the administration’s immigration crackdown, but an emerging coalition of politicians, activists and pro-immigrant protesters has begun calling for the dismantling of ICE.

Critics say the agency has treated some would-be immigrants cruelly and unfairly.

“Occupy ICE” camps have been set up in several US states.

One of the first voices to call for the abolition of ICE was New York Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon.

She has since been joined by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who told radio station WYNC, “You need some kind of agency to deal with immigration, but ICE is not that”; and by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, also of New York, who in a tweet called ICE “a cruel deportation force”.

This  morning Trump tweeted support for ICE, saying “radical left Dems want you out. Next it will be all police. Zero chance, it will never happen!”

The political backlash against ICE is so intense that members of the agency’s criminal investigative division have asked Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to split them off as a separate agency, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The Post said the request came from the majority of special agents in charge of the Homeland Security Investigative Division, which handles transnational investigations related to counterterrorism, narcotics and human trafficking.

- © AFP, 2018

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    Mute The Guru
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    Apr 25th 2017, 1:43 PM

    I was wondering what Amy Hubermann was thinking of it all. Thank God for The Journal.

    226
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    Mute Jun Stone
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    Apr 25th 2017, 3:26 PM

    @The Guru: Never mind that nobody Barbara S…FFS.

    15
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    Mute Dara Smith
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    Apr 25th 2017, 1:40 PM

    Went into spar for a cup of coffee, the sun was so strong there was people wearing sun glasses outside. When i came out 5mins later there was a hail shower. Mad stuff that coffee

    191
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    Mute Geraldine Altamirano
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    Apr 25th 2017, 6:10 PM

    Oh, that was good for a smile at the end of a working day!

    5
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    Mute Alan Carthy
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    Apr 25th 2017, 1:43 PM

    April showers bring may flowers

    68
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    Mute Linda Hegarty
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    Apr 25th 2017, 5:00 PM

    @Alan Carthy: Hope your right Alan we’ve all the baskets done

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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    Apr 25th 2017, 8:54 PM

    @Alan au contraire. Whan that Aprille with his shoures swete / The droghte of Marche hath pierced to the root…and loads of my bedding plants look frost nipped.

    5
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    Mute The Girl
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    Apr 25th 2017, 1:41 PM

    Then it got sunny, then the hail returned, then rain, then the sun came back…don’t know what is next, cats and dogs?

    43
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    Mute Lily
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    Apr 25th 2017, 2:20 PM

    @The Girl:

    Years ago when roots were thatch, cats and dogs slept in them to keep warm. When it got too wet the cats and dogs would slip out, hence the saying ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’.

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    Mute Paraic McDonagh
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    Apr 25th 2017, 3:36 PM

    @Lily: Yes but where did the expression “It’s p155ing down out of the high heavens” originate.

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    Mute Christine Klein
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    Apr 25th 2017, 2:26 PM

    We have a saying or nursery kind of song in German:
    April, April der macht was er will. Mal Regen und mal Sonnenschein dann schneit es wieder zwischendrein, April, April, April, der macht was er will.
    Translation lol
    APRIL APRIL APRIL DOES WHAT IT LIKES. ONCE RAIN AND ONCE SUNSHINE THEN SNOW IN BETWEEN. APRIL APRIL APRIL DOES WHAT IT LIKES…
    and finishes the sentence in sunshine lol

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    Mute Maurice Quille
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    Apr 25th 2017, 7:30 PM

    @Christine Klein: heil heil heil…ja ja ja

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    Mute niall
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    Apr 25th 2017, 1:33 PM

    Lots if hail, thunder and lightning at the minute. Serious stuff

    16
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    Mute Captain kirk
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    Apr 25th 2017, 1:36 PM

    @niall: are you a bit scared Niall?

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    Mute Rui Firmino
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    Apr 25th 2017, 2:03 PM

    @Captain kirk: thunder and lightening, very very frightening!

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    Mute Gus Sheridan
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    Apr 25th 2017, 2:07 PM

    @Rui Firmino: mid twenties here…..nice

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    Mute Paraic McDonagh
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    Apr 25th 2017, 2:31 PM

    @Gus Sheridan: mid forties here…. So a bit older than you.

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    Mute Rui Firmino
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    Apr 25th 2017, 3:38 PM

    @Paraic McDonagh: Early 40′s here.

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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    Apr 25th 2017, 2:12 PM

    Oops… Someone spilled their Crystal meth all over the road

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    Mute clubber lang
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    Apr 25th 2017, 2:36 PM

    Looks like Summer’s over. It’s all downhill from here

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    Mute Mike O'Sullivan
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    Apr 25th 2017, 4:35 PM

    Only another eight weeks and the nights will be getting shorter.

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    Mute Grainne Abdulaziz
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    Apr 25th 2017, 3:06 PM

    Amy Huberman giving Flann O’Brien a run for his money there.

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    Mute Pa Cantillon
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    Apr 25th 2017, 2:28 PM

    That Amy Huberman is a hoot.

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    Mute Rui Firmino
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    Apr 25th 2017, 2:12 PM

    How dare you be in Portugal!!

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    Mute seamus mcdermott
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    Apr 25th 2017, 3:38 PM

    Thunder and lightning is no lark!
    https://youtu.be/pd_kAMrB1Gs

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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    Apr 25th 2017, 8:55 PM

    April is the cruellest month. Eliot was right. Reckon it was too early to put out the sweetpea.

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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    Apr 25th 2017, 8:51 PM

    Ne’er cast a clout ’til May is out. Monkey’s not brass but fralsetto today.

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    Mute Paul Radburn
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    Apr 25th 2017, 4:20 PM

    Earth is fu*ked up.

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    Mute Alois Irlmaier
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    Apr 25th 2017, 10:53 PM

    @Paul Radburn: Snow in Turkey today and in Germany yesterday?

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    Mute Colin hoop
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    Apr 25th 2017, 6:13 PM

    https://youtu.be/PIjNB_QYiws DUBLIN sleet today with a blue sky in backround

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