Mothers participate in 'playdate protests' outside ICE offices to condemn family separation

Hope Schreiber
·Writer
Women perform a “nurse in” to protest ICE and the separation of families. (Photo: @HiHemployers via Twitter)
Women perform a “nurse in” to protest ICE and the separation of families. (Photo: @HiHemployers via Twitter)

President Donald Trump and his administration faced backlash from both parties after their “zero tolerance” immigration policy separated parents from their children once they illegally crossed the U.S. border.

Even though Trump has since signed an executive order reversing the administration’s decision to place migrant children into facilities that appeared to have cropped up overnight, it is still unclear how the United States plans to reunite the families.

This uncertainty has inspired many people to protest and to call for the abolishment of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch of the Department of Homeland Security.

Naturally, a good number of these people who are protesting for the children to be reunited with their families are mothers themselves.

Waging Nonviolence reports: “Parents with small children — mostly moms — have invaded the offices of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in New York and Chicago to decry family separation and detention. Many more of these ‘playdate protests‘ are planned around the country for the coming days.”

Last week, children wrapped themselves in thermal blankets, which are often provided for migrant children who are detained, at the Capitol rotunda, and 50 mothers had a “nurse in” outside ICE’s New Jersey headquarters.

The Franciscan Action Network (FAN), Faith in Action, and the DMV Congregation Network hold a prayer vigil with children wrapped in survival blankets in the Russell Senate Office Building rotunda on June 21, 2018, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
The Franciscan Action Network (FAN), Faith in Action, and the DMV Congregation Network hold a prayer vigil with children wrapped in survival blankets in the Russell Senate Office Building rotunda on June 21, 2018, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

On Thursday, June 28, many women are planning to march on Washington, D.C., to end family detention, and those interested in joining the protest are still allowed to sign up. The rally is being organized by the Women’s March and the Center for Popular Democracy.

The official site for the event says: “We call on women from all communities to descend on our nation’s capital and demand the safety and freedom of immigrant families and children.”

On Saturday, June 30, other cities in the U.S. are expected to have their own protest to say #FamiliesBelongTogether.

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